Ione Ghost Town In Nevada

Since I don't have anything to add for today i thought i would go back on some of my floppy disks of photos that i have never taken off . So thought i would post some of them here.Jan of 2006 on our trip back from Quartzite AZ We saw the sign to Berlin and Ichthyosaur Which turned out to be closed, Just one of those side trips we do once in awhile. But after driving for sometime we came across this sign. And decided to take the road , being that it had snowed and didn't look like it had been cleared, decided to go for it anyways. In the spring of 1863 Silver was discovered and the camp of Ione was founded in the upper part of the Shamrock canyon. It had roughly forty to fifty buildings and because it was too far off the beaten path and distant from the mines in 1864 the present town site of Ione was plotted in the lower part of the canyon. Also in 1864 the State legislature designated Ione the County Seat for Nye County. After still another rush Ione grew to around 500 population.


Milling began around 1865, first at the Pioneer Mill, but the miners were unable to supply enough ore to keep it running, so it was soon to shut down . The same year easterners erected the $130,000 twenty-stamp Knickerbocker Mill just south of town which run for ten years milling ore from nearby districts. In 1866 mining was getting poor and the ore was running out so the county seat got moved to Belmont. Ione hasn't had a rush since 1880 and the Quicksilver operations in 1920 and 1930 help some, but the town never has been deserted.

If you are ever in that area in the summer time i think it would be a great place to visit, another time for us if we get that way. Not in the winter time however, i really don't recommend doing it in a motor home in the winter