A brief description:
At Millers (4,728 Alt., 74 pop.) was the largest reduction plant (R) of the Tonopah Mining Company. Once one of the district's leading mills, it has been idle for a number of years except for lease operations on its tailings. North of the highway east and west of Millers is the monte Cristo Range, of a pink so fiery that it glows even at mid-day. It resembles the Dolomites of northern Italy-- which have long attracted visitors from far countries-- but in this land of wonderful color it received very little attention.
-NEVADA - A Guide To The Silver State
-Compiled by workers of the Writer's Program of the Works Projects Administration in the State of Nevada 1940, 1957
Millers was chosen by the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad to install some infrastructure.
In about 1905, the T&G Railroad built a large roundhouse and turntable at Miller’s, some 10 miles west of Tonopah, on flat ground, as Tonopah was too steep and hilly for a large service yard. Miller’s was also a major processing site for ore from some of Tonopah’s rich mines. An eight-stall roundhouse was built, adjacent to a 90-foot diameter turntable. This allowed the turning of the locomotives and coal cars before backing them into (or driving them out of) a “home” for service and/or protection. Service pits existed underneath the tracks inside the roundhouse allowing mechanics easy access to the underside of the locomotives. What’s left to see today are the extensive foundations of both the roundhouse and turntable. Owing to the ground being level and very little vegetation in the area, the concrete foundations appear to have been poured yesterday.
-Nevada Magazine, Jim Price, March-April 2017
By 1911, though, the railroad closed the shops here, and the railroad ceased operations in 1947.
There is something to be said about being flat, as opposed to lumpy Tonopah.
In 1906 the Desert Power & Milling Co . constructed a 100 - stamp cyanide mill at Millers on the railroad 13 m . W . of Tonopah , to treat the ores of the Tonopah M . Co . In the following year , the Tonopah Belmont Dev . Co . built a 60 - stamp mill at Millers to treat its ore.
MINING DISTRICTS and MINERAL RESOURCES of NEVADA - FRANCIS CHURCH LINCOLN 1923
Everyone seemed to agree that Millers was a great place to build mills 'n stuff.
"Built in 1907, the 60 stamp Tonopah Belmont Development Company mill operated until late 1918. It was the smaller of two mills located at Millers. The largest, the Desert Mill of the Desert Power and Mill Company, was located a short distance to the east of the Belmont mill. During its lifetime, the mill processed 568,000 tons of Tonopah ore with a recovery of $12,000,000. The Tonopah Belmont Development Company also had a large 100 stamp mill near its Belmont mine in Tonopah. Millers was located 12 miles west of Tonopah on the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad."
-Central Nevada Historical Society
At Tonapah, the first mill to use the cyanide process was built by the Tonopah mining Company at Millers, about 13 miles west of Tonopah. Later, a second mill of 60 stamps) was erected adjoining the Tonopah Mining Company's plant to treat the ore from the Belmont Mining and Development Company. This mill is similar to the larger plant, and needs to special descripton. The 100 stamp mill and power plant of the Desert Power and Mill Company, milling ore produced from the mines of the Tonopah minnig Company of Nevada, is located at Millers. The installation of both the mill and power plant was made by Chas. C. Moore & Co., of San Francisco. THe main mill building, 525 by 230 feet in extreme dimensions, is erected on ground having only 3 per cent slope. The criude ore from the mines is taken up an incline trestle in steel hopper-bottom 50 ton railroad cars, in lots of seven cars, to the crusher ore bin. Water for the mill and power plant is pumped b a 2-stage vertical centrifugal pump from a well 60 feet deep, situated 1,700 feet borth of the plant.
-Mineral Resources of the United States, 1907
1910 census shows 270 people counted
Sad news.
INFANT SON OF MILLERS MILL MAN CALLED BY DEATH
The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sheaff of Millers, Richard Charles Sheaff, died Saturday and was buried in that city Sunday. The baby was born last Monday and was five days old when death occurred. Mr. Sheaff is a batteryman at the Desert Power and Mill company, and has many friends in this city.
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, October 21, 1912
Not quite as sad, but still sad.
BIG MILLERS MILL INTENDS TO CLOSE
Definite annoucnement has been made that the big mill of the Tonopah Mining Company at Millers, in northern Esmeralda county, will be closed down permanently within a short time, probably before the end of the year. The plant had been running on dump ore from the company's mines at Tonopah and for several months all ore broken has been sent to the Tonopah Belmont mill, in the easter part of the Tonopah district. The Belmont company originally treated its ore at Millers, but closed its big plant there after completing its new mill at the mine. The closing down of the Tonopah Mining Company's mill will terminate the existence of the greates milling camp of modern times in Nevada and for many years one of the liveliest, most prosperous towns in the state. It is estimated that the gross value of ore treated in the big reduction plants of Millers is not far below $100,00,000. The town is situated about fifteen miles west of Tonopah, on the Tonopah & Goldfield railroad, and out on the desert. Water is piped to the town for a distance of several miles from a spur of the Lone Mountain range, and electric power for the mills is supplied by lines furnishing Tonopah and Goldfield.
-Reno Evening Gazette, October 25, 1918
Yet they keep finding something to do.
MILLERS MILL MAKES CLEANUP
The Tonopah Mining Company reports the first cleanup from its mill at Millers since the plant was reopened after the second strike. THe shipment of bullion was valued at $80,000 as the result of virtually one month's operation running at part capcity. The company is now handling custom ores and is making arrangements for receiving 500 tons a day.
-Reno Evening Gazette, April 12, 1920
A lot of seven tons was shipped from the Treasure Hill Mining Company's nibe on the west slope of Lone Montain, about a mile west of the Alpine mine, to the Desert Mill at Millers.
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 7, 1925
GOLD BEING SAVED AT OLD MILLERS PLANT
For several months Bill Farris and Fred Inmann of Tonopah have been at work cleaning up tailings and other metal-bearing refuse about the mill buildings of the Tonopah Mining Company's old plant at Millers below Tonopah. They have so far shipped two cars of material to a Salt Lake smelter and the third is now ready to load, the Goldfield News reports. This marks the third time the Tonopah Mining Company's old mill at Millers have been "cleaned up."
-Reno Evening Gazette, April 29, 1939
But now it's time to close 'er down.
Three crushers at the Millers mill have been junked and are being trucked to San Bernardino Calif. by the trucking contractor T. L. Beene. His crew of men is also removing junk from the old Bradshaw mill here.
-Reno Evening Gazette, November 11, 1941
Or maybe not! There is ore to be crushed!
NEW MILLERS MILL
The Bradshaw Syndicate has almost completed a large mill at millers, near Tonopah, having purchased twelve hundred acres embracing tailings from the Tonopah mines. Part of the equipment was moved from the Goldfield tailings plant, and the cost beyond that of the plant and the acreage is said to be over $200,000. The installation is in charge of Albert Silver, and it is said to be one of the finest plants, metallurgically, in the west.
-Reno Evening Gazette. December 31, 1941
NEW OPERATORS AT MILLERS MILL
Willow Creek Co. In Now In Charge
Mark Bradshaw reports that the Bradshaw Syndicate, composed of himself and Albert Silver, having been unable to keep a full force of millmen employed at its new plant at Millers, has arranged with the Willow Creek Mining Company, in association with the Western Knapp Engineering Company, to operate the mill under a fee basis, with Walter Lyman Brown as manager.
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 25, 1942
But when the railroad quits, you know your days are numbered.
HISTORIC NEVADA RAILROAD QUITS
The Interstate Commerce Commmission today authorized the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad to abandon it 97 miles of operation between Mina and Goldfield, NEv. Traffic now available or in prospect does not warranty the large expenditures rquired to pace the line in good condition, the ICC said.
-Siskiyou Daily News, January 22, 1947
Here it is the 1950's and people are still poking around.
Key Equipment For Uranium Is Purchased By Builders
Key equipment for the uranium treatment plant to be constructed at Millers, several miles northwest of Tonopah, was purchased recently from the Condolidated Uranium Co., by the Benjamin Corp., which is building the mill unit at Millers.
-Nevada State Journal, February 10 1957
Hmmm. Uranium. Maybe we don't want to go poking around here.
EIGHT EMPLOYED AT MILLERS MILL
Payroll at the mill being constructed at Millers northwest of Tonopah was expanded to eight men last week as officials reported that work is proceeding on schedule.
-Nevada State Journal, March 6, 1957
February 16, 1921 - December 31, 1931
The remains of a recent mill-- which looks like it could go back into operation at any time-- and several older mill foundations. Plus enough debris, scrap, crap, glass, and artifacts to fill several dump trucks. Don't forget the remains of the railroad workings. This was a busy place at one time.