Ely Nevada – U.S. Highway 50

Ely, Nevada — The Ward Charcoal Ovens

The Ward Charcoal Ovens are off U.S. Highway 50, east of Ely, Nevada. They were built in 1876, and the charcoal they made was used to smelt silver ore in the nearby town of Ward (now a ghost town).

When mining in the area was at its peak, the silver smelters in Ward required 16,000 bushels of charcoal a day. Wood is the raw ingredient of charcoal, and these ovens are 30 feet high. Filling just one of them required over five acres of trees, completely stripping hills and mountains up to 35 miles away.

It all came to an end in the early 1880s, as the silver veins ran out and a substitute was found for charcoal. The ovens operated for less than a decade.

The ovens still remain, though, in Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park. They are so big you can walk inside them.

Ely, Nevada

Ely was a stagecoach stop in its early days. It became a mining town after copper was discovered nearby in 1906. Since then it has experienced the booms and busts typical of mining communities.

Copper mining has done well by Ely lately, though, giving the town enough resources for cultural developments. This little park on Route 50 in downtown Ely includes a large sculpture made, appropriately enough, from mining tipples. Tipples are used to direct something that’s mined into, say, railroad cars.

Of course, gambling is legal in Nevada. The Hotel Nevada, on Route 50, houses one of Ely’s casinos. The building is six stories high, and from the time it opened in 1929 into the 1940’s, it was the tallest building in Nevada.

Ruth, Nevada — Copper Mining

Huge mountains of waste rock loom over Ruth, Nevada, in the Robinson Mining District.

Miners have removed the rock to uncover copper ore (and that of other metals) so it can be mined, as shown in this photo of a mining pit at Robinson.

There are three Robinson District mining pits, all on Route 50 just west of Ely, Nevada. They are being worked by a Polish company, KGHM Polska Miedz, the latest of a string of owners who have come and gone as metal prices and mining technology have made ore extraction here more or less profitable.

The district is named for Thomas Robinson, a prospector who discovered gold, silver, and copper here in 1868. Gold mining was unsuccessful in the late 1800′s, and serious copper mining began in 1907. Today the district yields 120 million pounds of copper and 75,000 ounces of gold a year.

The mining industry can estimate the probable life of a mine given its current extraction rate. As of 2016, and using today’s mining technologies, Robinson is roughly halfway through its productive life.