38.586970° -118.849478°

Not to be confused with Montello in Elko county, Montelle was a small mining camp named after a Mr. Eugene E. Dumontelle, born in France in 1851, and arriving in the United States around 1875. Coming from San Francisco, in 1900 he was living with his wife of 22 years, Jenny, in Cambridge, Esmeralda county. By that time, he had already discovered ore at his Dumontelle mine and was developing a mill and a camp, named after himself. The mine continued to be worked, either by leasers or a new owner, after he left the area sometime around 1912.

Dumontelle had already started his mine by the time 1897 rolled around.

Mr. and Mrs. Dumontelle of San Francisco have been in town several days. Mr. Dumontelle has mining interests in this county and will remain until Spring.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, January 13, 1897

"Shank's mare" is a term for "using one's own feet," eg. walking.

Thursday from the Dumontelle mine on the west side of Mt. Grant. They came overland on shank's mare, via Cottonwood, and have been employed ever since in applying sweet oil bandages to their blistered feet.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, January 5, 1898

Apparently the mine was not paying out enough to afford a horse yet.

E. Dumontelle and wife walked over from their mine, near East Walker, last Saturday, returning the next day.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, December 7, 1898

It's almost the turn of the century now, and things are beginning to progress at the Dumontelle mine.

E. Dumontelle has a party of San Francisco millwrights putting u a ten stamp mill at his mine on the east [sic] side of Mt. Grant. It is reported that he has a large ledge of ore that will pay well if worked on the ground.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, August 16, 1899

The man himself gives us an overview of his progress.

The Dumontelle Mine.
A correspondent at Montelle City, on the western slope of Mt. Grant, writes as follows:
Hearing that friends in Hawthorne and vicinity are interested in the welfare of this camp, I send a few lines to explain what we are doing. We have a new mill (two 1,000-pound stamps, with which we expect to do considerable work. Last week we received a 30-horse power engine and are only waiting to have it set up to start running. We hope to run all Winter, as we have considerable ore on hand ready to mill. At present we are preparing to put up new houses for the men, a boarding house and private residence, as well as a stable, which will be 80 feet long, as we expect to keep eight horses. We will soon have a lively camp, as we will have 12 men at work when the mill is running, and if the mine continues as good as at present we will put up a 10-stamp mill and another concentrator, as the one now in use would be hardly large enough. I must tell you about the road I have built, as it has made quite a talk, especially since so large an engine had to be hauled over it. It is a good thing I am of a persevering nature, otherwise I would have been discouraged, as everybody said the road was in no condition to haul such a heavy machine— five tons. But, alas for the disappointment of the knowing ones, it was brought up from the foot of the grade to the mine with eight horses in three hours and three quarters. That was not bad for an impassable road. Messrs. Welsh and Purcell of Yerington were the drivers, and I cannot give them too much praise for the way they did their work.
E. E. DUMONTELLE.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, October 4, 1899

Mr. Dumontelle, the hustling mining man of Montelle City, was in town this week looking for carpenters to work on the buildings he is erecting. A bunk house 30x30, a boarding house 30x30, stable 16x85, and a private residence are now being constructed, and there is plenty of mineral in sight, and an abundance of wood and water, the outlook for that section is very promising.
-Yerington Rustler, October 14, 1899

I wonder if Mr. Millsaps is still walking.

Dave Millsaps came over from Montelle City, a new camp on the western slope of Mt. Grant last Friday. He says the new mill is not yet housed in. There are about 600 tons on the dump at Dumontelle's mine waiting for the mill. Several carpenters are at work putting up boarding houses, etc. The contractors who are running a 300 foot tunnel for Frank Dunn have cut a 16-foot ledge of $15 ore. The character of the quartz is the same as at Pine Grove.
-Yerington Rustler, November 4, 1899

Get from this what you will.

Montelle City.
Antone Papa, alias the " Little Greek," came over from Dumontelle's mine last week. Asked about the mines in that district, he said: "Oh, my du no. What you call Tommy Pike he got-a de good rock—two foot a de ledge. What you call-a Dunn-a Fraukie he run-a do tun 300 feet $2 one foot. He ketch-s de ledge 90 feet. Big-a ledge--my du no—may be $10 —maybe $50—my du uo. Montelle he make-a de house, he make-a de stable, he make a de mill. He bizzy like hell. Maybe he got-a good mine —my du no. Ground verra bad-a--no pick-a, no shoot-a. Powder make de hole pot, what you call. Jimmy Wright he what you call-a Flo graft-a grapevine on sage-a-brush. Next-a year he sell-a de grape, make u de mun—my du no."
-Walker Lake Bulletin, November 8, 1899

It would seem that enough people are now living in Montelle that it deserves a post office. The post office application says about 75 people live here now.

A post office has been established at Montelle, this county. Montelle is a mining camp at the Dumontelle mine, on the westerly slope of Mt. Grant.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, June 27, 1900

A regular weekly mail line is about to be started between Pine Grove and Montelle City, a distance of twenty-eight miles, H. S. Morgan who it is reported, has the contract.
Lyon County Monitor, December 21, 1900

We're now pounding some rocks as well as digging them out.

The new five-stamp mill on the Dumontelle mine on the east [sic] side of Mt. Grant Esmeralda county is now in place and will commence crushing about June 1st. A large amount of ore is said to be exposed in the mine.
-San Francisco Chronicle, June 1, 1901

The Dumontelle mine and mill on Mt. Grant closed down last week for the winter. A fairly successful run was made this summer.
-Nevada State Journal, October 26, 1901

It's Spring, and the mine is active again.

Operations at Montelle — -- Geo. B. Webster was down from the Mount Grant country the first of this week to secure a supply of provisions. Mr. Webster and Mr. Hizchins are the parties who last Fall purchased the Pike Thomas claims in the Mount Grant district. For the past month they have been running the Dumontelle mill in that district on ore from their mine. The mine is showing up very well and the ore being worked is yielding from $4 to $6 on the prates. The ore is very heavy with sulphurets and these are being caught and will be shipped to Salt Lake. The concentrates run from $5o to $6o per ton. Several big wagon loads have been shipped to Wabuska so far and more will be hauled as back freight by the teams of the Wabuska and Bodie Transportation Company. About the first of next month a shipment of these concentrates will be sent to Salt Lake for treatment.
-Yerington Times, May 19, 1906

Everything isn't digging, milling, and working. There's time for some fun, too.

PLEASANT SOCIAL EVENT
A very sociable event took place at Montelle, or better known as the Dumontelle Milling Camp on the night of November 1. Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Gambel gave a dance to their friends at Montelle hall. Dancing was indulged in until 12 o'clock, when a supper was served by Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Dumontelle, who had done the honors of the place, after which dancing was resumed until the early hours of morn. After having partaken of an early breakfast, the party broke up, all expressing the pleasure they had derived from the event.
Those present were: Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. G. Donham, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. Lowenstein, Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Gambel, Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Dumontelle, the Misses Hattie Morgan, Nettie Laughlin, Virginia Bettencourt, Louise Fegunda, and Messrs. Gabe Lewis, Percy Morgan, Henry Fish, M. Arretch, Joe Matthews, Drew Wilson, Johns, Both and Master Lester Morgan.
-Yerington Times, November 9, 1907

Looking for a good man-- or woman-- to carry that mail! But a telephone and a good road would be nice too. The Morgan ranch is about 8 miles away to the southeast.

Who will be the man to put in a bid to carry mail from Pine Grove to Montelle post office twice a week? It would be a good contract as the stage driver would make a profit by carrying small packages over the route to and from Montelle.
-Yerington Times, September 19, 1908

MT. GRANT DISTRICT
Everybody here is very busy, doing their annual assessment work and many good mines are in sight and next year will see many producing mines in this district.
Mr. Dumontelle, the post master at this point, is painting everything red with a mineral paint mine that crops out on his ground near the mill. He says he will build a telephone line from here to the Morgan ranch on the East Walker River next summer. It would be very beneficial to every one in the district.
But what is now most needed is to complete the wagon road from Cotton Creek to Yerington through Wheeler Pass Canon via Chipmunk Springs and Wheeler mine and mill to the City of Yerington, so that winter supplies can be brought in easily and quickly to this district. We have a good man here to put it through; a man who has had wide experience in all kinds of excavating for roads and mills and he will do a good job. T. B. Gambel is our man to do the work so let us get busy at once.
-Yerington Times, September 19, 1908

Mrs. Dumontelle is now the mail carrier from Montelle to Pine Grove. The regular carrier is working in Rockland. Mrs. Dumontelle's horse concluded to turn out of the road and pushed the wheel of the cart so hard on a big rock that it smashed all to pieces, consequently she had to walk to the Morgan Ranch.
-Yerington Times, October 29, 1910

Ol' Eugene is still plugging away at that mine.

Mr. & Mrs. Dumontelle are making numerous repairs to their home at Montelle and evidently mean to stay at the camp.
-Yerington Times, June 17, 1911

Things are getting quieter in Montelle now.

POSTOFFICE CHANGES
The Special mail service that has been in vogue between Pine Grove and Montelle, Mineral County, Nevada, has been ordered by the Post Office Department discontinued.
-Daily Appeal, November 22, 1911

Looks like Mr. Montelle was not only working as a miner in Aurora, he had business interests in there as well.

FOR SALE - A BARGAIN
A meat market in the best town in Nevada, on the Main street and doing a good business with splendid profits. Building 20x40 feet and well furnished. Also one slaughter house, cattle sheep, and hog corrals, water wagon, two horses, saddle, harness, etc. For further particulars call on or address Eugene E.Dummontelle, Aurora, Mineral County, Nevada.
-Yerington Times, October 17, 1914

Mr. Dumontelle died October 23, 1915. His death certificate lists him as a widower, but there is some evidence that Mrs. Dumontelle was still alive until October 3, 1934 (aged 85–86) in San Francisco, and was buried in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Colma, San Mateo County, California.

Eugene Dumontelle, a miner employed at Aurora, was brought down from there to the Mason hospital several days ago, in a dying condition from typhoid pneumonia and passed away last evening. The remains are now at Phipps undertaking parlors awaiting advice from San Francisco. Deceased was without relative in this vicinity, but gave the name of a friend in San Francisco, to whom the undertaker has wired for instructions. Dumonetelle was a native of France, and before passing away made a dying request that notice of his death be published in San Francisco papers that go to his native country.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, October 30, 1915


While there is no known graveyard in Montelle, it's quite possible that the body of Dan Doran lay somewhere close by.

A Ghastly Spectacle.
On November 29th the Hawthorne coroner was called to the Dumontelle mill to hold an inquest on the body of Daniel Doran, who was found dead at that place the day before by Alex Cameron of Yerington.
The body of Doran was found in a reclining. position on his bed. An automatic shotgun was found placed between his legs, one of his hands on the trigger guard. The left eye and left side of his face were blown away. Death must have been instantaneous. That the tragedy was caused by Doran himself there is no doubt, and the jury found that he had committed suicide. When Mr. Cameron—who was Doran's mining partner–reached the cabin he found the door locked, and heard a dog barking inside. He broke open the door and found Doran dead as above described. The bed clothes and cabin walls were covered with blood. The jury found that Doran had been dead about six days. The body was frozen and no decomposition had set in.
Owing to the mutilated condition of the body and the almost inaccessible place where it was found, it was deemed best to have the remains buried near the mill.
A Luckyboy Miners' Union card, dated 1909, and also a Yerington Miners' Union card, dated the same year, were found among his effects.
Doran was a native of Nevada apparently 45 years of age.
His brother in San Francisco was notified and will probably remove the remains to that city for internment.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, December 2, 1916

Montelle is snuggled in the shadow of Mount Grant on the western side. Be advised this land is the same land upon which sits the U.S. Army's Hawthorne Army Depot - Joint Munitions Command. That's a military base. One does not go poking willy-nilly around a military base without letting them know you're going to be poking around. Well, not more than once, probably.

We began our odyssey by completing the required background check forms and inform them our plans. Once approved, we went down to the base to announce our intentions and complete the "Mount Grant Form." It was then we were handed a key to the gate on Cottonwood Rd., advised which lock it unlocked, and told to bring the key back before the office closed that day.

The road wasn't too bad, but once we made the turnoff to Montelle it got worse. Clearly, people don't use this road very often. Didn't see any evidence of a mill or any other structures, but there are lots of trees up there so it could have been hidden.

Interestingly, when we returned to give back the key, some Karen dressed in civilian clothes who was leaving the base saw out trailer with ATV's and apparently wanted to inform us that we could not ride them. I have no idea who she was or what she thought we were doing or where we were. Clearly, she was unaware that we were the Forgotten Nevada Exploration Team, and could be inflluencers if we wanted to. She was waiting for us when we returned the keys, and the guard explained what she wanted, but I told him "Too bad, we were already up there." Don't know who she was or what her problem was, and don't really care.

Not much left at Montelle It looks like there was a rather large bunk house, given the number of bedsprings within the wreckage, but it has been flattened by gravity. A small house still stands. The mine is up the road a piece. There are several structures up the road before you get to the site, one of which is possibly the Millich Ranch..