37°13'37.7"N 117°07'15.6"W

Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps says early 1880's gold mining was responsible for a mill being erected a Thorp's Well. supposedly four miles south, although I think I spy mill ruins about a mile to the southeast. The mill operated for two decades before being acquired by the Bonnie Claire Bullfrog Mining Co. About 1904 the Bonnie Clair Mill was built near the stage station of Thorp, which was briefly known as Montana Station. In 1906 The Bonnie Clare townsite was plattted at Thorp and by 1907 the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad ran through here. By then there was a railroad depot, mercantile store, saloons, and a population of about 100. Mining declined by 1909, but revived enough in 1913 that a new mill was built. But railroad freight wasn't enough to keep the going, and by 1921 both the railroad and the post office pulled up stakes. Another mill ran briefly in the 1950's. Bonnie Claire was often misspelled Bonnie Clare. Or is it the other way around?

Here is a nice overview:

A small camp began to form in the Bonnie Clare district in the 1880s when a stamp mill was built at a site known then as Thorp's Wells. The mill handled ore from three major mines all located near Gold Mountain six miles to the northwest. The mill operated into the twentieth century and the Bonnie Clare Bullfrog Mining Company purchased it soon after the start of the 20th century. In 1904 another mill was built, the Bonnie Clare, to treat ore from all over the district. The camp continued to function at a slow level until September 1906 when it received a big boost when the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad reached Thorp. The Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad station was known as Montana Station. The residents did not like that name and when a new townsite was platted in October 1906 the town was renamed Bonnie Clare. Soon after the arrival of the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, Bonnie Clare reached its peak. Mining activity continued until the railroad folded in 1928 and life quickly ebbed out of Bonnie Clare. There was some minor activity during the period from 1940 to 1954 but Bonnie Clare was abandoned until 2005 when Tonogold Resources initiated the "Bonnie Claire Gold Tailings Project" to rework 12 million tons of tailings. 
-Western Mining History

Bonnie Claire was a station on both the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, as well as the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad, which ran roughly parallel to each other in this area. William A. Clark's Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Company was begun in 1905 and by 1907 ran its entire length from Las Vegas to Goldfield. The northern end of the line, from Beatty to Goldfield, was only in operation until 1914, and the track was removed during World War I.

By the end of May 1907, grading of the Las Vegas & Tonopah line to Goldfield was almost complete, and work began again on the laying of the tracks. During June the railroad slowly extended itself out of Rhyolite, around the Bullfrog Hills, and to the north towards Goldfield. By the middle of August, the rails were completed through the entire Bullfrog District and were extended as far north as Bonnie Claire, a third of the way between Rhyolite and Goldfield. Construction continued despite the financial problems brought about by the Panic of 1907, and on October 26, the ceremonial final spike was driven at Goldfield, marking the completion of the Las Vegas & Tonopah tine.  Daily service between Las Vegas and Goldfield was maintained until February of 1917, when tri-weekly service was substituted. Then, the problems brought about by World War I spelled the end of the line. Due to war shortages and efforts to economize, the Freight Traffic Committee of the U. S. Railroad Administration ordered that all perishable and merchandise traffic which formerly traveled via the Las Vegas & Tonopah would immediately be shipped only on the shorter Tonopah and Tidewater connections to the west coast. In other words, the Las Vegas & Tonopah was not allowed to haul anything but ore, and there was not much ore to be hauled. For a short while, the railroad was run by the Railroad Administration, but that body soon decided that the Las Vegas & Tonopah was "not considered essential or necessary to the uses of the Government," and was turned loose. By this time, it was a moot question whether the railroad was essential or necessary to anyone, and the end soon came. The Las Vegas & Tonopah had lost money every year since 1908, but never enough to make it consider abandonment of its lines. Revenues now plunged drastically and the road was faced with bankruptcy. The high prices paid for scrap metal during World War I stimulated Clark to salvage as much of his railroad as he could, and on September 18, 191-8, he applied to the Railroad Commission of Nevada for permission to cease operations. On October 31st, the last train pulled off the line and the tracks were taken up and sold.
-National Park Service

The original railroad of the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad Company was constructed as follows: From Rhyolite to Beatty 7.79 miles; From Beatty to Bonnie Claire 37.49 miles; and from Bonnie Claire to Goldfield 36.65 miles. Unable to compete with the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Company, it united with the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Company. That didn't help, and it was eventually acquired by the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Company. It ceased to operate in 1928.

Although both the Bullfrog Goldfield and the Tonopah & Tidewater were experiencing much of the same problems, their shorter and cheaper route to the west coast helped them maintain higher shipping volumes than the Las Vegas & Tonopah was able to manage. In addition, "Borax" Smith had a monopoly upon the shipment of ores from his borax mines along the route of the Tonopah & Tidewater, which helped the revenues of that road considerably. As a final burden, the railroads were burdened with poor public relations. Almost as soon as the railroad days celebrations were over, miners and businessmen began complaining about the high freight rates charged by all the lines. As the mines developed into very low-grade propositions, freight rates announced in previous years began to look like highway robbery. Although the miners had a small point, for the prevalent rates made many mines unprofitable, most of the Bullfrog District mines would have had to be given free shipment of their ores in order to stay in business. It became evident that unless the three competing lines were somehow consolidated, that all three would fail. The smallest of the three, the Bullfrog Goldfield, was the first to take action, but its attempt to sell itself to the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad fell flat. The Las Vegas & Tonopah then stepped in and the two railroads made plans to consolidate their lines. Since both roads had tracks running between Beatty and Goldfield, the decision was made to utilize the best parts of each line, and to abandon the remainder. Accordingly, the Las Vegas & Tonopah tracks would be used from Goldfield to a point just south of Bonnie Claire, where a shift would be made to the Bullfrog Goldfield tracks from there south to Beatty. This move would cut maintenance costs for both lines, and would enable the Las Vegas & Tonopah to avoid running its trains over the costly "high line" from Beatty through the Bullfrog Hills. But towards the latter part of the 1920s, the borax mines began to close, and the life of the Tonopah & Tidewater was threatened. The Borax Consolidated Company, the parent of the Tonopah & Tidewater, continued to operate the road at a loss, preserving the rails and stock in case of future need, but heavy losses year after year became too much for it to handle. In 1938, the Tonopah & Tidewater applied for permission to abandon its lines. Local patrons of the road caught the ears of their politicians, and approval of the abandonment was delayed for several years, as means were sought to keep the line operating. But those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and on June 14, 1940, the Tonopah & Tidewater ceased operations. The railroad tracks were left in place for two years, in hopes that the railroad could resume, but the need for scrap metal during World War II caused them to be salvaged in 1942 and 1943. The last Bullfrog district railroad had finally died.
-National Park Service

One man was responsible for giving Bonnie Claire a brief resurgence when he decided to build a mansion next to Death Valley.

In the 1920s, a new venture in Death Valley sparked interest across the region. Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson began construction of his beautiful home on Death Valley Ranch in Grapevine Canyon, a venture many believed quite eccentric. The Moorish-styled mansion soon came to be called Scotty’s Castle, after Johnson’s good friend Walter Scott, the legendary Death Valley Scotty who introduced Johnson and his wife to Death Valley. Bonnie Clare became a busy siding where trainloads of construction materials off-loaded. A fleet of trucks hauled everything more than 20 dusty miles to the building site. Construction of the mansion declined during the Great Depression. Eventually, the railroad tracks were torn up for salvage. Johnson bought the ties and stockpiled them for fuel at the ranch. 
-Las Vegas Review Journal, March 9, 2008

Good luck Carl!

Irrepressible Carl.
Carl Young, the irrepressible, called up THE NEWS the other day to tell of letting a contract for a large concrete hotel which he will build at Thorp's well. Carl is enjoying a line patronage from those who are going to Bullfrog, and he wishes to get in line for the increase which is bound to come. Outside of the result of this through travel Thorp's and vicinity is looking up. There are several good mines, with $200,000 worth of ore in sight in the immediate vicinity, and the hot mineral spring is a great attraction. Mr. Chiatovich has started up the Rattlesnake mine and three other companies will soon put men to work. There are perhaps 60 people in the vicinity of Thorp's, which Carl calls the "North Star of the Desert," and a post office has been asked for.
-Goldfield News & Weekly Tribune, February 3, 1905

Don't know why you'd need another station just a mile away from Bonnie, Claire, but, well, there it is- Somervell.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE SOUTH
From A. A. Hibbard of the Reno Stock Brokerage Co., the Gazette has collected several interesting items about the southern mining country.
o Tonopah.
Reno to Tonopah, 237 miles. Rail-road fare $19.50. sleeper included; time 16 hours.
o Goldfield. Tonopah to Goldfield 27 miles; stage fare $4.00: time 5 hours; auto fare $6.00 over private road; time 2 hours.
o Jack Ramsey's Hotel.
Jack Ramsey's Hotel is between Tonopah and Goldfield.
o Stonewall Tank.
Goldfield to Stonewall Tank 16 miles
o Montana Station.
Goldfield to Montana Station 23 miles, free water.
o Somervell.
Montana to Somervell stage station, 1 mile, free water. From here turn off of main road to Thorps Mills, 3 miles: to Rattlesnake and Nevada Goldfield mines 11 miles; to Tokop and Tule Canyon district. 20 miles.
o Steve Currie's Stage Station. From Somervell south to Steve Currie's stage station, 20 miles. Turn off main road here to Ben Hazelton or Gold Barr and other mines, 2 miles. Southeast to Original Bullfrog, 6 miles, near which are Bullfrog Annex, Bullfrog Extension and a lot of un-developed claims.
o Town of Bullfrog.
From Original Bullfrog southeast to town of Bullfrog, fifty tents and houses and one bank, 3 miles. Turn 1 off here to Eclipse mine, 1 mile.
o Rhyolite.
Bullfrog to Rhyolite, 350 tents and houses and two banks, north three-quarters of a mile. Surrounding Rhyolite are the following mines; National Bank, Bullfrog. Montana Bullfrog, Montgomery Mountain, Shoshone and many others.
o Beatty.
Rhyolite to Beatty, 4 miles easterly, 195 tents and houses and one bank. Free water, not water running in river. Stage fare, Goldfield to Beatty, $18, time 10 hours. or $15 for 2 day stages; auto fare, $25; time 6 hours, or over on private road. Meals are 50c and $1 by stage.
o Las Vegas.
Gold Center to Las Vegas on Clark railroad, 120 miles. Gold Center is four miles southeast of Bullfrog on Armagosa river; 20 tents and houses.
-Reno Evening Gazette, May 6, 1905

Mr. Chaitovich was very fond of his mill.

Mr. L. E. Chaitovich is highly elated over recent discoveries in the 600-foot level [of the Bonnie Claire mine] and in reply to a News reporter's question, said, "I have lived down in the hills of southwestern Nevada for twenty years and for the last dozen years have made my home on the Bonnie Claire property. The little mill I built ten years ago at Thorp's well was my bank and it proved a faithful one. It gave me money to do all the development work on the Rattlesnake, Corbett, and Hard Luck claims, and I now feel certain that we have one of the best properties in Nevada."
-The Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune, July 28, 1905

Nevada winters are nothing to ignore. They can be mild, or, well, not so mild.

EXPOSURE KILLS BRAVE AUSTRIAN
GOLD FIELD, Nev., Jan. 28. After walking through snow nearly three feet deep for a distance of nearly 12 miles, Alex Somodi, a miner making his way from Montana station to his cabin in this city, fell exhausted only a few hundred yards from his cabin door last night. and when discovered was nearly dead. He was picked up in an unconscious condition and carried to the Miners' Union Hospital, but died a few minutes after being taken there. He started to walk from Montana station two days ego, and made a strong battle against the deep snow. He did not give up until within sight of his cabin and safety, when he was unable to stand the strain any longer and fell into the snow unconscious. He was a native of Austria and on his body was found a gold medal presented him by the Emperor of Austria
for an act of bravery.
-The Silver State, January 30, 1907

Note how this article makes a distinction between the Bonnie Claire mine and Bonnie Clair station- two different things.

The Gold mountain district gives evidence of soon becoming an important factor in the output of Esmeralda county, says the Goldfield News. Shipments are being made by leasers on the Bonnie Claire property, and the company has placed an order for additional machinery to be installed in its mill at Bonnie Claire station, and may bring this mill up to 60 stamps, with tube mills and cyanide machinery.
-Nevada State Journal, November 18, 1909

Bonnie Claire was essential for nearby mining operations.

The property is the Gold Mountain Mining and Development Company is situated in the old Gold Mountain Mining District, about 12 1/2 miles from Bonnie Clare. The town of Bonnie Clare, which is little more than a railway station, has an elevation of 3950 feet, and is served by two railroads, the Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas and Tonopah. While contracts have been made for hauling ore at $3.00 a ton from the mine to Bonnie Clare, the Company has practically done their own freighting, keeping a two horse team steadily on the road for this purpose. This has made quite an addition to the expense of prospecting, as the constant use soon wears out the team, and new horses are required. Horses are expensive, and horse feed is high, being $65.00 a ton for grain, and $42.00 for hay at Bonnie Clare Station. The water at the mine, which amounts to about 140 gallons daily and is sufficient for the plant, is unfit for drinking, so water is hauled from Bonnie Clare daily for domestic purpose. This makes the steady use of the team necessary. If the development of the property had justified, a light gasoline truck could be advantageously used for this purpose, and a considerable saving effected.
-Report on the Gold Mountain Mining and Development Company, 1912

New Smelter To Be Built
GOLDFIELD, Feb. 6. (Special) A new venture is being opened in Bonnie Clare, about 45 miles south of Goldfield. where George Lippincott is installing a smelter to handle lead-silver ore which he produces in, his Lead King Mine which is located in the Panamint Range in Death Valley. He has 300 tons of ore on the ground and immense quantities blocked out in the mine. The plant will smelt 100 tons a day and produce a ton every hour and probably 25 tons every 24 hours, A test run was made last week and a few alterations are necessary. Lippincott owns and operates the Sun Battery and Nic-L plant at Santa Ana, Calif., where 185 men are constantly employed. His sons are in charge during his absence in Nevada. Lead ore, which must be over 151 per cent and not less than 3%-ton lots will be accepted and at present customers from California, Arizona and Nevada are hauling in ore. The present cost is over $150,-(100 and will reach $250,000 when the plant is equipped as planned. A spacious rock house has been restored for a cook and dining hall and is equipped with a butane and coal range. Another house has been remodeled and furnishes quarters for more than 12 men. A well, equipped with an electric pump, furnishes ample water for plant operations and household use. A large Diesel plant furnishes power and light. Nineteen large trucks assist in operations and tie half-mile road leading to the highway is in first class condition, making access to the mountainside plant very easy. Mrs. Lippincott is spending a short time here and has a new trailer house with every imaginable comfort installed for her special use. Mrs. Lippincott is an artist and does desert scenes in oil and has many paintings of interesting scenes of various places in Nevada, Later when she returns she will use her trailer as a studio and has named it the Silver Studio. Bonnie Clare, which has had very little work done there for many years, was at one time a thriving town of 2000 persons. It boasted a stamp mill ' and ore was hauled there from Goldfield as well as many other places. Pauline Mills and Marie Wright visited the property Sunday.
-Nevada State Journal, February 7, 1952

Yet another interesting feature of the area is the presence of "sailing stones" on the Bonnie Claire Dry Lake, similar to those found in Death Valley at the "Racetrack Playa"

Dry Lake Phenomenon
WINDBLOWN ROCKS LEAVE THEIR MARK
Did you ever skip a flat rock across the surface of a river or pond, and marvel at the way it skimmed over the water for a long distance? Well, some scientists have discovered now that the wind has been doing the very same thing on some of these Nevada playas or dry lakes. Discovery of wind blown rocks on Little Bonnie Claire playa (dry lake) in Nye county, south of Goldfield, and in the Panamint Valley in California, was announced this week by Dr. Thomas Clements, head of the geology department at the University of Southern California. Trails left by the windoblown rocks in Nevada ranged from a few inches in length to more than 100 feet, the longest being 138 feet. All trails were in a north-south direction, the same way the wind blew.
-Nevada State Journal, December 2, 1952

They're still talking about processing ore.

REOPEN SMELTER
TONOPAH -- It has been reported in Tonopah that the Lippincott smelter at Bonnie Clair, located on the road to Scotty's Castle, will soon be reopened and that equipment is now being moved to the plant.
-Reno Evening Gazette, April 15, 1955

If you're wondering what kind shape things were in abut 50 years ago....

The J. Lippincott Mill was built in 1913 on the site of the original Bonnie Claire Mill. The mill and its associated structures are found on the flank of a southeast-facing slope in an area having some loose rock. The mill complex consists of mill and residential structures. Most of the mill structures are built on the slope of the hill on stone leveling pads, some of which are unmortared. Some are supported vertically with metal and have stone and wood cross members. Near the bottom of the slope, concrete foundations support the mill structure. Three stone residential buildings are built at the lower end of the slope. A tailing pile, also at the base of the slope, covers an area about 300' x 75'. Tailings and rocks have been piled to a height of more than 6 feet along the eastern border of the complex. The hillside is littered with rocks; metal tanks are scattered about the site; there are many lead pigs lying at the base of the mill. The one-story residential buildings are all built with their long axes running north-south; all have stone walls about 28 inches thick; all have dirt floors. One, 32' x 15'9" has a wood shingle roof; another, 32' x 26' has only part of its roof; the third, 65' x 18', has lost its roof. Nearby is a 15' x 10' concrete and rock root cellar with a roof constructed of piled up rocks and dirt. It has an opening in its east elevation. The roofed residence is of mortared angular rhyolite and is in deteriorated to fair condition. It was painted, but much of the paint has chipped off. The 12-inch thick walls are 6 feet 2 inches high and have mortared joints. Some attempt was made to smooth the interior surfaces with mortar; the mortar shows some cracking. The flooring is 1" x 6" timbers on 2" x 6" joists. The medium pitched roof has 2" x 4" framing; about half of the shingles at its west end are missing. There is an 8-inch stovepipe at the northwest corner. Fenestration in the north and south elevations is 30%; in the east, 20%; in the west, 15%. The door frames are 2" x 8" timbers; the window frames, 2" x 6". Door and window jambs are notched to receive the lintels. At the mill site, a 50' x 50' steel-frame 2 story structure stands 35 feet high on a concrete foundation. Some of its corrugated metal siding is loose; its metal stack, approximately 25 feet high, is unguyed and sways in the wind. At the top of the slope is a 65' x 8' wood-frame tipple. It leans badly, and the wood siding of its chute has collapsed. Near the main structure are two metal hoppers and a 30-foot high kiln. A metal slurry tank site northeast of the mill.
-Property report, 1977


Airfields
Interestingly, there are two closed airfields nearby. One landing strip in on Bonnie Claire "Lake" about 4 miles SSW of the site, and another, "Scotty's Airfield" is a little closer almost 4 miles SW of the site.

The date of construction of the lakebed airfield has not been determined. The earliest depiction of this airfield which has been located was on the 1941 Mt. Whitney Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks). It depicted “Scotty” as an auxiliary airfield. Scotty Airport was evidently abandoned at some point between 1941-49, as it was no longer depicted on the 1949 Mt Whitney Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy) or subsequent aeronautical charts. During the 1950s & 1960s, Bonnie Claire Lake may have been intended for use as one of several emergency landing sites for the X-15 rocket plane. Another lakebed landing strip which is of very similar configuration is the Delamar Lake Landing Strip, which was one of the designated emergency landing sites for the X-15. Therefore, although not listed among references of X-15 landing sites, Bonnie Claire Lake could have presumably been among possible X-15 landing sites. Only 2 miles northwest of Bonnie Claire Lake Landing Strip sits another airfield in the middle of nowhere: Scotty's Intermediate Field / Bonnie Claire Airport. Scotty's Intermediate Field was apparently built as one of the Civil Aeronautics Administration's network of intermediate fields. It may have been built at some point in 1943, as it was not depicted at all on the 1940 Airports & Airways Map from the NV Division of Aeronautics (courtesy of Jim Mallery) nor on the August 1943 Mt. Whitney Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy). The earliest photo which has been located of Scotty's Intermediate Field was a 10/21/43 aerial view looking north from the 1945 AAF Airfield Directory (courtesy of Scott Murdock). It depicted the “Scotty's Intermediate Field” as having 2 unpaved runways.
-Paul Freeman, Abandoned and Little Known Airfields

Farmer Station

Not much is known [by us, anyway] about Farmer Station (37.25125196047391, -117.00397493046898) on US95, about six miles to the east. It is about a half mile away from the former Shady Lady brothel, which is now the Shady Lady Bed and Breakfast. A 1940 Count topo map shows "Maintenance Station" in this approximate location. The only thing we can be farily certain of is that it was an active station or well-known location in the early 1900's, as demonstrated by these two newspaper articles.

STRIKE MADE NEAR BEATTY
Rush Follows Report Concerning Discovery and Ground Located
The Bullfrog Miner says of a reported rich strike east of Farmers Station:
The report of a rich strike 35 miles north and three miles east of Farmers Station reached Beatty Friday evening, and before dark, while news of the find was traveling over the hill to Rhyolite, a dozen teams slipped out into the road headed for the new Mecca.
-San Francisco Call and Post, May 10, 1907

The Amargosa river, which has its source in the mountains some 80 miles north of Goldfield, is now supplying Tonopah with about 500,000 gallons of water daily, and at several points on its mostly underground course to the south it comes to the surface at Ry Patch north of here and at Farmer's Station near Bonnie Clare, and at Springdale. Between Stonewall and Thorp valleys it flow is interrupted by deep lava beds, but at no point can a shaft be sunk in its course without encountering an underground fow of the proportions of a river, and showing the presence of underground gravel beds. At Springdale, it is possible to develop fully 8,000 inches of water.
-White Pine News, February 7, 1909

This is easy to get to, and there are a lot of ruins to explore. See if you can spot the several railroad beds that go through the site. Nearby is "Scotty's Airport," or at least the remains of many foundations.