Pine Grove

Discovered in 1866, Pine Grove is one of the first settlements in the area. The town grew to 600 residents and was a supply center for the region. A decrease in mining and demonetization of silver resulted in the decline of the once-thriving town. Sadly, Pine Grove became a ghost town in the 1930s.

Wilsonville

In 1866 William Wilson discovered gold in the Pine Grove Hills canyon. Within a few months, the town of Wilsonville was burgeoning. In 1868 the town name was changed to Pine Grove.

Pine Grove had 2 mines, Wilson and Wheeler. Together they produced over $8 million in bullion. Pine Grove was progressive and had rare female miners.

Pine Grove Nevada has two women miners. They are good judges of ore and are excellent miners, commanding four dollars per day.

Mohave County Miner. January 5, 1901

A booming town

Pine Grove had a population of 600 at its height. It became the supply and service center for the region. It had a newspaper, post office, a variety of shops and services, an oxen yard, livery, and 2 physicians.

Pine Grove had 3 hotels, 5 saloons, and a dance hall. The hotel pictured above originally had 2 stories. It has a large open area upstairs which could have been a dance hall or restaurant. The hotel is also shown in the bottom left corner of the historic town photo at the beginning of the article.

Pine Grove had a single-room schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was located next to a 5 stamp mill. I can’t imagine how distracting the noise must have been! There must have been a reason they close the school location, but we can only guess at this time.

The schoolhouse had 1 exterior door leading to an antechamber. From there, 2 interior doors opened into the one schoolroom. Many schoolhouses had 2 doors, 1 for boys and 1 for girls, even though they went into a single room.

Pine Grove Ruins

The town is now split into 3 sections, plus the cemetery. The first section has the rock walls of a former store and the information sign.

Rock Store

Stamp Mill and Schoolhouse

The second section has a 5-stamp mill, a schoolhouse, and the remains of a smaller rock building. The 5-stamp mill was built by Joshua Hendy Iron Works, San Fransisco.

Boarding house and livery

The third section is farthest up the canyon and has an old hotel and a workshop or livery. It appears that flash flooding filled in a portion of the hotel’s lower floor.

Across from the hotel is a building that was either a livery or workshop. People have used it for camping. Unfortunately, they have also carved up the wood and shot holes through the roof.

Pine Grove cemetery

The cemetery is a fair distance from town. It sits on top of the hill overlooking Mason Valley.

Instead of a formal layout, the Pine Grove cemetery is spread over the hilltop. Some graves have fencing or wood posts, and others are marked only by rocks. The headstones range from simple rock to beautifully engraved marble. Some headstones are still standing and in great condition after 136 years, while others are crumbling. Any wood headstones are long gone leaving unmarked graves.

I want to be an angel.

And with angels stand.

A crown upon my forehead,

A harp within my hand.

Sidney P. Gill, 95 Hymnals

The most notable grave was for 15-year-old Alice Maria Robinson. Her final request was to be an angel. Over the years, visitors have left a variety of angels, flowers, and other memorials for Alice. Many think Alice’s last request was a poem. But during research, I found the engraving was a portion of a hymn published in 1845.

The road to the cemetery is a tight, narrow shelf road. Our Dodge 3500 Quad cab would have been a tight fit, so I hiked up with my friends. It wouldn’t have been too bad if we knew where the cemetery was! We hiked all over the place as we assumed the cemetery overlooked Pine Grove.

I drove the Jeep on later trips, which had no problem navigating tight and steep the cemetery road.

The creation of a ghost town

Mining decreased in 1893 after the demonetization of silver. The mines were worked sporadically until 1918. Pine Grove’s few remaining residents left in the 1930s.

We combined our visit to Pine Grove with nearby Rockland. We had a great day with friends Robin and Aaron, exploring and enjoying the company while still “social distancing.” Cambridge is a few miles past the Pine Grove turnoff and is a fun detour.

Preservation

In early 2021, friends noticed damage at Pine Grove. People had been camping in buildings, leaving trash, and removing wood from the structures for campfires. On a chilly morning in March, members of Nevada Backroads, off-road enthusiasts, government agencies, and Pine Nut Mountains Trails Association met at the boarding house to discuss clean-up.

On May 8th, thankfully warmer than the planning day, volunteers met and removed over 300 pounds of trash.

I worked cleaning up the cemetery and placing new flowers at graves.

Surprise Call

A month after the clean-up, I had a surprise. A man in a ghost town group saw my pictures of Chinese Grave and told me about additional Chinese graves. He must have looked back in the group history; he found my pictures of the Pine Grove cleanup and asked me to call.

Out of the 30 graves where I left flowers, I shared only a few photos. One I assumed was a child’s grave; it was a small circle marked with a stuffed unicorn holding a heart. The man told me it wasn’t a grave but a memorial to his wife, who loved Pine Grove. She died unexpectedly the year before, and the unicorn was the last thing he bought her. He wasn’t sure if it had survived the weather and was so appreciative of the photo and flowers. It made both of our days, and now I have a new friend.

I check on the unicorn every time I visit Pine Grove. Last week it was moved, so I placed it back on the rock circle.

Good fences make good neighbors

Additional damage was noticed at Pine Grove; people had been driving through the cemetery and even over graves. Funding has been secured to fence the graveyard where people are driving through.

In April, I worked with a great group of people and archeologists from Las Vegas, marking the cemetery fence’s proposed location and checking the area for archeological evidence. We found a few obsidian flakes and a stone tool. No great finds like Egyptian pyramids, so the fence location is good. I learned a lot and had a fun afternoon.

If you are interested in helping preserve Pine Grove, you can join the Facebook group Friends of Pine Grove Ghost Town.

Want more ghost towns?

For information on more than three hundred ghost towns in Nevada, visit the Nevada Ghost Towns Map or a list of Nevada ghost towns.

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References

• Broman, Mickey. Nevada Ghost Town Trails. Gem Guides Book Company, 1987. Pages 26-28.
• Forgotten Nevada: Pine Grove
• Hymnary: I Want to Be an Angel
• Lincoln, Francis Church. Mining Districts and Mineral Resources of Nevada. Stanley Paher, 1982. Pages 148.
• Massey et al. Nevada Trails: Western Region. APC Publishing, 2016. Pages 239-243.
• Only in Your State: Most People Have Long Forgotten About This Vacant Ghost Town In Rural Nevada
• Paher, Stanley. Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Nevada Publications, 1970. Page 81-85.
• University Nevada Libraries: Pine Grove
• Western Mining History: Pine Grove, Nevada
• Wikipedia: Pine Grove, Nevada

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