Belmont Mill, Shed, Approximately 7 miles south of U.S. Route 50 on USDA Forest Service Road No. 623, Ely

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NV-46-P. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Approximately 7 miles south of U.S. Route 50 on USDA Forest Service Road No. Ely vicinity, White Pine County, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey, Seligman Canyon, Nevada, 7.5 Quadrangle Township 16 North, Range 57 East, Section 1. UTM Zone 11, Easting Northing (southwest corner of building) (NAD Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Feature No.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NV-46-P. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Tonopah Belmont Development Company was one of the most important companies created during Nevada's early twentieth-century mining boom. As ore deposits in its central Nevada mines were depleted, the company sought new claims to resurrect its fortunes. In built the Belmont Mill near Hamilton to process lead and silver ore from its recently acquired claims in the White Pine mining district of eastern Nevada. The small pilot mill employed the most recent advances in table concentration and flotation mineral processing techniques, and the company erected numerous other buildings and structures to support the mining and milling work. The site was largely abandoned by after a few years, but later owners used the mill and associated structures for smaller operations.

Today, although most of the equipment has been removed, the Belmont Mill site is one of the only intact early twentieth-century mill complexes in eastern Nevada. Importantly, many of the domestic buildings and structures remain to provide a glimpse of daily life there, including the shed. The mill complex is a tangible reminder of the decline and failure of a once-powerful company and, thereby, of the boom and bust cycle so common in the mining industry. The subsequent modification and reuse of the site for small-scale operations typifies the ceaseless hum of optimism that sustains the mining industry.

Description: The one-room shed is located on the hillside northwest of the mill A), along the access road that begins in the canyon bottom and winds up the small drainage on the north end of the site. The shed was constructed against the hillside along the roadbed about fifteen feet east of the upper boardinghouse which was also built on the roadbed and became the terminus for the graded road that originally contoured along the hillside and probably provided access to the water tank during its construction. The gable-roofed, rectangular shed measures about north to south and east to west. It has no foundation but is supported by timbers laid directly on the ground. The 2" x 4" wood-framed walls are clad in vertical corrugated metal panels with a 24"-wide exposure.

The roof is also framed with 2" x 4" lumber nailed to 2" x 4" plates, with sparse sheathing of nominal 1" x The roof is covered with corrugated metal panels. BELMONT MILL, SHED HAER No. (Page 2) The gable ends have fly rafters that are notched to rest on the protruding rafter plates while the eaves on the long sides have exposed rafter tails. A six-light, sliding wood window (all muntins and glazing missing) in the south wall is mounted to a simple wood track on the interior and has no exterior trim. The door in the west wall is missing but the doorway has a simple wood casing with no trim; the former location of triangular metal hinges is apparent on the adjacent exterior wall surface. The interior has a tongue-and- groove wood floor of boards running east to west.

There are no finishes on the walls or ceiling or any other interior features. History: See the Narrative Overview in HAER No. for a broad contextual history. The shed is an accessory building to the upper boardinghouse and is best understood in the context of that building. The west part of the upper boardinghouse may have been built by in as one of four residences originally on the site; the other three were removed by (see for further discussion). In ca. a photograph was taken facing roughly due north that provides a view of many of the mill site buildings, including a residence on the access road northwest of the mill that appears to the residence that became the upper boardinghouse (before the east addition was made). The location of the shed is blocked by the mill.

As early as Andrew Dowd, a mining engineer, and his wife Ermyl lived at the site, perhaps as employees of the owner or as unofficial lessees, and also as caretakers.1 After Andrew's death sometime after Ermyl continued to live at the site and worked as caretaker for the claimholder, Don Jennings. By the she made her home in the kitchen of the lower boardinghouse, where she also kept an upright piano; she had reportedly been a vaudeville performer in her younger days.

Beginning at this time and perhaps earlier, she rented rooms and provided meals in the boardinghouse to miners working nearby claims, a practice she continued until the mid-1970s to supplement the limited income from her own mining claims.2 In the Dowd married Carl Tillman, the caretaker for a nearby property and a man thirty years her junior. In the mid- the couple moved from the lower boardinghouse to the residence behind the mill, and it was probably at this time that they built both the east addition to the residence, the upper outhouse (NV-46-O), and the shed.

Given the size and open floor plan of the addition, it seems likely that the couple lived in the original residence and used the east addition for boarders, and the outhouse was sited just outside the addition's north door for convenience. The shed's simple framing and tongue-and-groove flooring are very similar to those used for the addition and it seems likely that the shed was built at this time. The corrugated metal panels and six-pane 1 Interviews with Hal Jensen and Hal (Rod) Jensen, 1 October Andrew Dowd was mentioned definitively in association with the Belmont mine in See L. E. Davis et al, "The Mineral Industry of Nevada," in US Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbook Area Reports. Vol. Ill (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 2 Interview with Hal (Rod) Jensen, Jr.

BELMONT MILL, SHED HAER No. (Page 3) window were probably reused from other buildings on site. The shed's size and lack of interior finishes indicate that it was most likely used as a workshop or for storage. In the late or even as late as (perhaps when the property changed hands and Jennings no longer paid a caretaker's fee), Dowd and Tillman moved to Ely, where the latter worked at the Hotel Nevada.3 The shed would have fallen into disuse at this time. The building is presently in good condition despite the loss of the door and much of the window; the most pressing concern is the hillside to the north, which has slumped into the side of the building, damaged the siding, and displaced the framing.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER NV-46-P. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

See HAER No. for complete details. In summary, this project was completed under a contract between the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and a consulting team under the direction of ajc architects (Salt Lake City, Utah), in consultation with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office. The project historian was Anne Oliver, historic preservation consultant with Oliver Conservation Group. Matt Wallace, intern architect with ajc architects, was responsible for the architectural measured drawings and completed all fieldwork and final drawings with the assistance of Oliver Smith Callis, draftsman. The photography was produced by Steve Tregeagle Photography under the direction of Steve Tregeagle and with the assistance of Heath Brown.

3 Ibid., and interview with Ronald Jordan, 29 September Tillman died in the early on the dance floor of the casino and Dowd probably died several years before that.