2007 03 Eastern Nevada

2007 03 09 Pioche

This is the Pioche Mines Mill. It is across US93 from Pioche. Pioche is about 120 miles south of Ely in east central Nevada.

I had seen this site the last time I was in the area and searched out the current owner, who gave me permission to go in and photograph and put me in touch with the local caretaker.

The caretaker has lived in the Pioche area for essentially his entire life and knew a great deal about the area and area history. It was great to meet him and I learned a lot from him. The original mill on this site burned when the caretaker was 5 years old, and he remembers watching the fire from town. The current structure was built over the old site, and you can see that once inside.

There are very large crushers, ball mills, separators here, as well as very old redwood flotation tanks. The light in here was not the greatest today, but the caretaker was very agreeable to letting me in again. Even with the rather flat light I shot for several hours and really did not have much time for more than a few digital shots.

There are owls in here that I heard talking to each other but never saw, and a couple of times two very large ravens came in and seemed quite annoyed with me. They can make quite a racket in a large echo filled metal building.

Ore was brought to the original mill on the site from the mines up the mountain and west of Pioche. It was carried on a tram system that is still standing.

The first two shots here show the west side of the structure. I did not have time to shoot much more that this while outside.

These next six are inside - the first shows the old redwood flotation tanks. They are about 16 or 18 feet tall. Three of them have been cur apart for the redwood, which is all clear beautiful old wood. The second shot is taken immediately inside the front door to the mill. The large crusher and ball mills are to the right, the shop to the left. The third shot is also of the shop. The fourth and fifth are of the two banks of separators. The last shot is of the large ball mill. Ball mills are rotating machines that filled with ore for further crushing. A large rotating chamber containing steel balls is filled with material and rotates continuously, crushing the material very fine.

The light and shadow in here are very cool. I will go back on a sunnier day when the contrast will be higher.