Broken Hills, Nevada: The Silver-Lead Camp Two Englishmen Staked in 1913

In the high desert of west-central Nevada, in the range of hills that gave it its name, there is a ghost town called Broken Hills. It was one of the last discoveries of the great Nevada mining rushes: silver-lead ore found in 1913 by two English prospectors, Joseph Arthur and James Stratford, who then held the best ground so firmly that the rush it might have become never quite arrived. For a few years in the middle of the 1910s a few hundred people lived here, hauling water by the barrel from the next valley over. By the 1940 census there were twelve, and in 1952 the last long-time resident, Maury Stromer, walked away from his shaft.

A word on sourcing, because the record is thin and the sources do not always agree. Broken Hills is most often placed in Mineral County, with some older references putting it in Churchill County, and the Nevada Historical Society's photograph record notes that the Broken Hills district runs into parts of Churchill, Mineral and Nye counties. The ore was silver-lead, with only minor gold. We lean here on the Wikipedia entry and its references, Nevada Expeditions, Forgotten Nevada, Destination 4x4, Western Mining History and a regional ghost-town site, and we flag where they differ. This is history told from the archive, not a travel suggestion.

A Strike in the Spring of 1913

Two prospectors, James Stratford and Joseph Arthur, located silver-lead ore here in 1913. One account puts the strike at about April of that year. Both men are described as Englishmen, and their names turn up in a fog of spellings (Aurthur, Statford, Strathford), which is the usual sign of a camp that was written about more by passing visitors than by its own residents. Estimates of the first crowd vary: one local history speaks of some 25 to 50 men in the first season.

Word of a new Nevada strike drew miners quickly. According to the Wikipedia account, the rush of the following six months was halted when it became clear that Arthur and Stratford had already claimed the most promising sites. One ghost-town writer calls Broken Hills one of the last discoveries of the big Nevada rushes, and it is an apt description: the country had been thoroughly walked over by then, and the partners kept a tight hold on what they had found.

It is often assumed that the camp was named for the great Broken Hill of New South Wales, Australia, a plausible guess for a camp found by two Englishmen. We could not confirm that in any of the sources we consulted. One source simply ties the name to the local range of broken hills, and the Australian mine is spelled in the singular. Treat the Australian connection as an unproven tradition.

The Camp and Its Mines

From 1913 to 1920 Broken Hills was, in the words of Nevada Expeditions, primarily an operation of two men. The main property was the Broken Hills mine; the Western Mining History record describes an underground epithermal silver-lead vein in andesite, with rich silver pockets running to as much as 100 ounces to the ton, a Broken Hills shaft some 600 feet deep, and a second, the Belmont shaft, of several hundred feet. Other claims, among them an Illinois mine and a “30-30” group later renamed Belmont Extension, appear in the local histories. Two carloads shipped in 1916 are said to have brought $70 a ton.

There was no mill at the camp. Ore was hauled about twelve miles to Bruner's 50-ton mill at Phonolite. Water was the larger problem: it came from Lodi Valley, roughly ten miles away by one account and ten to fourteen by another, and sources quote the cost as 8 cents a gallon or $2.50 a barrel, a serious expense for a small mine. By the Wikipedia count, the partners took out only about $68,000 in the seven years to 1920.

At its height, from 1915 to 1920, the town is said to have had a few hundred residents, with stores, a hotel, saloons and a school. That figure sits awkwardly with the 25-to-50 men of the early days and with later census counts, so we take “a few hundred” as the best-case peak rather than a settled number. A post office opened on December 1, 1920, and closed on October 15, 1921. For a view of other desert camps that rose and fell in the same cycle, see our pieces on the silver boomtown of Aurora and the mining camp at Jessup.

A Promoter, a Prospector and a Holdout

In 1920 Arthur and Stratford sold their claims to the stock promoter George Graham Rice (1870 to 1943, born Jacob Simon Herzig), who organized the Broken Hills Silver Corporation and sold shares in it. Rice's biography is a long one: it includes several convictions for fraud and larceny, and Broken Hills is named among the Nevada ventures he promoted. By the Wikipedia account, the company spent about $75,000 and recovered only about $7,000 in ore before it failed. Western Mining History records the figures differently, crediting the Broken Hills Silver Corporation with about $75,000 of output and later lessees with $15,000, for roughly $90,000 in all from the mine. Accounts differ, and we cannot say which tally is correct.

The 1926 rush to nearby Quartz Mountain brought a second life to the camp, and with it a sad small story. Matt Costello, a prospector, sold a claim for about $1,500 and was found dead shortly afterward, at his kitchen table by one telling and at his cabin by another. The townspeople are said to have given him a funeral and bought him a headstone and an iron fence, and the grave is still there.

The last of the old-timers was Maury Stromer, remembered in Nell Murbarger's 1956 book Ghosts of the Glory Trail. As Murbarger tells it, Stromer in 1950, “a very old man,” was still climbing down 140 feet into his shaft and hauling 350 pounds of ore back to the top. He left Broken Hills in 1952.

Decline and a Brief Second Wind

A silver rush to the Quartz Mountains in 1926 prompted the post office and a few stores to reopen; the second post office ran from June 16, 1926, to February 28, 1935. In 1936 a group called George M. Lerchen and Associates relocated the old Broken Hills property with four unpatented claims, according to the Western Mining History record. The Wikipedia entry puts production in the years from 1935 to 1940 at about $180,000; that is a district figure, and it should not be added to the mine totals above. A 1948 incorporation, the Broken Hills Mining and Milling Company, aimed to build a mill near Gabbs and, as far as we can tell, never did.

The census shows the rest. The population was under 20 in 1930, and 12 in 1940. Stromer left in 1952, and one source says only minor work was done at the site as recently as the 1980s.

What Remains Today

Broken Hills is a ghost town on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Visitors' accounts describe mine shafts and headframes, small outbuildings, tailings and scattered mining debris, and weathered wooden shacks of the kind the Nevada Historical Society photographed on Broken Hills Mountain. The grave of Matt Costello, iron fence and all, is among the best-known remnants; his cabin is gone.

It is an old mining district, and the shafts that Arthur, Stratford and Stromer worked are deep. We mention the site only as the documented setting of this history, not as a destination. If you travel in this country, stay out of and away from open workings, go prepared, and leave everything where it lies.

At a Glance: Broken Hills, Nevada

• Silver-lead ore was found in 1913 by two English prospectors, Joseph Arthur and James Stratford, in the Broken Hills district of west-central Nevada.
• Most sources place the camp in Mineral County; some older references say Churchill, and the district reaches into parts of Churchill, Mineral and Nye counties.
• The partners worked the claims themselves from 1913 to 1920, taking out about $68,000, and shipped ore about twelve miles to Bruner's 50-ton mill at Phonolite.
• Water came from Lodi Valley, about ten miles away, at as much as $2.50 a barrel.
• In 1920 the claims went to the promoter George Graham Rice. Accounts differ on what his company produced, from about $7,000 to about $75,000.
• A post office operated from 1920 to 1921 and again from 1926 to 1935. The population was under 20 in 1930 and 12 in 1940.
• The last long-time resident, Maury Stromer, left in 1952. Shafts, headframes, debris and Matt Costello's grave remain.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Broken Hills, Nevada?

In the Gabbs Valley country of west-central Nevada, at roughly 39 degrees 3 minutes north and 118 degrees west, at an elevation of about 5,370 feet. Most sources list it in Mineral County, though some older references say Churchill County.

Who discovered Broken Hills?

Two English prospectors, Joseph Arthur and James Stratford, who found silver-lead ore in 1913. Their names appear in several spellings in the sources.

Was Broken Hills named after Broken Hill, Australia?

It is a common assumption, but none of the sources we consulted confirm it. One ties the name to the local range of hills. We treat the Australian link as unproven.

Is there anything left of the town?

Accounts describe mine shafts and headframes, small outbuildings, tailings and debris, along with Matt Costello's grave and its iron fence. The land is public and the old workings are dangerous, so this is a history to read, not a place we recommend visiting.

Conclusion

Broken Hills never became a Tonopah or a Goldfield. It was a two-man mine at the end of a long water haul, briefly noticed by a Wall Street promoter and then forgotten, and what it left behind is mostly shafts, a headframe and a grave with an iron fence. That is also why it is worth writing down: most of the real Nevada mining story is made of places like this, small, hard and almost undocumented.

We are always talking about Nevada's back-country history at The Eclection. To bring a piece of the old desert era home, explore our curated collection at The Eclection.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study, these are reliable, non-commercial starting points:

• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — articles on Nevada history, people, and places.
• Nevada Historical Society — the state museum and research library for Nevada history.
• Bureau of Land Management, Nevada — the agency that administers much of the public land in the old mining districts.

Hero photograph: State Route 361 near Gabbs, Nevada, by Ken Lund, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0. The photograph shows the highway in the region, not the Broken Hills site itself.