Lucky Boy, Nevada

The road joining Hawthorne to Bodie washed out due to heavy rainfall in 1906. The Bodie-Hawthorne road was crucial to transporting items over the Wassuk Range between booming Bodie and the Carson & Colorado Railroad station in Hawthorne.

Two workmen were repairing road washouts discovered a ledge of promising ore containing silver and lead. Despite primitive conditions, these “lucky boys” periodically worked the claim for two years but forfeited their discovery to a store in Hawthorne to discharge their debts.

Lucky Boy Attracting Attention of Fortune Seekers

Headline, Reno Evening Gazette, April 24, 1909

New owners leased the Lucky Boy Mine to Chicago Explorations Company in mid 1908. Soon after, additional ore veins were discovered. By 1909, miners flooded the area and a post office opened on March 19th. By April, the new town contained 200 residents, multiple retail businesses, two newspapers and a union hall.

The road connecting Bodie to the railroad was well traveled. Lucky Boy is located midway up a steep grade and stage travel was sometimes dangerous:

One man lies at the point of death and several others injured as the result of a hair-raising ride taken in the Bodie-Thorne stage near Lucky Boy, Nevada, last evening. When the six spirited horses took fright on the Bodie grade desert and dragged the passengers down a steep grade at lightning speed.

Deseret News, October 15, 1909

The population of Lucky Boy reached 800 by the 1910 census. Ore ledges played out rapidly and by 1912-1913 only a few residents remained. The Post Office closed on October 31, 1913, ironically the day Nevada celebrates statehood.

Lucky Boy had several revivals as miners found new ore deposits. In 1923, a new mill was built at the base of the Wassuk range. Construction costs exceeded the equivalent of $3 million in 2020. After less than three years it closed due to declining metal market prices.

In 1938, a 31 ton car of silver ore shipped to a smelter in Salt Lake City. The ore included eleven tons of high grade ore mined by ten men working two lease blocks 550′ feet down the mine.

Noted Lucky Boy Property Makes it’s First Shipment after Idleness of 12 years.

September 24, 1938 Reno-Gazette Journal

Champion City Mines, Inc. owned and operated the Lucky Boy Mines four years prior to the start of WWII. When America entered the war in December 1941, the mine partially closed due to wartime restrictions. A small staff remained, opening an additional 1,000 feet of tunnel and placing ore in chutes to await processing. They maintained machinery and facilities in preparation for reopening at the end of the war.

Champion City Co. Planning to Reopen Lucky Boy Mine

November 1, 1945 Nevada State Journal

In 1945, company executives toured and inspected Lucky Boy Mine and Mill. To better justify reopening the mill, they accepted ore for custom milling from other mines. For a few years, Lucky Boy was lucky again.

The ore played out in the 1950s and the company disassembled and removed the mill, ending operations. The abandoned site of Lucky Boy began its last descent, slowly fading into the desert like other mining communities in the area.

Little remains of where so many worked so hard to realize their hopes and dreams. Today, off road drivers travel over Lucky Boy Pass, few having heard of a once thriving town on the grade.

• 

• 

Terraced ledges and foundations are scattered over the slopes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I visited Lucky Boy with Aurora expert, Richard. He has spent years exploring and researching the area and was a wonderful guide. We also visited Aurora, Fletcher, Sunshine Station, Bodie Canyon and multiple mill sites. It was a 16 hour day requiring two hot beverages, a Maverik breakfast burrito and a large bottle of ibuprofen.

• 

• 

• 

Visited 9-11-2020

---

References

• The Diggings: Lucky Boy Mine West
• Ghost Towns: Hawthorne
• High Desert Drifters: Lucky Boy Pass, Nevada
• Paher, Stanley. Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Nevada Publications, 1970. Pages 464-465.
• Silver, Sue. Mineral County, Nevada: Volume 1, Mining Camps, Towns & Places (1860-1900). Museum Associates of Mineral County, 2011. Pages 70, 123, 133, 148, 154, 158, 160.
• Western Mining History: Lucky Boy
• Wikipedia: Lucky Boy, Nevada

Follow me on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•