Seven Troughs Mining District

Seven Troughs Mining District. . , The Seven Troughs Mining District is located at the western slope of the Seven Troughs Mountain Range, just west of Lovelock. The name of the range and mining district comes from the seven water troughs built by a local sheep rancher, Frank M. Ward in 1984 to water his sheep. Large deposits of silver and gold were found in the area in 1905. In 1906 and 1907 other valuable minerals led to the formation of the Seven Troughs Mining District. Historic production from 1907-1955 was 158,468 oz. gold grading 35.6 g/t and 995,876 oz. of silver grading 223.9 g/t. Joe Therian, the local blacksmith was given credit for the first discovery of gold and silver ore within the district. Louise A. Friedman was the dominant figure in the Seven Troughs Mining District along with William Stauts, who located nine claims along the sides of the canyon. These claims would later become part of the Seven Troughs Therian Gold Mines Company. The three most northerly claims were purchased by the Mazuma Hills Extension Mining Company. Around this time O.T. Owens and Frank Crumpacker made another discovery just the south and later consolidated with Therian. The district consisted of four major town sites. Coming from Lovelock, Vernon was the first. This once active town had a post office and provided mail service to the area. The remains of the original jail house are still visable. Mazuma was the next town located at the mouth of the Seven Troughs Canyon. On July 18, 1912 the town was all but washed away and 11 people died during the flood. E.H. Bennet gave the following description, "the torrent rushed down the canyon playing havoc with everything it touched until it reached the head of Main Street. At the bend just above Preston's Store it came upon the home of the Kehoe's. The children were in the road playing in front of the house along with Perry Gillespe, the son of Mr. Gillespie, manager of the Darby Ore Reduction Company. Mrs. Kehoe and the children were all caught by the flood, and but one remains to tell the story." Five miles north lies Farrel named after Jack Farrel who made a supposedly unbelievable strike near the town site. At the top of the canyon lies the town of Seven Troughs, in 1907 town lots were being sold for $250 to 500.00. There are also encampments such as Tunnel Camp, which was established during the latter part of 1926 when work effort ramped up to dig the 11,900 ft "deep" tunnel. Halfway House was built in 1906 and was the halfway point between Vernon and Lovelock. There are several small operations still pulling minerals and precious metals from other mine sites in the Seven Troughs Mining District today., E Clampus Vitus Jesse Lee Reno 1422 Outpost of Lucinda Jane Saunders 1881 , Dedicated April 6th, 2019 6024