Hamilton, Treasure City, and Shermantown: Nevada's White Pine Silver Rush

In the spring of 1868, a silver strike on a bare, wind-scoured hill in eastern Nevada set off one of the shortest and most frenzied rushes of the American West. Within a year, thousands of people — nobody counted them carefully — were living in tents, huts, and caves on the flanks of Treasure Hill, and three towns had risen along one steep mountain road: Hamilton at the base, Treasure City near the summit, and Shermantown in the canyon below with its mills. Close by sat the camp of Eberhardt, named for the mine that became the district's legend.

It is the same boom-and-bust story told at the Comstock, only farther east and far faster — see our guide to Virginia City and the Comstock Lode for the western chapter. Here we piece together what the record supports, and flag where sources disagree, which on boomtown numbers is often.

The White Pine Rush of 1868

The White Pine mining district was first organized in the fall of 1865, according to Dan M. McDonald's history of White Pine County in the 1913 History of Nevada, but it saw no real success until rich deposits turned up on Treasure Hill about two years later. The fortune lay in soft, near-surface chloride silver, sometimes called horn silver.

The most repeated discovery story involves a Native American man known as Napias Jim. By McDonald's account, he brought a piece of chloride rock to a blacksmith, A. J. Lesthers (McDonald spells it “Al Leathers”), and was persuaded to reveal where it came from — the find that became the Hidden Treasure mine. Wikipedia's account adds that the blacksmith worked a sample into a silver button, and dates the discovery to spring 1868. Details conflict: one site calls the guide “Indian Jim” and Paiute, Nevada Expeditions places the first silver in late 1867, and the state marker says 1865. Treat any single tidy date with caution.

Reported assays were staggering, from hundreds to thousands of dollars a ton. McDonald describes the multitude settling at Treasure City “in huts and caves, nine thousand feet above sea level, during the severe winter of 1868-69,” with the thermometer below zero and smallpox spreading. The state marker puts roughly 10,000 people in huts and caves at elevations between 8,000 and 10,500 feet.

Hamilton, the County Seat

Hamilton began as Cave City, a settlement that existed by May 1868 at the base of the hill; a post office opened that August. Nevada Expeditions reports about thirty residents in June 1868 and some six hundred by year's end. When White Pine County was carved out in March 1869, Hamilton became its first county seat, and it sat near 8,000 feet of elevation — high enough that winter was a serious matter.

Population is where the sources scatter. Wikipedia gives approximately 12,000 for the summer of 1869 and the official 1870 census count of 3,915; McDonald says “between ten and twelve thousand”; Nevada Expeditions describes about 10,000 “in and around” Hamilton; and Forgotten Nevada says almost 20,000. The census number is the one firm anchor; the rest are estimates of a floating, tent-dwelling crowd.

What is better documented is the infrastructure of ambition. A brick courthouse costing $55,000 was built — one source places its completion in 1869, the state marker in 1870. The White Pine Water Company reportedly spent more than $400,000 piping water from Illipah Springs. An 1871 directory quoted by Forgotten Nevada describes the J. B. Withington Hotel with a fireplace in each of its seventeen top-floor rooms, and one modern account lists dance halls, banks, two newspapers, breweries, and an opera house.

Treasure City on the Hill

Treasure City stood about two and a half miles from Hamilton, right among the mines, at roughly 9,200 feet (Wikipedia gives 9,206). It began as a camp called Tesora; the town was incorporated on March 5, 1869, and the post office took the name Treasure City that June. It had about forty stores and its own newspaper, The White Pine News, whose 1870s issues are digitized at the Library of Congress's Chronicling America.

Population claims here are again uneven. McDonald says Treasure City “reportedly” held 6,000 people; others say up to 7,000. Wikipedia says only 500 remained by 1870, while other sources place the collapse later, so the timing is unsettled. What is clear is that the town was short-lived: a fire about a year after Hamilton's burned the business district, the town was disincorporated in 1879, and the post office closed in December 1880.

Shermantown and the Mills

Ore is worth nothing until it is crushed, and the crushing happened lower down the mountain. Shermantown, first called Silver Springs in the summer of 1868, became the district's milling center at about 7,386 feet. It took the Sherman name by late 1868 and was incorporated in April 1869, with many buildings of locally quarried pink sandstone.

Accounts of its industry differ. Nevada Expeditions describes eight mills with 69 stamps, four furnaces, and two sawmills at peak, including the Eberhardt and Oasis mills. Western Mining History, by contrast, counts at least three stamp mills in operation by summer 1869. Its population is likewise disputed: up to 3,000 in several accounts, “over 1,200” by July 1869 in another, and 950 in the 1870 census as cited by Forgotten Nevada.

The town's fate was welded to the hill above it. Forgotten Nevada says about $6 million was taken out in two years, but the deposits “were shallow and played out quickly.” When the mines faltered in late 1870, the mills starved. The post office closed by 1871, and a single family lingered — the date given for the last residents ranges from 1875 to 1880. Many buildings were reportedly moved to Hamilton, particularly after its 1873 fire.

Eberhardt and the Riches of Treasure Hill

If one name carried the district's reputation, it was the Eberhardt mine on the southeast side of Treasure Hill. McDonald reports a single pocket “worth $3,200,000” taken from an opening seventy feet long and forty feet wide, no part of it more than twenty-eight feet below the surface. Other summaries say about $3,000,000, and Ghosttowns.com cites federal reports of an ore chamber whose walls and ceiling were silver. These much-retold figures cannot be independently audited today.

The settlement of Eberhardt grew around its mills and, by Ghosttowns.com's account, passed 200 people at its height. A mill fire on August 31, 1872 was followed by rebuilding in November 1873. The 1880 population is given as 170, and by 1897 only four houses and two residents remained. Ghosttowns.com dates the mine's discovery to December 1867, another sign of how loosely early dates were recorded.

One Road Up the Mountain

The three towns were less rivals than links in a single chain along one steep road. In outline, ore came down from the mines near Treasure City toward the mills at Shermantown and the commercial streets of Hamilton, while supplies, timber, and water had to be hauled or pumped uphill. A period newspaper quoted on Forgotten Nevada boasted that water raised nearly 1,800 feet to Treasure City in October 1869 reached “the highest altitude to which any water is forced on this globe.” Haulage rates and freighting routes, though, are poorly documented in the sources we could verify, so we leave them out rather than guess. For the earlier problem of crossing Nevada at all, see our stories of the old road to Virginia City and the Forty-Mile Desert and the emigrant trail.

The Bust and the Fire

The ore had been richer than it was deep. Wikipedia notes that the Treasure Hill deposits “were soon discovered to be much more limited than originally believed,” and the district's output is usually summarized at roughly $20 million for 1867–1880 (another source says $22 million through 1887). McDonald counts 199 companies at work in 1870, yet the shallow pockets were already thinning.

Fire finished what the geology started. On June 27, 1873, a blaze destroyed Hamilton's business district, with losses commonly cited at $600,000; Wikipedia puts the town at about 500 people by year's end. Atlas Obscura says the fire began when a cigar-shop worker tried to burn his shop for insurance money, but the other sources we checked specify no cause, so the popular shopkeeper-arson story should be treated as an unverified retelling. A second fire in January 1885 destroyed Hamilton's courthouse, and the county seat moved to Ely in 1887 (the marker implies the relocation followed the fire). McDonald records the final blow: by 1887, a falling silver price and exhausted surface ores meant “a general exodus of the population.”

What Remains Today

Hamilton's post office closed in 1931, and Wikipedia gives its 1940 population as 25. The site is not entirely silent: mining resumed in the 1980s, and the arched brick facade of the old Wells Fargo building remains its signature ruin. The Withington Hotel's stone front stood for decades until an earthquake felled it, and Forgotten Nevada praises a “great cemetery” among the ruins. At Treasure City, foundations and mine shafts survive; at Shermantown, a few rock walls and an ore-furnace ruin with slag; at Eberhardt, massive mill foundations. A brief 1920s revival by the Treasure Hills Deposit Mining Company reportedly yielded $1.2 million in two years before folding in 1928.

If you visit, expect a rough, high-clearance dirt road, roughly eleven miles south of U.S. Highway 50 per the state marker's description, often impassable in winter snow or after rain. Stay clear of open shafts, and leave artifacts where they lie.

At a Glance: The White Pine Silver Rush

• The White Pine district was organized in 1865, but the rich Treasure Hill chloride-silver finds came in 1867–1868, popularly credited to a Native American man called Napias Jim.
• Hamilton, near 8,000 feet, became White Pine County's first seat in 1869; its only firm count is the 1870 census of 3,915, against estimates of 10,000 to 20,000.
• Treasure City, at about 9,200 feet, held perhaps 6,000–7,000 people at its height and was disincorporated in 1879.
• Shermantown, around 7,386 feet, was the milling town; its stamp-mill count and population vary widely by source.
• The Eberhardt mine's famous pocket is reported at about $3.2 million; district output is usually put near $20 million by 1880.
• The June 27, 1873 fire destroyed Hamilton's business district (about $600,000); its cause is unverified, and an 1885 fire took the courthouse.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people really lived in Hamilton?

Nobody knows precisely. The 1870 census recorded 3,915, but summer 1869 estimates run from about 10,000 to nearly 20,000, and many of those were a transient crowd living in tents and caves. Treat the larger numbers as claims, not counts.

What is the difference between Hamilton, Treasure City, and Shermantown?

Hamilton, at the base of Treasure Hill, was the commercial town and county seat. Treasure City sat higher, among the mines. Shermantown, lower in the canyon, was where much of the ore was milled. Eberhardt, on the hill's southeast side, grew around the Eberhardt mine.

Who started the 1873 fire in Hamilton?

That is unproven. The date (June 27, 1873) and the roughly $600,000 loss are well attested, and one popular source says a cigar-shop worker set a fire for insurance money, but the other histories we checked name no cause.

Can you visit these ghost towns today?

Yes, in the warm months. Expect a rough, high-clearance road that can be impassable in snow or mud, scattered ruins at Hamilton (including the Wells Fargo facade and cemetery), and unsafe mine shafts. Check conditions locally before you go.

Conclusion

The White Pine rush is a lesson in how quickly a mountain's promise can outrun its ore. In barely a decade, a hill above 9,000 feet produced millions in silver, three towns, a courthouse, a newspaper, and a legend — and then handed the sagebrush back. What survives is mostly stone and memory, along with the objects people carried into this high country and left behind.

To bring a piece of history home from that frontier spirit, explore our curated collection at The Eclection — chosen not for their shine, but for the craftsmanship and history they carry.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study of Nevada's mining history, these institutions are reliable, non-commercial starting points:

• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — articles on Nevada's towns, counties, and mining districts.
• Nevada Historical Society — collections, research resources, and programs on Nevada history.
• Nevada State Historic Preservation Office — historic sites, markers, and preservation guidance.