38° 52.91'N, 117° 36.46'W Ione Quad

The Berlin Mine was originally worked around 1895, but it wasn't until after 1898 that the thirty stamp mill was built and Berlin began to grow. At one point 250 people lived here, but by 1909 the mill ceased pounding rock. A cyanide mill worked the tailings from 1911 to 1914, and the mill was stripped during World War II. (Paher)

Berlin, across Ione Valley east of the Paradise Mountains, was discovered by T. J. Bell and began producing silver about 1895. The Nevada Company, owned by John G. Stokes of New York, purchased the properties in 1898. The Stokes interests had their main office in Austin and from there managed their Berlin properties and those in Gabbs Valley and Downeyville. Berlin hit its peak about 1907, and later that year the mills were closed by a miner's strike for higher wages. The post office operated between 1900 and 1918. There was a store, boarding house, school house, town hall, red light house, and four saloons, the latter near the outskirts of town, as the company that held the ground would not permit them on their property.
-Gabbs Valley, Nevada, Ruth Danner

Never a large or prosperous mining camp, Berlin claim to fame is twofold. One, because of its inclusion into Nevada's Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park. And two, because it was a company-owned town, it was well preserved until it was included in the park.

Berlin is a typical turn-of-the-century Nevada mining town of wood frame buildings. Today, it is the only camp of its type; to be so intact in the State of Nevada. The reason for this condition of preservation is that Berlin was a company town, owned continuously from its construction in 1902-03 to its acquisition by the Park System in 1970. Although its peak years of population and activity were between 1905 and 1918, the Nevada Company always managed to keep a property maintainer in residence. As a result, Berlin has not suffered the activities of vandals, and has enjoyed a modicum of maintenance down through the years. This then is its significance to Nevada. The mines were never great producers, the town was never the scene of any spectacular historical event, the records do not show that any outstanding historic personage was born, or ever visited, there. It does retain the physical form of that which has disappeared throughout the land. The board and batten construction of the buildings is typical of its day. A 30 stamp mill, as constructed and operated by
Graham Stokes, displays the use of massive stone and drywall construction and the craftsman's use of heavy timbers. The assessor's records show the first mining activity in Berlin Canyon to have been in 1869, when the Berlin mine produced four tons of ore. Claims were not filed, however, until the late 1880*s, in and around Union Canyon, Knickerbocker, and Berlin Canyons. The Nevada Company, operated by the Stokes family of New York City, then acquired individual interest in patented mining claims dating back to 1888. The same company
acquired the Berlin group of claims in 1902-03. They built the townsite of Berlin. The buildings of the town are arranged in a U shape, opening to the east. The landscape is graced by trees planted by early miners around their residences. These include Lombardy poplar, black locust, and a fruit tree or two which serve to relieve the harshness of the landscape in a climate which receives barely 12 inches of rainfall a year. The entire townsite is owned by the Nevada State Park System. The resident Park Manager lives in one of the buildings year 'round. "Across town," a part time miner lives in the converted stage stop. The town, in its peak years-between 1906 and 1918, had a population of 250 plus. In addition to milling buildings and mine shafts, assay and mill offices, there was employee housing, a store, and a horse barn. The post office existed from 1900 to 1918. In 1908 the records show the town had a doctor, a barber, general store and three saloons. Best indications show the town had approximately 75 framed buildings at its peak.
-NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM

If you're an up and coming mining camp, you need a post office.

Post office has been established at Berlin, Nye county, Nev., with John T. Thompson as postmaster.
-Salt Lake Tribune, August 1, 1900

You also need miners that will come to work and not take off and party.

Austin (Nev.) Reveille: Last Monday night sixteen men employed on the night shift in the Nevada Company's mines and mill at Berlin, Nye county, attended the candidate's dance in Ione and the next day their time was handed to them. The miners arrived in Austin Thursday afternoon and a number of them, being from Utah and California, took the train yesterday morning for their old stamping grounds. It is said the men attended the dance against orders, having been asked to work that night.
-Salt Lake Tribune, November 14, 1900

So here's the problem. either you have too much water....

On Sunday last the town of Berlin, this county, was visited by a cloud burst causing heavy damages to the mines and town. The mines are flooded with water and debris which will require an outlay of thousands of dollars in unwatering them. The store and goods owned by the company were damaged considerably and the loss is estimated at $2,000. Work of pumping out the mines has already commenced. A great deal of damage was done to other buildings in the town.
-Tonopah Bonanza, August 10, 1901

... or not enough water.

Owing to a scarcity of water the Nevada Company at Berlin have closed down their mines for a few weeks. They are now laying a pipe line five miles in length.
-Tonopah Bonanza, November 9, 1901

Berlin being a company-owned burg, did not allow sinful liquor stores in town.

Berlin is a beautiful little town. All of the houses are new and no saloons are allowed within its limits, but just outside they are putting on the fringe and the local option houses, where you can take a drink or leave it alone.
-Tonopah Bonanza, May 10, 1902

As a matter of fact, there was a famous person that visited Berlin.

Corbett at Berlin.
Billy Madden arrived in Austin on Tuesday afternoon from San Francisco, where he has been on a visit to his family. Wednesday morning he took the stage for Berlin, at which place he is a shift boss in the Nevada company's mines. Mr. Madden was accompanied by his old-time pugilistic friend Jim Corbett, who will do his training in Berlin for the fight to take place between him and Jeffries on the 20th day of March next before the Hayes Valley athletic club of San Francisco. Mr. Corbett says it is his intention to spend two hours each day underground with hammer and drills, as he is of the opinion that it will be of vast benefit to him in his training and the hardening of his muscles. Mr. Corbett will remain in Berlin to within ten days of the date set for the tight with Jeffries. Corbett's sparring partner arrived on Saturday's train from Salt Lake city and left for Berlin Sunday.--Austin Reveille
-Tonopah Bonanza, January 24, 1903

Apparently, Corbett didn't train hard enough. Jefferies won in the middle of the tenth round, when his seconds told the referee to stop the fight.

Like most mining camps, fire tended to visit from time to time.

BUNK HOUSE DESTROYED
Last Wednesday evening the Nevada Mining Company's bunk house at Berlin, Nye county, was destroyed by fire, causing damage to the amount of $1,000. The loss to the men seeping there will be considerable, as they lost all their clothing and a large amount of money.
-The Silver State, August 30, 1905

Berlin also had it share of labor problems.

RACE WAR STOPS IN NEVADA CAMP
TROUBLE BETWEEN MINERS CHECKED BY SHERIFF
Company Replaces Portuguese With Basques and as a Result Foreman Is Assaulted and Superintendent Flees
TONOPAH, Nev.. March 7-- Sheriff Logan has just returned from Berlin, Nev., where there has been trouble with miners, all of whom are foreigners. The company has been hiring Basques to replace Portuguese, and the latter threatened the newcomers. The Portuguese are armed. The foreman was badly beaten and the superintendent fled. The justice of the peace wired for the sheriff and deputies, who arrived in time to avert a race war. Twenty-seven men were arrested, tried before the justice and fined. Those who could pay were driven from the camp and the rest held in custody.
-Los Angeles Herald, March 8, 1906

Firmin Bruner recalls the incident.

BRUNER: While we were still in Union Canyon why they had labor problems in Berlin.
DAVIS: Like what?
BRUNER: Well, the thing of it was they had a Portuguese that was the foreman and there were Portuguese and Italians and Basques and Cousin Jacks and all kinds of people working there but because he was a Portuguese he would favor the Portuguese. And so this Andres, Uncle Shorty as I call him, thought it was his turn to go to work and the foreman says "no",--his name was Gomes--"it'so and so's turn." So Uncle Shorty got worked up and he kind of grabbed him and choked him up and roughed him a little bit. Well, so then he sent for the sheriff and they came and they'd been havin' quite a bit of trouble around there and . . .
DAVIS: The sheriff came from Tonopah then?
BRUNER: Yeah, and apparently they brought a judge and everything with them because there had been quite a bit of trouble. This just brought it to a head. So, they held court there and they arrested Uncle Shorty and chained him to one of the pillars in front of the company store. There was no jail, so they kept him there in the daytime and at night they'd take him inside and chain him to the cot. They kind of settled things up and they fined Uncle Shorty fifty dollars, which was a lot of money. Later I asked Auntie about it and she said a hundred, but I don't think it was a hundred. I would say it was fifty dollars. But in the meantime Mother and Auntie thought that they would take Uncle Shorty to Tonopah and they were praying, I remember them just praying because they figured if they took Uncle Shorty to Tonopah it was like banishing him up to Siberia. They held court there and they fined him and they recommended that the foreman be released which they did. The name of the foreman was Gomes and his wife's name was Del. They released him and they put in somebody else as a foreman. So things went on pretty good after that. After this trial they came in an automobile and Mother heard the automobile coming up the canyon past our house here. Then it circled around behind Chinee Sam's saloon and up on the plateau and went down the valley on the way to Tonopah. So she woke me up when this car passed our house by the road and rushed me to the south window and I looked up and saw the first automobile. That was my first automobile. That must have been possibly the first part of 1906 or it probably was 1905. So from then on, I had all eyes for an automobile. Eventually, I started school [in Union Canyon] in 1905 and when I came home why I had a piece of chalk and I made a big B on the door and Mother thought that I was very, very brilliant to be able to make a B in the first day. Apparently all this brightness flowed out of me because in 1908 when we moved to Austin I had to take the first grade over again. (laughing)
-Firmin Bruner Oral History Part 1 of 2, Churchill County Museum Digital Archive, October 28, 1991, Interviewer- Bill Davis, Interviewee - Firmin Ascargorta Bruner

Berlin To Be A White Man's Camp
The Trouble in Berlin, Nye county, was caused by the employment of cheap foreign labor, but the camp has learned its lesson and it is said that the mine authorities have declared that from now on Berlin will be a white man's camp. Forty Basques were rounded up and each fined $59 and costs aggregating a total of over $2,300.
-The Central Nevadan, March 15, 1906

Testy miners sometimes contributed to their own problems.

MINERS RESENT INHUMANITY
Mining Superintendent Ordered Out of Berlin, Nye County The house of widow named Stevens with several children was burned at Berlin, Nye County, last week. After the fire the woman tried to rent one of several unoccupied cabins of F. G. Bowen, superintendent of the mining company. Bowen did not like the woman and refused to rent her one of the company's cabin. The miners took the matter up for the woman and held an indignation meeting, the result being that Bowen was escorted seven miles from the camp and told never to return. He went to Tonopah and told his woes to the officers, and the District Attorney. Sheriff and a deputy returned to Berlin with him. The officers interviewed a number of Berlin's citizens and came to the conclusion that other climes would be more healthful for the superintendent. They informed Bowen of the facts, but at last accounts he was still at Berlin It is reported that the miners have quit work and refused to return while Bowen remains in charge of the mine.
-The Eureka Sentinel, April 4, 1907

That might have been the beginning of the end for Berlin.

STOKES MINES AT BERLIN CLOSED,DOWN
Thomas W. Stevens. the well-known Salt Laker who has been looking after the business end of the mining operations of the J. Phelps Stokes interests at Berlin, Nye county. Nev.. for the past five years or so, has resigned his position and returned home to stay. He states that the position has been a most trying one for a long time past, but it was only when labor troubles a short time ago, necessitated the closing of the mines, that he was able to get released. It was not a matter of wages that caused the trouble at the mines. It appears that the men employed at the property became so much dissatisfied with the man sent out to run the mine that they finally took matters into their own hands and compelled him to leave camp. Their action resulted in the properties being closed down and afforded Mr. Stevens the opportunity he had sought to get out, also.
-Salt Lake Herald-Republican, May 28, 1907

The mine changed hands.

FAMOUS STOKES MINE SOLD
W. H. Whitmore & Co. of Goldfield Promote Important Mining Deal
An important mining deal was recently consummated by which the Goldfield Blue Bell Mining Company acquired the holdings of the Nevada Company in the famous Stokes mine at Berlin, Nye County, about 50 miles northwest of Tonopah. It is reported this mine has blocked out an estimated tonnage sufficient to ran the 30 stamp mill of the company for a period of three years, the average value of the ore being $16 per ton. Twenty-five thousand tons of ore are said to be in the bins that will mill better than $12 a ton. The deal has been pending for several months and was carried through to successful conclusion by the efforts of W. H. Whitmore Co. of Goldfield. The Berlin mine, of which J. G. Phelps Stokes, the New York millionaire, was the moving spirit, owns 30 patented claims and the main workings are down 800 feet.
-Eureka Sentinel, September 7, 1908

Berlin kept plugging along.

BERLIN MILL WILL WORK ON CUSTOM ORES
ISSUES REPORT COVERING FACTS OF COMPANY'S IMPROVEMENTS.
S. T. Pearson, president of the Goldfield Blue Bell Mining company, has issued a statement covering in detail what this company has been doing with its recently acquired holdings. The property at Berlin, Nye county, has been developed by an 800-foot double compartment incline shaft equipped with two hoists, 30-stamp mill with amalgamating plates, ten vanners and a Wilfley table, the power for which is furnished by modern Corliss engine used for electric lighting. A battery of six modern boilers supplies the steam for these engines, the drying floor and for heating the mill. Wood is used for fuel. "The water is below the 700-foot level," says Mr. Pearson, "and before the end of the month we expect to be working on the 800 level, where the last maps made show the best grade of ore and the largest bodies, averaging $20 a ton. We are also running a raise from the 400 level forty feet which has opened up an additional ore body. "We expect to put five stamps of the thirty on custom ore in the near future. During the former management no ore other than the company's was allowed to be put through.
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, August 28, 1909

Animosity towards Germany and everything German because of World War 1 --even though, according to the 1910 census, one in eleven Americans was German in the first or second generation--motivated some to try to remove any reminders of that country from our society. People of German heritage were persecuted, German language classes vanished, and some even wanted to remove it from our language.

In June 1918, a congressman from Michigan sponsored a bill that prescribed similar renaming of all things conceivable: thus, he suggested calling sauerkraut “liberty cabbage”, hamburgers “liberty steaks”, dachshunds “liberty pups”, and even replacing German measles with “liberty measles”. Some Americans called for a ban on Beethoven’s, Bach’s, and Mozart's music.
- “No Compromise with a Race of Savages”: How WWI triggered a global bout of Germanophobia George Garin

So, it's no surprise that the few remaining citizens of Berlin thought they should change the name of the town.

Berlin to Change Name
It is reported in Tonopah that the few residents of the old mining camp of Berlin, in Nye county, are planning to petition the postoffice department to change the name of the town. Berlin is one of the oldest camps in the state and in early days enjoyed prosperity, with shipping mines and a large population.
-Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune, June 15, 1918

Unfortunately for them, the Post Office decided to just yank the unneeded post office out from under them entirely, ending its services December 19, 1918. Fortunately, this anti-German sentiment lasted about as long as did "freedom fries."

On the day we chose to visit Berlin- a cold, snowy April Saturday- we had the town pretty much to ourselves. Even the rangers didn't come out, although I suspect it's because we arrived around their dinner time. We paid our $4.00 to get in the park, and there was a nice wide spot for us to turn around the truck and trailer, where we parked.

There are a dozen or so buildings still standing in Berlin. The rangers live in one and possibly two of them- we would have asked if that had shown themselves. Some of the buildings are filled with period articles although probably not the same way they would have been had someone been living in them or using them. Still, it's interesting to peer through the windows and look at everything. Each building has a small sign on it describing its occupants and purpose.

The mill has stamps and a few odds and ends in it, and it rather cavernous. You can imagine the unholy racket that must have occurred when all the machinery was in operation.

Since we hit Berlin on our way out of Grantsville, and the day was late and the weather was crummy, we didn't stay and explore the area as much as we would have liked.

UPDATE: We stopped at Berlin ten years later while we were in the area scoping out a few more localities. Admission fee for Nevada residents is $5 now, not too bad considering. Wish they could open some windows so people could get some good photos without reflections, though.

Here is a short video fly-over we got before the rangers chased us off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzzMrd7hRCQ