Mining in Nevada

This larger-than-life portrait in Nevada's silver boomtown is decorated with over 3,000 silver dollars.

These massive concrete foundations and smelter chimney bricks still smell like smoke after a century.

An isolated early 20th-century gold mine in the remote Pine Forest Range contains much preserved equipment.

The original building of a mining school endowed by one of the barons of the Comstock Lode now houses a museum of earth science and mining history.

Well-preserved ruins in the Pine Grove Hills of western Nevada.

One of the best places to dig—some say on the planet—for six different types of chalcedony.

A well-preserved set of ruins not far from Lovelock.

This colossal underground passage paved the way for large-scale drainage and access tunnels across the U.S., but it almost wasn’t built.

How a bat poo mine became a major Native American archaeological site—and connections to legendary red-haired giants.

Equipment used to mine silver and lead has been preserved in this almost-ghost town in northern Nye County.

Ruins of the original wooden flume that carried water to Virginia City are still visible high on the Virginia Range.

The precious-metals strikes dating back to the 1860s are now mostly inactive, but this area has become the United States' only domestic source of lithium.

This Gold Rush ghost town was once the subject of a territorial dispute between California and Nevada.

In the middle of a remote desert town is a surprisingly opulent hotel.