Wonder

Prospectors out of Fairview found the veins that made Wonder in 1906, north of Chalk Mountain, and within weeks more than a thousand claims were staked. The camp ran to hotels, a newspaper, even an ice plant and a swimming pool fed by Bench Creek. With no railroad to lean on, the Nevada Wonder Mine sank shafts past two thousand feet and built its own cyanide mill, paying out well over a million dollars before it closed in 1919. A girl born here, Eva Adams, grew up to run the U.S. Mint.

What the plaque says

Historic Mining Camp. Located 13 miles to the north is the camp of Wonder, a major mining center in the early years of the twentieth century. Thomas J. Stroud and several others made the first locations in March 1906, and in June of that year the Wonder Mining District was organized. Wonder’s boom was brief, but spectacular. Stores and saloons were in operation by mid-summer, 1906, and a school was begun in 1907. Bench Creek provided water for the camp and an ice plant and a swimming pool made life somewhat more bearable. During a brief span of years, the Nevada Wonder Mining Company produced some $6,000,000 in silver, gold, copper, and zinc. Wonder’s most prominent native daughter is Eva Adams, Administrative Assistant to Senator Patrick A. McCarran for many years and Director of the U.S. Mint during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sand Mountain — 12 mi
  Nevada's largest dune — a 600-foot mountain of singing sand, a buried Pony Express station, and a butterfly found nowhere else

More markers nearby

• Fairview (1905-1917) — 2.8 mi
• Sand Mountain — 13 mi
• Wagon Jack Shelter — 15 mi
• Rock Creek (Cold Springs Station) — 18 mi