Osceola 1872-1940

Osceola was a gold camp in silver country, and the most stubborn one in Nevada — the state's longest-lived placer diggings, worked from 1872 nearly to the Second World War. Miners started with hand rockers, then turned hydraulic monitors loose on gravel beds that ran from ten to two hundred feet deep, washing the hillsides apart for the gold inside; one nugget was reckoned at six thousand dollars. The camp lived well off the ranches of nearby Spring and Snake Valleys. It gave up around five million dollars, and the digging has never entirely stopped.

What the plaque says

Osceola, most famous of the White Pine County gold producers, was probably the longest-lived placer camp in Nevada. The gold-bearing quartz belt found in 1872 was 12 miles long by 7 miles wide. Placer gold was found in 1877 in a deep ravine indenting the area. Miners first used the simple process of the common “49” rocker. Hydraulic monitors later were used to mine the gold from the 10’ to 200’ thick gravel beds. One gold nugget found was valued at $6,000. Osceola was a good business town because of its location near the cattle and grain ranches and gardens in the Spring and Snake Valleys. Famous district mines were: the Cumberland, Osceola, Crescent and Eagle, Verde, Stem-Winder, Guilded Age, Grandfather Snide, Red Monster and the Saturday Night. The camp produced nearly $5 million primarily in gold, with some silver, lead and tungsten. Intermittent mining continues.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Basin National Park — 13 mi
  Nevada's only national park — caves below, the oldest trees on earth above, the darkest skies overhead
• Ward Charcoal Ovens — 21 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
• Ely — 26 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

More markers nearby

• Taylor — 16 mi
• Ward Mining District — 16 mi
• Ward Charcoal Ovens — 21 mi
• Jedediah Strong Smith — 26 mi