Belmont
The first silver discoveries in the Philadelphia or Silver Bend district were made by an Indian in 1865. The following year brought miners from Austin, Ione, and other mining camps to the newly created Belmont and a ten-stamp mill was built. Belmont had access to ample wood, water, rock, and clay - not common among Nevada mining camps - and the townspeople built substantial brick and wood frame buildings. In February 1867, Belmont became the seat of Nye County. Belmont was a bustling community, with a bank, a school, telegraph, a post office, a plethora of stores and shops, and competing newspapers; the Silver Bend Reporter and Mountain Champion.
Belmont's remoteness proved to be a difficulty. Delivery and freight to and from Austin was costly, and despite being one of Nevada's most important towns, many of Belmont's 2000 residents left for the White Pine district in 1868 and 1869. For four years, Belmont experienced a lull in development. In 1873, new rich discoveries were made and the 1860s mills were reopened. In February 1874, the Courier began publication and once again Belmont was thriving. In 1876, a handsome new brick courthouse was erected.
Belmont continued to produce until 1887, when after over $15 million the mines were closed. Only a few residents and businesses remained by 1900, and in 1905 Tonopah took the county seat. Some work was done on old tailings in 1907-08, and from 1914 until 1917 milling from the Monitor-Belmont Mining Company was done at the Cameron Mill in East Belmont.
Today, Belmont is a charming community and still home to a small but stable population. The entire town was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Belmont's crown jewel is the old Nye County Courthouse, completed in 1876 and currently undergoing restoration by the Friends of the Belmont Courthouse. Impressive ruins of the Monitor-Belmont, Combination, and Cameron mills can be found on their own page.
