Osceola 1872 1940
White Pine County, White Pine County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Osceola 1872 1940. Osceola, most famous of the White Pine County gold producers, was one of the longest-lived placer camps in Nevada.The gold-bearing quartz belt found in 1872 was 12 miles long by 7 miles wide. Placer gold was found in 1877 in a deep ravine indenting the area. Miners first used the simple process of the common 49” rocker. Hydraulic monitors later were used to mine the gold from the 10’ to 200’ thick gravel beds. One gold nugget found was valued at $6,000.Osceola was a good business town because of its location near the cattle and grain ranches and gardens in the Spring and Snake Valleys.Famous district mines were the Cumberland, Osceola, Crescent and Eagle, Verde, Stem-Winder, Guilded Age, Grandfather Snide, Red Monster, and the Saturday Night.The camp produced nearly $5 million, primarily in gold, with some silver, lead, and tungsten.
Erected by Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The Story
Discovered in 1872, Osceola sat atop a gold-bearing quartz belt miles across, and after placer gold turned up in 1877 it became one of Nevada's longest-lived placer camps. Miners began with the humble hand rocker and graduated to hydraulic monitors that washed gold from gravel beds up to two hundred feet thick, once turning up a single nugget valued at six thousand dollars. Its position near the ranches and gardens of the Spring and Snake Valleys made it a solid business town, and its mines yielded close to five million dollars in gold with some silver, lead, and tungsten.
Why it matters
Osceola illustrates how mining and agriculture reinforced one another on the Great Basin frontier, with nearby ranches and farms giving a remote gold camp the staying power that pure boomtowns lacked.
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