Olinghouse

Olinghouse was a gold camp tucked in the hills northeast of Wadsworth. Prospectors worked placer and lode gold here off and on from the late nineteenth century, and a small camp grew in the canyon—never large, never long-lived, but stubborn, with a brief flurry in the early 1900s when a short railroad and mill were built to work the ore. The gold proved thinner than the dreams, and the camp faded as quickly as most. Little remains in the canyon but tailings, foundations, and the marker recalling one more of the small mining ventures scattered across the Nevada desert.

What the plaque says

Prospecting began in 1860 with additional claims being staked in 1864. The greatest activity took place between 1901 and 1903 and continued until 1921. Subsequently, mining has been sporadic over the years, but again is being done today. Total production up to 1969 has accounted for$1,060,911.00. The town, though small, had all the facilities of mining towns of old, including gypsy wagons that some miners lived in. Today some still exist. Dedicated this 9th day of November 1996 (6001) by the Boy Scouts of America of Reno, Nevada and The Snow-Shoe Thomson Chapter #1827, E.C.V. E Clampus Vitus, Olinghouse is located 6 miles northwest of this location.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pyramid Lake / Koqyoqe Panunadu — 25 mi
  The Numu's sacred lake at the end of the Truckee—homeland of the cui-ui eaters, site of the 1860 war, and a century-long fight to keep the river that the silver towns dammed from draining it dry
• Virginia City — 29 mi
  The boomtown that sits on top of the richest silver strike in America—fewer than a thousand people now, on streets built for twenty-five thousand
• Chollar Mine — 30 mi
  A real Comstock silver mine you can still walk into—four hundred feet of original timbered tunnel under C Street, where the work that built a state was done by hand, in the dark

More markers nearby

• Wadsworth — 2.6 mi
• The Two Battles of Pyramid Lake — 6.9 mi
• Derby Diversion Dam — 7.9 mi
• Truckee River East — 15 mi