Six Mile Canyon

Nevada's Hills of Gold

A drive along Six Mile Canyon on a nice fall day is a voyage back into the past to where the first mining in Nevada started.

 

The paved Six Mile Canyon road is off Highway 50, just before Dayton and winds through colorful green lichen covered rock formations with tall cottonwood trees along the way, to terminate in Virginia City.

Today, there is only a remnant of the stream that once flowed through the canyon where in 1859 the miners Peter O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin  enlarged to create more water for their gold panning and discovered a black, crumbly rock laced with gold.  When the news spread about the strike, Henry Comstock, e.g. the Comstock Lode also claimed rights, so to avoid any disputes they all became partners.

As the word spread, more gold prospectors began to come and in a few years Virginia City and the other Comstock boomtowns led to the establishment of Nevada's statehood in 1864. 

The stone and concrete ruins are all that remains of Butters Mill, a large cyanide operation that was in production in 1902.

Sugarloaf towers against the rolling hills that are lined with sagebrush and piñon pine. Located within the Flowery Range, it is a volcanic plug with an elevation around 6,581 feet, 2005.8888 meters.

For additional information:
http://nevada-history.org/mines.html

Photographs Make Great Gifts

With my Nikon and tripod, my goal is to recreate the scene as it appears in nature, to preserve in a photographic image the awesome, yet simplistic beauty of the scene that waits around a bend or over a hill. Sometimes it's a colorful landscape, and many times I'm allowed in the presence of the numerous creatures that adapt to life in the wild. 

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"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"