Tonopah Historic Mining Park

As the story goes, in May 1900 Jim Butler was camped near the spring at Tonopah when his mules wandered off. Searching for them the next morning, he picked up a heavy chunk of rock to throw and noticed it was loaded with silver. The samples assayed rich, and word got out, and a rush was on.

Butler's wife Belle located and named the Mizpah, a Hebrew word often glossed as watchtower, which became the district's largest and longest-producing mine. Within a couple of years Tonopah had swelled past 3,000 people, and over the first decades of the century the district produced on the order of $150 million in silver, reviving Nevada's fortunes after the Comstock had faded.

Unlike a museum that gathers artifacts, this park simply preserves the mines where they stand. A self-guided trail winds among the surviving headframes and hoist houses of several of Tonopah's most productive mines, including the Mizpah, the Silver Top, and the Desert Queen, all originally tied to Jim Butler's claims.

The signature sight is the glory hole, a gaping open pit where a section of worked-out ground collapsed, letting you look straight down into the mountain the miners hollowed out. A visitor center in the old Mizpah works anchors the site and explains the tools, the ore, and the lives of the crews who worked it.

Part of the experience takes you into the rock. A short underground section lets visitors walk into a tunnel and get a small, safe taste of what deep hardrock mining felt like, cool and close and dark, a world away from the sunlit desert above.

Back on the surface, the hillside setting gives a sweeping view over Tonopah and the endless basin-and-range country beyond. The headframes standing against that big sky are the emblem of the town, a reminder that everything below was built on what came out of the ground here.

Plan on a walking visit over uneven mining ground, with real drop-offs around the glory hole and shafts, so wear sturdy shoes and keep an eye on kids. Allow an hour or two for the self-guided trail, more if you take the underground and linger in the visitor center.

Tonopah sits above 6,000 feet, so expect strong high-desert sun, wind, and cool nights, with cold and snow in winter when the park runs reduced hours. The town's famously dark skies make it worth staying the night, and the historic Mizpah Hotel and the eerie Old Tonopah Cemetery are both a short walk from the park.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.