Belmont Mill

View of the uphill side of the mill. Note the diagonal cross-braces installed by the Forest Service to stabilize the structure. The tramway comes in from the right. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Belmont Mill seen from the north. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

The box of rocks is the tensioning weight for the tramway cable. This was a simple way of putting a large weight on the cable, rock by rock. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View into one of the old ancillary buildings, perhaps a bunkhouse. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Another ancillary building, perhaps a bunkhouse. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

North side of the Belmont Mill. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View inside the mill from the north. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Oblique view of the north side of the mill. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View into the mill from the south. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Oblique view of the south side of the mill. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Auxiliary building on the north side, probably the mill office. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

View of the mill from the east. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Belmont Mill. Note the tramway cables at the left. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

Auxiliary buildings on the south side, bunkhouses or mess hall. slgwv (Atlas Obscura User)

After the swift exhaustion of the bonanza ores at Hamilton, there was only desultory activity in the White Pine Mining District for some decades.

Base metals occur in a wide zone around the precious metal deposits, however, and by the early 20th century they were becoming of interest. The Tonopah-Belmont Development Company built the (then) state-of-the-art Belmont Mill in 1926 to process lead-silver ores brought down by tramway. Ore-processing mills like this are traditionally built on a slope so that ore can be moved through the operations by gravity. The mill became the first to operate in the district since 1892, but shut down in January 1927 due to falling prices and unexpected difficulties in the ore processing.

Over the next decades, several attempts were made to re-activate the mine, but they were mostly unsuccessful with the exception of production during World War II. By the mid-1960s, the operation was abandoned. The US Forest Service acquired the property in the early 2000s and began managing it as a historic site. By this time, the structure was at the point of collapse, so one of the first priorities was to stabilize it by installing diagonal bracing. This took place in 2012 and has so far been successful.

Know Before You Go

Turn south on White Pine Co. Rd. 5 off US 50. The intersection is at 39.394300 N, 115.525837 W, and should be signed for Belmont Mill. Follow this road for 3.4 miles, where you then bear left at a shallow intersection onto County Rd. 9.

About 2.2 miles along with Co. Rd. 9 there will be a signed intersection for "Hamilton" on the left. Do NOT turn here but continue straight on Co. Rd. 9 (which becomes USFS 623 at the National Forest boundary). About 5.8 miles from the shallow intersection the Belmont Mill will appear on the right.

There are no fences or entry fees, but please be respectful. Despite the new bracing, too, it's not advisable to enter the structure.

Belmont Mill should not be confused with the town of Belmont which is about 85 miles southwest.