N41.27569 W117.95328 Awakening Peak quad (Awakening)
N41.29457 W117.90270 Awakening Peak quad (Daveytown)
N41.30016 W118.00013 Jackson Well quad (Austin-Jumbo Mine )

We Visited: 4/16/2016
Our Breakast: The Griddle, Winnemucca
Our Supper : The Pig , Winnemucca

Directions: Daveytown: Take US 95 North from Winnemucca 11 miles to Sand Pass Rd.; Stay on Sand Pass Road for 20.6 miles to Daveytown. Awakening: Head east from Daveytown on local roads, following road generally west and then south for about 3.7 miles to the site of Awakening. Austin Jumbo Mine: From Daveytown, take Sand Pass Rd. North for 3.4 miles; turn left on dirt road and head west for about 5.7 miles.

From Winnemucca: 31 miles (Daveytown) 40.7 miles (Jumbo Mine)

Awakening, Daveytown, and the Austin-Jumbo mine all redirect here.

Awakening

The Alabama Mine was discovered in 1908 which began mining activity in this area. It was discovered by a Mr. Murray Scott; it was operated by a Mr. Barber from 1911 to 1933 when it was sold to B.L. Davis, who successfully operated the mine through the end of WWII. Around 1911 a small camp called Awakening formed almost a mile southeast of the mine. It contained a few stores, and eventually was the location of some mills.

TO OPEN MILL
SPECIAL TO THE UNION
WINNEMUCCA (Nev.)
It has been learned her that the Awakening mining district is to have a new mill. The mill will be erected on the Davey property, because recent developments on the property have been so favorable as to call for the immediate erection of appliances to care for the output. Alan Chester, general manager, has purchased the mill in San Francisco and it is to be shipped to Daveytown at once. The drilling of a well about a mile and a half below the Davey property has just been completed. The well is eighteen inches in diameter and seventy-three feet deep. When the water was reached, it raised twenty-six feet i the well, assuring a plentiful supply for the mill.
- Sacramento Union, 30 June 1913

Austin Jumbo Mine

Early in 1935 the Austin Jumbo Mine was discovered by J.C. Stagg and Clyde Taylor by dry panning up the draw to the outcrop. It was sold to George Austin and Associates this same year for $10,000 with $500 down. Austin equipped the mine with a small amalgamation mill and paid for the property and equipment with direct shipping gold. In May, 1937, ex-president Herbert Hoover visited the property and cause nationwide publicity to the mine when he stated he was very favorably impressed with the mine. A lease was granted to J.K. Wadley of Texarkana, Arkansas, and H.L. Hunt of Tyler, Texas, It was a 35 year lease, 20% royalty, $100,000 per year minimum royalty, $250,000 paid down, and an end price of $10,000,000. Mining was underground and small scale to, reportedly, 1940 or 1941. After World War II Austin leased the mine to a group in Salt Lake City, Utah, consisting of Leland Flint, Ken Garff, and others. Under the supervision of a mining engineer by the name of Russell a 500 ton per day open pit operation was inaugurated. The mine operated about nine months but eventually closed due to the $96,000 per year payment to Austin. A Mr. Jim Flowers of Cane Springs, Nevada lives near the property and has been hand picking and panning about an ounce or two per day out of exposed high grade streaks.
-Scott Smith, Consulting Engineer, 1973 (?)

In 1935 Austin and Associates equipped the mine with a small amalgamation mill. In 1936 a 30 ton amalgamation-concentration mill was erected. When the writer visited the property in June of 1937, the mill was treating 38 tons of ore per day averaging $30 per ton and was employing an average of 15 men.
-W.O. Vanderberg 1938

Faithful reader Mr. Hopson provided this link to a story in the Elko newspaper about Mr. Austin and his mine.

Daveytown

A mill and other buildings were also located at nearby Daveytown, three miles to the east. A five stamp amalgamation mill here treated about 10,000 tons of ore from the Alabama mine and other nearby mines.

David A. Wright mentions that a retired UPS driver he knows says, "through the 1960s, 1970s and part of the 1980s, he would occasionally deliver parcels to the last remaining resident here. He's seen that Pontiac,Buick or Oldsmobile woody wagon turn from a complete car to what it is today over those years."

CHURCH TIMBERS TO BE USED FOR MINE STRUCTURES
The Humboldt Star says that dismantling and hauling away of ghe old Catholic Church building, a landmark of Winnemucca for fifty years, is under way today, the structure having been sold to the Alabama Mining Company, Inc.
The old church structure, which was moved from the site now occupied by St. Paul's Catholic Church in 1923, has been more or less an eyesore for the past few years and its removal is said to be beneficial to the value of the present church structure as well as adjoining property.
The Alabama Mining Company, according to S.R. Walker, one of the owners, will haul part of the lumber to the company's property in the Awakening District, near Daveytown, where camp structures will be erected with the materials. Lumber not used fo this purpose will be sold.
-Reno Evening Gazette, June 30, 1934

While you'll have to use your imagination to visualize what was at Daveytown and Awakening, the Austin-Jumbo mine is filled with luscious ruins of all kinds. The road to Daveytown is an easy, smooth drive; not so much getting to the Alabama Mine and the Awakening site. Better have a little clearance and traction available. There are some mill foundations at both Daveytown and Awakening. The Jumbo mine is a wide, smooth road all the way.

Lots of buildings, tanks, and a huge agitation tank remain at the Jumbo Mine. East of the mine on the road to the valley, is another small ruin and near it the remains of another mill, with a well with water standing about five or six feet down. Even further down the road as it opens up into the Desert Valley is the remains of yet another mill.