N 38°26'2.25" W118° 9'4.11"

Listed as a station on the Carson and Colorado railroad, although the town itself was almost a mile west of the tracks, near the relatively unimportant Black Butte silver mine. Paher mentions that New Boston was briefly considered as a terminus for the rail road, since it had a water tank and a good supply of water, but land speculators changed the railroad's mind and they went with Mina instead.

New Boston is a bristling little camp twelve miles south of here, which has sprung up within the past four months. It consists of three rum shops, one store, two boarding houses, blacksmith's shop, barber's shop, China wash house and ten or fifteen miners cabins. The town is still growing, but slowly, owing to the scarcity of building material. Prof. Murphy, or better known as "Metalliferous Murphy," is operating here. A 20 stamp mill is in the process of construction and is expected to be ready for action by the first of May. The company have several hundred tons of ore on the dump, and are working a force of 30 men, pushing developments and extracting ore. The people of this section of the country are sadly in need of mail facilities. A weekly mail from Wadsworth to Belleville would accommodate many hundred people in this and other localities along the route, and a strenuous effort will be made this Spring through our representatives in Congress to have the route established. All the mail received here at present is brought on freight teams, which is so very slow and uncertain that it amounts to almost no mail at all. -Gillis
-Nevada State Journal, March 3, 1878

Someone was jealous of New Boston's status...

The Belleville Times says the repot that the men employed at the New Boston mine do not get their pay is an infamous lie, started to injure the place, and furthermore, the head men are as good pay as can be found in this section, responsible in every way.
-Yerington Times, April 3, 1878

The residents really wanted a post office!

A NEW POST OFFICE WANTED
Over seventy-five adult male residents of New Boston, a town situated about twelve miles this side of Belleville, have joined in petitioning the United States postal department to establish a post office at New Boston.
-Yerington Times, August 28, 1878

They got a post office, but only very briefly.

Not quite a town, yet-- still considered a "camp."

The Candelaria True Fissure gives notice that a movement will be made to form a new county out of that part of what is now Esmeralda county lying east and southeast of Whiskey FLat, and embracing all the territory in which the towns of Marietta, Belleville, Candelaria, MEtallic City, and Columbus are situated, and also the mining camps of New Boston, Lone Mountain, Silver Peak, Montezuma, Lida Valley, Palmetto, Fish Lake Valley, and Hutche's Canyon are located.
-The Pioche Record, July 3, 1880

By 1881 New Boston had a saloon, stable, two boarding houses, and an intermittently operating quartz mill, according to the GLO plat map.

An Old Stager
He Reminds the Reporter of Good Times Twenty Years Ago
A.J. Rhodes, of the firm Rhodes & Wasson, of Belleville, went through Reno yesterday on his way to San Francisco. He is now one of the proprietors of the great salt marsh, near Belleville; has a controlling interest in the Victor mine at Candelaria, and also the New Boston mine and mill a few miles from Benton-- and the old man is as nimble as ever.
-Reno Evening Gazette, May 2, 1882

The mill at New Boston is to be started about the 20th. Ore from the Lime Point and Lucky Baldwin mines is to be worked. It is anticipated that this will be a thriving little camp before long.
-Lyon County Times, February 17, 1883

The mill ran for a while...

The New Boston mill is making a steady and satisfactory run on ore from the mine.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, March 28, 1883

The New Boston mill runs steadily as is indicated by the smoke which can be seen each day from Luning.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, April 11, 1883

B. L. McLain, brother of Engineer C. S. McLain, has been appointed foreman of the New Boston Mill. Mr. McLain is an experienced mill man and the New Boston mill will have profitable returns for its work if the metal is in the ore.
--Walker Lake Bulletin, April 25, 1883

Problems at the mill? Ol' Woodhull will get things turned around, for sure!

W. S. Woodhull, the Superintendent of the New Boston Mill in Esmeralda county, came up from below and left for the South this morning.
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 27, 1883

OK, send in McClane!

R. L. McClane, bother-in-law of R. H. Hoy, who has been spending a few weeks in Reno, went south this morning, to again take charge of the New Boston mill, in Esmeralda county.
-Reno Evening Gazette, July 28, 1883


The New Boston mill will resume work the latter part of this week or early next week.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, August 22, 1883


OK, forget about it.

Some time during last Monday night the New Boston mill took fire and burned to the ground. It was first discovered by Copper john, who saaw the smoke from a distance. It had been idle for some time, and thre being to watchman, it is suspected that some person set it on fire for spite.
-Walker Lake Bulletin, May 10, 1884

Well, with the mill burned down, the ore had to go somewhere, so...

Levi Smith, of New Boston, shipped a carload of rock to the Douglass mill this week Monday.
-Lyon County Times, June 21, 1884

Someone's going to pay

SUIT AGAINST INSURANCE COMPANIES
Charles F. McDermott has commenced suit in the Superior Court, San Francisco, against the Orient, City of London, Lion, and Washington Insurance Companies for $2,500 each, and against the South British and National Companies for $2,00 each. Plaintiff was insured in these companies on the New Boston Mill, located at New Boston, in Esmeralda county, on the line of the C. & C. Railroad, and destroyed by fire last spring.
-Weekly Nevada State Journal, September 20, 1884

At some point "New Boston" was known more for it being a station on the C&CRR than a mining camp.

The C & C R R
The excellent condition of the Carson and Colorado road bed is frequently referred to by travelers. The road has recently been put in condition for the approaching winter. Considerable work has been done at the summit of the White Mountains and in a number of places stone walls built at points where the embankments were liable to damage by being washed away. Superintendent Laws had men at work this week at New Boston laying a mile of new pipe and also putting in a new tank at the spring from which the company derives its water for use at the Station.
-Daily Appeal, November 11, 1891

By late February of 1902, Robert Stewart and W. J. Douglass had "purchased the Sodaville property from A.Lailo and MRs. Tubino." The property included "the hotel, saloon, barn, corral, water rights, etc." A month later, the Southern Pacific was reported to be building a new 20,000 gallon water tank at New Boston."
-Miineral County Nevada, Volume 2, Sue Silver

Funny how things turn out- Hawthorne is still there, New Boston is but a fond memory.

HAWTHORNE WILL BE LEFT OFF THE LINE
A large crew of men and teams were placed at work building a new grade from New Boston to the south, and when the rails are laid on the cut off Hawthorne will no longer be the main station ont he C. and C. Instead the division point will be moved to New Boston, which will probably become a city of importance.
-Reno Evening Gazette, May 11, 1905


We're into the next century and still mining!

MINA, NEVADA PLEASED WITH ITS OUTLOOK
With the old Garfield doubling it working force, rich strikes being made in the Oriol and other mines at Douglass camp, rich silver find at New Boston, the arrival of a big mill of the latest improvements for the Marietta mines, cash paid on the sale of the Silver Summit, and numerous other properties working, Mina, Nev. feels in good trim.
-Los Angeles Herald, December 16, 1907

Judge Hawthorne described this find back in the 1880's but got lost and couldn't find it again. But he remembered the then-operating New Boston Mill as a landmark.

NEW CINNABAR DISCOVERY POSSESSES MERIT
From surface indications the cinnabar discovery twelve miles north of Mina is oneof the greatest strikes reported in southern Nevada in recent years. [Judge] Hawthorne in describing the discovery stated that he could see the light of the New Boston mill from the mound. New Boston was located between Sodaville and Mina and the old mill ruins and tailings dump are plainly discernable from the district.
-Tonopah Daily Bonanza, June 21, 1913

While the mine USGS maps call the Black Butte is no longer producing sliver, it is producing data for the Southern Methodist University (despite the sign saying Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) in the form of seismic sensors placed deep inside the mine and transmitted to God-knows-where via satellite. This locale lies within the Walker Lane, a new [in relative terms] competitor to the San Andreas Fault, and may at some point be the new boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. We met the caretakers up there, who were checking the site, which they do on a regular basis. Lots of rock ruins and historical debri, some of which are on fenced land, and the owner says "There is a reason it's fenced," so behave yourself.