Bonnie Claire, Nevada

Bonnie Claire
Ghost town
Abandoned bunkhouse at the Bonnie Claire Mine; ruins of the mine shaft head in the background.
Abandoned bunkhouse at the Bonnie Claire Mine; ruins of the mine shaft head in the background.
Bonnie Claire is located in Nevada
Bonnie Claire
Bonnie Claire
Coordinates: 37°13′36″N 117°07′15″W / 37.22667°N 117.12083°W / 37.22667; -117.12083[1]
CountryUnited States
CountyNye
StateNevada
Elevation
[1]
3,980 ft (1,213 m)
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST)PDT (UTC-7)
GNIS feature ID863886[1]

Bonnie Claire is a ghost town located in Nye County, Nevada.[1] The settlement is located on the edge of Sarcobatus Flat adjacent to Nevada State Route 267. The mines of Slate Ridge lie to the northwest and the northernmost spur of the Amargosa Range, the Grapevine Mountains, is just to the south of the townsite. Bonnie Claire Flat extends to the southwest between the Slate Ridge and the Grapevines to the California border.[2]

History

The town had its beginnings in 1906 to support the gold mines in the Slate Ridge area. It replaced an earlier camp known as Thorp's Wells which had started in the 1880s to process the ore from Gold Mountain. When the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad arrived in 1906 followed by the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad business boomed and the site was renamed. After the mines played out the town declined after 1914. In the 1920s the town became a supply point for the construction of Scotty's Castle located in Death Valley about 20 miles to the southwest.[3] The post office was called Thorp from June 1905 until July 1909 and then renamed to Bonnie Claire from July 1909 until it closed in December 1931.[4]

In 2005 Tonogold Resources initiated the "Bonnie Claire Gold Tailings Project" to rework 12 million tons of tailings. This project, at Bonnie Claire, followed shortly after Tonogold's successful reworking of Big Mill's tailings.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Bonnie Claire
  2. ^ Last Chance Range, California–Nevada, 30x60 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1985
  3. ^ "Bonnie Clair, Nevada". ghosttowns.com. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
  4. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Bonnie Claire Post Office
  5. ^ "Bonnie Claire Gold Tailings Project Announced by Tonogold Resources, Inc". globalnewswire.com. January 24, 2005. Archived from the original on February 4, 2018.


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