Bullionville

Bullionville existed because Pioche, a few miles north, had ore but no water. In 1870 John Ely and W.H. Raymond hauled their stamp mill down here to the springs, and the rest of Pioche's mills soon followed — five of them by 1875, with a population of five hundred and the first iron foundry in eastern Nevada. Then Pioche built a waterworks of its own, and one by one the mills went home. A plant to rework the old tailings opened in 1880 and failed. The cemetery outlasted the town.

What the plaque says

Bullionville began early in 1870 when John H. Ely and W.H. Raymond removed their five-stamp mill at Hiko and placed it at this point. The enterprise prospered and during the next two years most of nearby Pioche's mills were located here because of the proximity to water. The town grew rapidly and by 1875 it had five mills, a population of 500 and the first iron foundry in eastern Nevada. During the same year a water works was constructed at Pioche which eventually led to the relocation of the mills. Although a plant was erected here in 1880 to work the tailings deposited by the former mills, this failed to prevent the decline of Bullionville.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cathedral Gorge State Park — 1.0 mi
  A drained ancient lakebed eroded into buff-colored spires and narrow slot "caves" — one of Nevada's first state parks, and the gentle, otherworldly counterweight to the Silver Trails' ghost towns.
• Pioche — 8.9 mi
  The silver camp that, by legend, out-killed the Old West — Boot Hill's boots-on graves, the graft-ridden Million-Dollar Courthouse, and an aerial tramway still slung over Main Street.

More markers nearby

• Panaca Spring — 1.4 mi
• Panaca Mercantile — 1.4 mi
• Panaca Ward Chapel — 1.5 mi
• Panaca — 1.5 mi