Surprise Stamp Mill, Nevada

Nevada has many remaining surprises for the backroads traveler. Great Basin Exploring stumbled across an almost unknown 5-stamp mill during his travels and shared the rare find with me.

Ghost Towning

Jared, Great Basin Exploring, and I have a running joke that someday he will tell me about a site I haven’t visited. Of course, it is a half-joke as he has been in many places I haven’t. When he told me we would see a Nevada stamp mill, I thought it would be a shell destroyed by time and people.

But, boy, did he hit this one out of the park! It wasn’t even on my radar.

Surprise!

We seemed to drive forever, taking backroads into the middle of nowhere, Nevada. The roads weren’t bad, but they seemed neverending. Finally, Jared radioed, asking if I was starting to wonder where on earth he was taking me. I told him no; I was sure he was taking me someplace cool. But, truth be told, I was starting to wonder just a little.

The ruins appeared to be a lean-to or shelter or shop from the top. However, I was shocked as we walked down the road and rounded a corner to find an intact five stamp-mill. It is the only complete stamp mill I have seen other than at a museum or secure site like Donovan Mill.

(I will not be using the mill’s official name or mining district to protect this rare piece of Nevada history.)

Surprise Stamp Mill

Little information is available on the history of the Surprise stamp mill. A few atlases note the location, but not the name. The mining district was created in the early 1900s, and commodities included copper, gold, silver, lead, tungsten, antimony, and gypsum.

Surprise mine consisted of a 400′ deep tunnel. The ore ledge was approximately three and a half feet wide and mainly consisted of milling ore with the occasional deposit of high-grade ore. Prospectors believed the mine contained one hundred tons of mill grade ore in addition to amounts of the high-grade ore.

Miners first used the Suprise stamp mill in the early 1900s. It is unknown how many times the mill passed ownership, but one owner worked the stamp mill between 1934 and 1936. He used the amalgamation process then made monthly shipments to the mint in Reno. The mine produced primarily gold and silver.

The owner of Surprise Mill was introduced to prospective buyers in 1936 by a Reno mining engineer. The new owners enlarged the mill to process forty tons of ore a day. They improved the water system, roads, and mining camp. They had plans for further development and gave their full attention to the mine.

Governmental and mining district reports contain extensive information, including mines workings, orebodies, geology, commodities, ore processing, and financial production. Surprise Mill has no such reports, leading me to believe it was not a profitable venture.

The following reference to the Surprise stamp mill was in the 1960s when a local hunt club wanted to create a watering hole for chukar hunting. They discovered the water pipe linking the mill and a spring half a mile uphill. After securing Surprise Mill owners’ permission, they tapped into the waterline, believing the spring would provide water for the game throughout the year.

STAMP MILLS

In 1883 the Sawyer Act outlawed hydraulic mining, and stamp mills became popular. Stamp mills have wood or metal beams that crush the ore. Each beam is a “stamp” lifted by cams on a horizontal rotating shaft. Stamp mills were often located on a hillside as they relied on gravity. As raw ore descended through the mill, stamps crushed it into smaller pieces of ore which were treated with cyanide or mercury. Freighting unprocessed ore could be cost-prohibitive; the milling process could increase the value of the shipping weight four to six times.

Ruins

Surprise stamp mill is a 5-stamp mill built by Angels Iron Works, Stockton California in 1906. In the 1930s a hopper was added to increase production.

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

• The Diggings: Surprise Mine and Mill
• Lincoln, Francis Church. Mining Districts and Mineral Rescouces of Nevada. Nevada Publications, 1982.
• Mackay School of Mines, UNR: Mining District of Nevada
• Mines Database: Surprise Mine
• Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology: Mining Districts of Nevada
• Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology: Minng Districts of Nevada Map
• Newspapers.com: Water Trough for Game Installed by Sportsmen
• Not Your Domain: Nevada Mining Districs
• Reno Gazette-Journal. Deal is Pending on Surprise Mine Property. July4, 1936. Page 7
• Western Mining History: Surprise Mine and Mill

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