Gold Center, Nevada

Last updated

Mill foundation, Gold Center, Nevada Mill foundation, Gold Center, Nevada.jpg
Mill foundation, Gold Center, Nevada

Gold Center was a mining town in Nye County, Nevada. Located in the Bullfrog Mining District south of Tonopah, Gold Center was established in December 1904 with a United States Post Office being authorized on January 21, 1905. The town began publishing its own newspaper in 1907. The location of the town was ideal as it was on the stagecoach route to Rhyolite and Beatty. It was also near the Amargosa River, allowing sufficient water for drinking and for two mills and an ice house. Gold Center also sold water to Rhyolite and Carrara. The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad and the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad all ran through Gold Center. Gold Center also had the first brewery in the area which was built underground to maintain a cool temperature. [1]

Today, little remains of the original town other than the foundations of a stamp mill, the footers for a tank at the cyanide plant and sections of the water line that ran between Gold Center and Carrara. [1] It is a ghost town. However, what is left of the town does now sit along the paved road connecting U.S. Highway 95 to Beatty's airport. On January 22, 2011, new life came to the area in the form of Nevada's newest legal bordello when, somewhat appropriately given the area's railway history, a retired short-line railroad owner by the name of Guy Brenkman opened Bikini's Gentlemen's Club off Airport Road in Gold Center. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nye County, Nevada</span> County in Nevada, United States

Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At 18,159 square miles (47,030 km2), Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behind Coconino County of Arizona and San Bernardino County of California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatty, Nevada</span> Unincorporated town in Nevada, United States

Beatty is an unincorporated town along the Amargosa River in Nye County, Nevada, United States. U.S. Route 95 runs through the town, which lies between Tonopah, about 90 miles (140 km) to the north and Las Vegas, about 120 miles (190 km) to the southeast. State Route 374 connects Beatty to Death Valley National Park, about 8 miles (13 km) to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amargosa Valley, Nevada</span> Unincorporated community in the state of Nevada, United States

Amargosa Valley is an unincorporated town located on U.S. Route 95 in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhyolite, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is in the Bullfrog Hills, about 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad</span> American railway from 1904 to 1940

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern California and southwestern Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amargosa Desert</span> Desert in Nevada and California, United States

The Amargosa Desert is located in Nye County in western Nevada, United States, along the California–Nevada border, comprising the northeastern portion of the geographic Amargosa Valley, north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Ludlow is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert on Interstate 40, located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The older remains of the ghost town are along historic Route 66.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad</span> Former railway in the US

The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a 197.9-mile (318.5 km) railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield. The SPLA&SL railroad later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad and serves as their mainline between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keane Wonder Mine</span> Abandoned mining facility in Death Valley National Park, California

The Keane Wonder Mine and mill is an abandoned mining facility located within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, California. It is located in the Funeral Mountains east of Death Valley and Furnace Creek, California

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullfrog Hills</span> Mountain range in Nevada, United States

The Bullfrog Hills are a small mountain range of the Mojave Desert in southern Nye County, southwestern Nevada. Bullfrog Hills was so named from a fancied resemblance of its ore to the color of a bullfrog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullfrog, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Bullfrog is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located at the north end of the Amargosa Desert about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Beatty. Less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Bullfrog are the Bullfrog Hills and the ghost town of Rhyolite. The two ghost towns are about 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Las Vegas, 60 miles (97 km) south of Goldfield, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Tonopah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrara, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Carrara is a ghost town in Nye County, Nevada. The townsite is located in the Amargosa Desert adjacent to US Route 95 about 8.5 miles southeast of Beatty. The old Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad line was about one half mile to the southwest. An old road, previously a railroad grade, runs straight for about 3 miles to the northeast up Carrara Canyon on the southeast flank of the Bare Mountains to an old marble quarry. The quarry is about 1400 feet higher in elevation than the townsite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer, Nevada</span> Ghost town in Nevada, United States

Pioneer is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. Beginning as a mining camp near the Mayflower and other gold mines in northern Bullfrog Hills, it became a formal town in 1908 and flourished briefly until fire destroyed much of its business district in 1909 and litigation delayed mining. Population peaked at an estimated 2,500 in 1908, and the community survived at least through the closing of the Pioneer post office in 1931. Mining continued near the town site through 1941. Few remnants of Pioneer structures survived through the end of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad</span> American railway in Nevada from 1905 to 1947

The Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, a railroad of 100.4 miles (161.6 km) in length in the U.S. state of Nevada, offered point-to-point service between Mina and Goldfield, running over the Excelsior Mountains and parallel to the Monte Cristo Range. It operated from 1905 until 1947.

Hot Springs is located in Nye County, just north of Beatty, Nevada. In the early 1900s, the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Company and the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad stopped at a station in Hot Springs.

Leeland is a former railway hamlet in the Amargosa Valley in Nye County, Nevada. A year after its founding in 1906, a railway station was opened. Raw materials from the nearby Californian mining village Lee were brought to Leeland to be transported by train.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T&T Ranch</span> American demonstration farm and dairy in Nevada

The T&T Ranch was a demonstration farm and dairy, that was situated in the Amargosa Valley, 5.5 miles southeast of Leeland in Nye County, Nevada. It was owned by the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad between its foundation in 1915 and the 1940s. During that time five pieces of land were added to the property, that were obtained under the Pittman Underground Water Act. The T&T Ranch was thereafter occupied by Gordon and Billie Bettles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad</span>

The Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BGRR) was a railroad lying just inside and about midway of the southwestern State line of Nevada. It was incorporated in 1905 to provide an outlet from the mining section near Beatty to the north over the lines of the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springdale, Nevada</span>

Springdale is a privately owned ghost town in Nevada, United States. It is inaccessible to the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatty Museum</span> History museum in Nevada, United States

Beatty Museum, also known as Beatty Museum and Historical Society, is a volunteer-run local history museum in Beatty, Nevada that showcases the history of the Bullfrog mining district, including its townspeople and their way of life. The museum was founded in 1995 and has experienced several changes in location since its founding.

References

  1. 1 2 Reidhead, Claudia (March 1, 2004). "The Gold Center Mining and Development Company – Part I". Bullfrog Mining District History. Beatty Museum and Historical Society. Archived from the original on October 11, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-04.
  2. "Beatty-area Brothels". Speed Racer's Driving Directions to Nevada's Legal Brothels. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-28.

36°52′06″N116°46′02″W / 36.86833°N 116.76722°W / 36.86833; -116.76722