Golconda

Golconda's hot springs outlasted its gold. Emigrants on the California Trail knew the warm waters here long before anyone dug for ore, and when the Central Pacific Railroad came through in 1868, it made Golconda an ore-shipping station, naming the place for an ancient diamond city in India. A real boom came in 1897, when the narrow-gauge Golconda and Adelaide Railroad ran south to the Adelaide mine and the town swelled to five hundred. The mine and mill soon closed, and Golconda faded to a sleepy hamlet. The springs still flow hot, as they did for the wagon trains.

What the plaque says

Golconda is a one time Utah Territory mining town whose hot springs, a landmark on the California Emigrant Trail, were of more enduring fame than its gold and silver boom. In 1868, Golconda became an ore shipping station on the new Central Pacific Railroad. Renewed activity in 1897, resulted in the narrow gauge Golconda and Adelaide Railroad to the Adelaide Mine. Golconda grew to 500 inhabitants by 1899. But the next year the mine and mill closed and railroad service ceased. The hot springs (97° to 150° F) flow at about 100 gallons per minute. A rare occurrance of tungsten in the silica deposit of a fossil vent, one mile east, was once mined. Active vents north of the railroad tracks were the site of a famous resort hotel until 1961 when it burned.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Winnemucca — 13 mi
  The crossing town at the western end of the Humboldt — Basque tables, a 1900 bank robbery the town still pins on Butch Cassidy, and the spot where I-80 meets US-95.

More markers nearby

• Button Point — 6.5 mi
• Humboldt River — 6.5 mi
• The Humboldt Canal — 13 mi
• Pioneer Memorial Park — 13 mi