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Seven Troughs Nevada

It was in 1905, that Joe Therien first discovered gold was in an area now known as Seven Troughs. This discovery was quite rich and like all discoveries, set off a massive stampede of miners and prospectors who rushed into the area looking to strike it rich. It is said that assays of these quartz veins were 600 hundred dollars a ton.

It would be a year before things really got going though because this area was quite remote and there was nothing here but like most mining camps back in the day, a town sprung up quick. Things were clicking along and it is said that there were over 100 claims being worked. With all these claims being worked throughout the region, the towns of Vernon, Tunnel Camp and Mazuma were also built, however Seven Troughs was the largest of them all. Seven Troughs had few stores, a motel or two, a blacksmith, and a post office.

During the years of 1907 additional rich ore discoveries were discovered so in 1908, a mill was moved into town to start processing all the ore from these mine. This mill was a 10 stamp mill and was called the Kindergarten Mill. A few years later some miners started testing the tailings from the Kindergarten Mill and seeing gold and silver still there it was decided to build a cyanaide mill. In 1911 the Seven Troughs Coalition Mining Company was formed and built a Cyanide Plant just a few hundred feet below the mill to process what the stamp mill couldn't.

During the summer of 1912, a cloud burst caused a flashed flood and water started coming down the mountain and washed parts of the the town away. Several buildings and business's were destroyed but the worst hit town was Mazuma.Over a dozen people perished in that flood. Days later a body was discovered almost 3 miles away from where the town was located. It is said that there was a wall of water coming down the narrow valley that was over 10 feet high. Mazuma was never rebuilt and at that time, some of the people who were in Seven Troughs decided to move.

In the meantime the mill was getting ore from the tunnel camp mines but those mines were having problems of their own. The mines were being flooded and were having problems draining water from the drifts at the lower levels, so milling was hampered and production was way down. This continued on for a few years until 1917 when both the Kindergarten Mill and cyanide plant would shut down because of flooding and a lack of ore. By 1918 the post office closed and Seven Troughs became the ghost town that it is today.

From 1908 to 1917, the mines around Seven Trough produced over 2 million dollars worth of gold and silver. You can still go out to this area and see some of the old bits and pieces of what was the town and mill.









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