40° 26' 48"N, 118° 47' 40"W - SEVEN TROUGHS quad

We Visited: 2/15/2002
We Visited: March 8, 2014
Our Breakfast: Eggs at La Casita in Lovelock
Our Dinner : Bacon-wrapped sausages in a gravel pit somewhere.

Directions:

From Fallon: Take US 95 north for 32.9 miles; turn east onto I80 towards Lovelock and proceed 28 miles to Exit 105; take frontage road (Business 95B) about 1.5 miles; turn left onto Main St.; go one block and turn left onto Western Ave (SR854).; proceed west 1 mile and turn north on Sand Hill Ave.; proceed 1.5 miles and turn west on Pitt Rd. (SR 399); proceed for 11.9 miles to dirt road; turn right onto dirt road; proceed generally north on Seven Troughs Rd for 16 miles.

Seven Troughs produced almost two millions dollars in gold between 1908 and 1921. The town was formed shortly after discoveries in the area in 1907. Sitting in a narrow canyon, over 300 people made Seven Troughs their home, and the town had a water system, power, and its own school district. Production at the 50-ton mill continued up until about 1918. (Paher)

Situated near the location of the area's first strike, Seven Troughs was named after seven water troughs built in 1894 by sheepman Frank Ward. Both Vernon and Mazuma were developed first. By March 1907 town lots were priced up to $500 a piece. By May local newspapers advised that Seven Troughs could boast of a boarding house feeding 75 works every meal (costing $32 a month) a saloon with four more being built. Horse-drawn stages ran between Seven Troughs and Lovelock, leaving the former at 6:30 every morning and leaving the latter at 7:00 every morning. The fare was $5.00 and $8.00 for a round trip ticket. ($122 and $200 in 2012 dollars, respectively)

The Kindergarten Mill was the first mill to be built in the area during the winter of 1907-08. It ceased operation during the winter of 1915-16. A couple of years later activity at the site had declined enough to where the post office pulled up stakes.

Some newspaper clippings...

BIG RUSH TO SEVEN TROUGHS
ALL LOVELOCK HAS GONE GOLD CRAZY
Hundreds of Men Rusing Into Black Rock Desert Country Where Find Was Made
Lovelock, Nevada March 28
Lovelock is stampeding to the Black Rock Desert Country where phenomonal gold finds are being made. The gold is at Seven Troughs and as fast as parties can outfit theyy are hastening to the district. Saturday, when the excitement broke out, forty rigs left Lovelock within five hours, and Sunday nearly twice that number hastened to Seven Troughs. This week the procession shows no sign of diminishing. Everyone in Lovelock is talking about the strike.
-Reno Evening Gazette, March 28, 1906

SEVEN TROUGHS A GOOD DISTRICT
Sever Troughs, thirty-five miles north of Austin, looks good," said A.J. Pritchett. "It has not been developed but some rich finds have beenmade on the surface. The ledges are not very large but the carry big gold values."
1906 July 16, Reno Evening Gazette

EXCITEMENT AT SEVEN TROUGHS
Last week Preston and McLaughlin of Tonopah were at the big strike in Seven Troughs and offeredd $40,000 for the claim. On account of disagreement among the owners, this offer was refused. Ms McAdon and others are developing a spring above the mine and a road is being built through the canyon to the property. Tom Bungs arrived from Lovelock with a stock of "wet goods" and has started a saloon. So the boom in Seven Troughs is fairly started. The boosters can now "wet their whistles" and holler to beat the band. - Lovelock Tribune
1906 July 31, Reno Evening Gazette

TO INVEST AT SEVEN TROUGHS
Renoites Leave For District In An Auto
Several New Strikes Have Been Made At New Camp and a Rush Is Expected
It is stated in mining circles in this city that several new strikes have been made at Seven Troughs in Humboldt county and that a rush into that district may occur at any time.
1906 October 19, Reno Evening Gazette

Low on facts and high on rhetoric, newspapers of the day (not to pick on the Gazette here) were often complicit in public relations campaigns for mining camps throughout Nevada. Despite this, articles often contain some interesting info.

HIGH GRADE AT SEVEN TROUGHS
Many Claims Are Now Being Worked
Seven Troughs is becoming in mining circles a name to conjure with, like Cripple Creek, Kimberly, Nome, Dawson. Mining men who come from there talk of ore values in the thousands. Claims located a few weeks, with only open cuts for development work, sell for cash considerations well up into five figures. At the north end of hte district is the Kindergarten group. Two miles south of the knickerbocker is the Fairview group of claims. One mile south of Fairview is Moler's Buckhorn group of five claims, adjoining the town of Vernon.
1907 January 17, Reno Evening Gazette

TO OPERATE OFFICE AT SEVEN TROUGHS
Hallie UPdike and C. W. Stark, two graducates of the University of Nevada, left yesterday for Seven Troughs, where they intend to open an assay office. Both young men have been employed during the past year for large mining companies in southern Nevada and are well-equipped to operate a first-class assay office.
1907 March 19, Reno Evening Gazette

SEVEN TROUGHS HAS GREAT FUTURE
T.H. Harris Believes It Will Be a Greater Camp Than Goldfield
T.H. Harris, a prominent mining man of GOldfield and who has valuable interests in Seven Troughs, arrived in town yesterday. He cannot say enough in praise of the new camp and [dictates] that it is destined to be a greater mining camp than Goldfield. "There are three autos running into there now," he said, "and all sorts of conveyances are being used, yet people are flocking into that country faster than they can be transported. As soon as milder weather comes, there will be a tremendous rush into the camp, and it will grow faster than a mushroom. I am going to run my own auto this summer, but
for my own use. It is the next thing to impossible to get labor of any sort in that country. They all go there to prospect. You can't get a many to work for wages. They all have the fever."
1907 March 26, Reno Evening Gazette

SEVEN TROUGHS IS LEADING CAMP
Development Shows It Second To None
A prominent mining man who recently visted Seven Troughs district in Humboldt county, Nev. pronounces that district second to none in the state in mineral showing, and says the Fairview claim of the Seven Troughs Mining company is one of the best mines in the state. The stock listed on the Salt lake Exchange, where it is notoriously manipulated by a clique of brokers who have recently been pounding down the price, with the result that some of them are apt to "go broke," the stock being intrinsically worth five or six times the present selling price.
1907 December 9, Reno Evening Gazette

PUMP FOR LEASE AT SEVEN TROUGHS
"We have just completed the installation of a new and larger pump on the [Frye] lease," said Joe Scott, "and it is our intention to resume sinking immediately. At the present level, 100 feet, we were pumping about 500,000 gallons per day and with the old pump we were unable to sink deeper. With the new facilities, we can handle the water and when work is resumed it will be hurried along as rapidly as possible."
1908 January 23, Reno Evening Gazette

LEASING BOOM AT SEVEN TROUGHS
Activity is Reult ot Opportunity Offered to Work Ore by Erection of Three Stamp Mills
Leasing activity amounting to a veritable boom has taken posession of the district as a result of three stamp mill projects in Seven Troughs canyon, and the promise of a fourth.
1908 March 25, Reno Evening Gazette

But then...

LOVELOCK ITEMS
The Seven Troughs Coalition Mining Company's property at Seven Troughs, dwellings, machinery and mill will be sold at a Sheriff's sale at the Pershing county court house by Sheriff John. A. Jurgenson. The sale is to cover a judgement of $51,041.57 granted the plaintiff, L.A. Friedman.
Reno Evening Gazette, November 19, 1920

Still, some work was going on well into the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's

7 TROUGHS MILL TO START IN MAY
The mill of hte Nevada State Gold Mines Company at Seven Troughs will be put into operation about May 1, it was reported yesterday by Stuart L Williams, secretary-treasurer. Mr. WIlliams said that there was a large tonnage of dump ore still to be treated and that various leasers had been saving ore suring the winter months for treatment as soon as the weather become propitious. It has not yet been decided whether the company will operate the plant or wheher it will be turned over to leasers. Last year the M. & L. Syndicate was in charge and each partner is said to have acquired a good stake.
1935 March 30, Reno Evening Gazette

Some mill foundations remain, scattered debris, and some pits where the townsite used to be. The remains of a lot of mill and mining activity. What I find most amazing about this site is that so much is gone.