Aura
Earlier worked from the 1860s through the 1880s, the Bull Run district experienced a revival beginning in 1905. A new town called Aura was laid out in March 1906, roughly two miles below the earlier Columbia. Rather than acting as a mining camp, Aura functioned as a supply center, becoming a stop on a stage line between Tuscarora and Mountain City. By early 1907, a population of 150 supported two stores, two boarding houses, a saloon, post office, and school.
Ten years later, mining had largely subsided and Aura faded. Only leasing was done in the area by 1920, and when the post office closed in 1921 no businesses remained open. The Aura school was shut down in 1927, and only a few walls of the old Aura Saloon remain at the site today.
