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Gold Mountain, better known in its later mining history as Stateline, was one of the earliest gold-mining localities in the remote Slate Ridge country of southwestern Esmeralda County, Nevada. Its story began in the 1860s, long before the famous Tonopah and Goldfield booms, and continued through successive periods of mining, litigation, abandonment, and revival. An important distinction for historical research: this is the Stateline near Gold Point and Lida, not the separate Gold Mountain mining camp near Tonopah that later became known as Divide, or the Gold Mountain site to the east later known as Oriental. The three locations are easily confused in Nevada mining literature.

Gold Mountain originated with Thomas Shaw’s discovery of gold-bearing outcroppings on Slate Ridge in 1864. Although Shaw abandoned his claims, prospectors returned in 1866–67 and mining began. Development during the 1870s was hampered by water shortages, poor transportation and conflicts with Native Americans. Nevertheless, by 1880 the Stateline mine was considered one of Nevada’s best. The camp flourished in 1881, when it had five saloons, stores, lodging and other businesses, along with a variety of dwellings. A $40,000 ten-stamp mill and a pipeline from Tule Canyon improved mining operations, while the Carson & Colorado Railroad’s arrival at Candelaria in 1882 reduced transportation costs. Production remained strong through the decade, but mining declined after the post office closed in 1891. Nevada’s post-1905 mining boom briefly revived the district.

As the story goes, Thomas Shaw, George Ayer, and Morris Grand Rhodes found gold on Gold Mountain in 1866. When the Timbisha killed one of their horses, they left and returned in 1868. In January 1868 Shaw and his partners returned to explore the district more thoroughly. On the barren ridge that marked the north side of Oriental Wash, Tom Shaw found the “monster lode” he named the State Line—a bold outcropping of gold-bearing quartz, 12 feet thick and several thousand feet long. They promptly set to work, sinking two inclined shafts along the foot wall of the lode. On one, at a depth of 20 feet, they cut into the lode, opening a dazzling crystal grotto with gold-studded walls that rivaled the fabled cave of Aladdin. Tom Shaw was so awed by it all that he leveled the floor, knocked a chimney through to the surface, and made it his cabin! Although it measured only 9 by 10 feet, it was warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and an inspiration year-round as he sat each evening with fire and candlelight mirrored in myriad golden flashes from every wall.
-PUBLIC COMMENT Esmeralda Co BOCC Meeting Feb 3, 2026
-Lengner, Ken. A prehistory and history of the Death Valley region's Native Americans and the environments in which they lived, Deep Enough Press, 2013, p234 6
- Lingenfelter, Richard E, Death Valley & the Amargosa : a land of illusion, Berkeley : University of California Press, 1986, p104

The trip to the State Line mine was no easy task.

The latest, and probably one of the most important, is a property known as the State Line mine, situated in Esmeralda county, in the southwestern portion of the State of Nevada, almost on the State line of California, which has been known as a valuable discovery for a number of years. “Joggles” Wright, one of the best-known and most successful of Nevada miners, to his dying day declared that it was the best mine in Nevada outside of the Comstock, and that the day must come when it would make its mark. That time seems to be near at hand. To reach the State Line mine from New York is no pleasure trip, as a party that left several weeks since and returned a few days ago will bear witness. By rail to Carson, Nevada, is easy enough. It means Pullman palace cars, plenty to eat, and nothing to do but sit down and take it easy. From Carson the trouble begins, for here you “tackle” the old-time mud-wagon, and for three hundred miles you are pulled wearily along at the rate of five miles an hour. The sun’s rays pour down fiercely over these alkali deserts and the traveler wishes himself anywhere else. “But,” says one of the party, “when we got to the mine we forgot all about the trip— I tell you it was good for sore eyes.” The party consisted of the agents and experts of New York capital, and remained about a week, sampling, examining, assaying and otherwise making themselves thoroughly familiar with the property they were to report upon. The State Line mine, or mines rather, are gold bearing, with little or no silver. The ledge crops out boldly, a la Comstock, for a mile or more, and the ledge is as well-defined and encased as could well be found anywhere. The report was favorable to the purchase of the property, which was consummated yesterday. It is the intention of the new owners to proceed at once to the erection of a forty-stamp mill on each property. There are two mines in the purchase. Wood is abundant within four miles, and water plentiful, only ten miles away and easily and cheaply brought in. Such properties as this are not deposits for a day, but fissure-veins that last for a generation. The price paid for the properties is reserved, but it is believed to be not far from $400,000 cash, with a percentage of the capital stock of companies formed. It is estimated that the new improvements contemplated will cost not far from $250,000. The purchasers are men of means and can stand the expense. Mr. George D. Roberts is the principal purchaser.
-Daily Territorial Enterprise, September 9, 1880

The town site was growing.

Gold Mountain.
A correspondent of the Esmeralda Herald, writing from Gold Mountain under date of February 9th, says: They are building a town at the State Line mine, and already have about fifty houses constructed. There are six saloons, two stores, one butcher shop, two blacksmith shops, and one hay corral, besides the mine, buildings and numerous dwelling houses. In a short time a large stable will be built, and there is talk of more stores, a restaurant, etc. Water is sold at $3 to $3 50 per fifty gallons. The water is hauled from two points, one six miles and the other eleven miles distant.
-Tuscarora Times Review, February 23, 1881

By God, if it's good enough for Frank Osbiston, it should be good enough for you. But that trip! Sheesh!

THE STATE LINE MINE.
Colonel Osbiston Well Pleased With It.
Colonel F. F. Osbiston, who returned from the Gold Mountain region evening before last, has formed a very favorable opinion of the State Line mine. The vein shows well as far as it has been prospected. A shaft has been sunk to the depth of ninety feet, which is the lowest point yet reached in the vein. A forty-stamp mill is going up at a point near the mine and water is being brought in from McGruder Mountain and Tule Canyon, a distance of about thirteen miles. There is enough ore in sight to justify the erection of very large works. The quartz is gold-bearing. In the same region are many small gold-bearing veins that are very rich, even at the surface. However, it would seem that the State Line is the mother lode of the mountain. Colonel Osbiston complains loudly of the stage line by which passengers are carried out to the Gold Mountain camp. The horses used are mere skeletons and the whip is used on them from morning till night. The Colonel was thirty-three hours traveling about 130 miles by this crow-bait line, and says he was so mad before he got through that he determined, if possible, to pronounce against the mine. The whole region is so wild, waterless and dreary that the worst desert in Arizona if transplanted would make an oasis in it. The Colonel says he didn’t want to find a mine in such a country, but he had to give up to it when he at last got through to Gold Mountain. The only living thing native to the country that he saw during the trip was a solitary lizard, and it was asthmatic and seemed about gasping its last.
-Daily Territorial Enterprise, May 14, 1881

This lawsuit spelled doom for the mine, as litigation dragged on for over a year, curtailing operations.

The State Line Mine Suit.
The suit recently instituted in Lyon county by the managers of the State Line mine to have an attachment for a large sum of money dissolved, is creating some attention, but the merits of the case are not generally understood. J. M. Selover, one of the principal stockholders in the company, at present in this city, came out from New York last December to adjust the affairs of the company, which had been muddled up somewhat by a prior management. At that time a store keeper at Gold Mountain placed an attachment upon the property for supplies that were supposed to have been furnished, but a large portion of which had never been delivered. Mr. Selover stipulated with the man that, although he could not prove the whole of his claim against the State Line, he would pay him the greater portion of it in cash and the balance when it was taken out of the mine. This was agreed to; but the storekeeper subsequently acted in bad faith by surreptitiously suing the company for a larger amount of money, which is claimed as not being due him, and getting judgment by default. The suit of the State Line people is to contest the judgment, which they consider fraudulent and unjust. They are willing to pay every dollar that they justly owe, but not another cent.
-The Daily Appeal, August 3, 1882

Too little too late, it would seem.

Operations have been resumed at the State Line mine and mill, under the management of Guy Thorpe. The prospects of this portion of Esmeralda county have never been brighter, and the merits of the mines will son be tested, with no fear of the result.
-Daily Territorial Enterprise, September 5, 1882

By this time, the damage had been done.

The State Line Mine.
The judgment of Tallman & Co., for $20,000, against the State Line Mining Company, at Gold Mountain, which has kept a magnificent 40 stamp mill idle for more than a year, has been set aside, which is regarded as a complete triumph for the Company. The Company have been waiting the termination of this suit to resume work. The Company own an immense ledge of low grade gold ore that yields a handsome profit for working, besides one of the finest mills on the coast. Water to supply the mill is brought from the mountains fourteen miles in iron pipes. The ore is dumped from the shaft into the mill.
-Weekly Nevada State Journal
Sat, Sep 15, 1883

Entering the death spiral.

The Belmont Courier says it is rumored that H. M. Yerington has purchased the State Line mine, and will soon start up the mill at Gold Mountain. There is no truth to this report. Mr. Yerington has no notion of purchasing the mine.
-Daily Territorial Enterprise, June 14, 1884

The State Line Mine.
The State Line mine, at Gold Mountain, in the south end of Esmeralda county, on the California boundary, is being worked by Colonel A. C. Ellis, of Carson. The mill has been started up on 500 tons of ore lying on the dump, and a force of miners are engaged in extracting a sufficient quantity to keep the mill running at its full capacity all winter. The True Fissure warns miners against going to Gold Mountain in search of employment, as there are lots of idle men in the camp.
-Tuscarora Times-Review
Tue, Nov 24, 1885

Despite continuing to work the mine, it's fate is sealed by the effects of the lawsuit and its horrible location and lack of cheap transportation..

At the State Line mine there is a 40-stamp gold quartz mill, the best in Nevada, which was constructed six years hence, and crushed several thousand tons of rock, averaging per ton, as I am informed, $17, has changed hands and has not run for the past eighteen months, the last run being as above, $17. The owner is now at work mining rock and preparing to start up soon. The great drawback to all that country is the cost and inconvenience of getting in and out, and last, but not least, the cost of freights, the rate of which per ton from San Francisco by way of the Central Pacific, Virginia & Truckee and Carson & Colorado railroads to this place is $60, and then the cost per ton from this place to the State Line mine, 85 miles, is $40 more, making a total of $100 per ton. And then the time necessary for transportation makes it impractical to transact business in the mining department on a paying basis. A railroad through that country that did not conduct business on the basis of 'stand and deliver' would do a power of good."
-Reno Gazette-Journal
Tue, Feb 28, 1888

Time to move on.

MISCELLANEOUS. SHERIFF'S SALE.
• One forty stamp quartz mill, known as and called the State Line Mill, situate, lying and being at Gold Mountain, Esmeralda county, Nevada, also
• Superintendent’s office
• blacksmith shop,
• assay office,
• boarding house,
• stable and
• Superintendent’s residence, at or near said mill. One
• hoisting works on above mine.
• Also water right and pipe line from Tule Canyon to said State Line Mill, about fourteen miles long; also
• one square water tank and
• two round water tanks connected with said pipe line.
• Also the following mines and mining claims, situate, lying and being in Gold Mountain Mining District, Esmeralda county, State of Nevada, known and called as follows: The State Line Mine No. 1. The State Line Mine No. 2. The State Line Mine No. 3. The State Line Mine No. 4. Notice is hereby given that on the 7th day of May, 1891, on the said premises of said defendant at the said county of Esmeralda, between the hours of nine in the morning and five in the afternoon, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash all of the personal property mentioned and described in the foregoing schedule of personal property, belonging to said defendant, or so much thereof as may be necessary to be sold, in such parcels as are likely to bring the highest price, and if from the sales of said personal property a sufficient sum of money be not realized to satisfy said judgment and costs and accruing costs, including the costs of this proceeding.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, July 22, 1891

The early 20th century boom caused many to reflect on any potential there might be at Gold Mountain.

Gold Mountain held out great promise, and there a costly mill was erected to rust away in idleness. While most of the ore was low grade, for those times, assaying about $30 a ton, some phenomenal finds were made. One report was circulated that in the State Line mine a ledge nine feet thick and assaying $64,000 had been found.
-Tonopah Bonanza, December 24, 1904

The mine continued to be worked by leasers.

George Heile and Phil Benns are working the old State Line mine owned by Ed. Reed and associates, and from which some very high grade ore was shipped a few years ago. Heile and Benns have found a new vein on this property from which they are taking some picture rock. They have lumber on the ground for timbering their shaft, and are going at it in earnest. Two miles west from Granite hill J. M. Rice has a tunnell in 110 feet and has a ledge from which 57 sacks of ore carrying values of $150 per ton, mostly in gold, were taken last fall.
-The Goldfield News and Weekly Tribune, March 28, 1914