Copper Country

The silver camps got the legend; copper got the century. From the 1860s to the 1960s the open pits south of here — the Liberty Pit chief among them, the largest in Nevada — pulled close to a billion dollars in copper, gold, and silver out of the Robinson Mining District. The pale mounds on the horizon are the rock that had to be moved to reach it. The district started small, at the Elijah mine near old Lane City in 1869, and grew into the industry that outlasted every silver boom in this part of the state.

What the plaque says

1864–1964. The famed open-pit copper mines of Eastern Nevada including the Liberty Pit, largest in the state, are located two miles south of this point. Through the first half of the 20th century, this area produced nearly a billion dollars in copper, gold and silver. The huge mounds visible from here are waste rock which was removed to uncover the ore. Two miles east of here, near Lane City, was the Elijah, the first mine discovered in the Robinson Mining District. Lane City, originally called Mineral City, was settled in 1869 and had a population of 400. At Mineral City was the Ragsdale Station, a hotel and a stage station.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ely — 4.8 mi
  The copper town and crossroads at the east end of the loneliest road — home of the Ghost Train and the gateway to Great Basin
• Ward Charcoal Ovens — 16 mi
  Six great stone beehives in the Egan Range — the best-preserved charcoal kilns in Nevada, and the intact relic of the fuel that fed every silver smelter

More markers nearby

• Ely, Forging The Link — 4.6 mi
• Nevada Northern Railway — 5.1 mi
• Jedediah Strong Smith — 6.8 mi
• Ward Mining District — 18 mi