Egan Canyon
During the 1850s, Major Howard E. Egan was a rider for George Chorpenning's mail service between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. He located the Egan Cut-off, a shorter route across Nevada, which was subsequently used by Chorpenning before the end of the decade. What became known as Egan's Canyon (or simply Egan Canyon) later became the location of a Pony Express and Overland Stage Station. Perhaps Egan Station's greatest claim to fame is its greatest tragedy: July 16, 1860, eighty renegate Natives took the stationkeeper, Mike Holten, and a Pony Express rider named Wilson hostage and raided the station. Upon approaching the station, rider William Dennis observed the situation and returned toward Ruby Valley to retrieve Lieutenant Weed and some sixty soldiers whom he had recently passed. They returned to Egan Station and killed eighteen of the renegades, freeing the two captives. The vengeful band returned in October and killed the men at the station before torching the buildings. The station was rebuilt and used until at least 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad superceded the Overland Mail Route.
Three years after the incident at Egan Station, soldiers from Fort Ruby led by Captain Tober discovered gold in Egan Canyon. In 1864 the Gold Canyon district was organized, centered on the new camp of Steptoe City, commemorating Lt. Colonel E.J. Steptoe of the US Army. Steptoe City developed into a small town with a post office, school, stores, and homes. Among the early producers was the Gilligan, discovered by John O'Dougherty in February 1864, and the Social Mining Company completed a 5-stamp mill that October to treat ore from that mine.
The post office at Steptoe City was short lived, only lasting six months before closing. By the end of 1864, the camp became known as Erina. Erina had some twenty homes of wood and adobe, and the expectation was that it would soon rival Austin and Virginia City in size. That year, twenty-five votes were cast at Erina City in the presidential election. The Washikee Company erected a second mill with ten stamps in 1865, and the name Erina gave way to Egan Canyon with the arrival of a new post office. In 1866 the two main companies (the aforementioned Social and the Steptoe Mining Co.) merged to form the Social and Steptoe Mining Co., which enlarged the ten-stamp mill to twenty stamps. By 1868 when it closed, $80,000 was produced. Activity dwindled, and with the loss of the Overland Mail Route due to the railroad, Egan Canyon emptied.
In 1872, General Rosecrans and Bart O'Connor incorporated the San Jose Mining Company, reopening several mines and beginning work on a new 20-stamp mill which would be the first completely water-powered mill in Nevada. Egan again became a town with a store, saloon, and boardinghouse, and during the 1870s more than $250,000 was spent developing the mines. Mining experienced a decline before the end of the decade, but work persisted until 1882. The San Jose Company folded the next year after producing some $400,000. The mine was reworked by the North Mountain Mining Company from 1896 into the 1920s with some success, but only leasing has occurred since, destroying much of what remained at the Egan townsite.
