Dayton

Lyon County

Most of the Nevada mining camps that are written about on this website were small and short-lived. It can be tough to find much information on them. You can find books from a few authors like Hall, Paher and Patera. You can also find a few websites like NVExpeditions, Ray Dunakin, Forgotten Nevada and NVTami. But beyond that, it gets tough to find further information. That's why I am also writing about them on this website. With that said, towns like Austin, Battle Mountain, Beatty, Belmont, Caliente, Dayton, Elko, Eureka, Goldfield, Pioche, Manhattan, Tonopah and Virginia City (Comstock/ Gold Hill & Silver City) are NOT those camps. These places were massive mining towns with expansive and long-spanning mining histories. Each of these towns had populations in the thousands. A simple internet search will reveal a long list of websites that have written about these places. These towns are also still populated to this day. From a couple dozen in Belmont, to 2,500 in Tonopah, and 15,000 in Dayton. Therefore, I am not going to re-write the same history that can already be found in great detail on the internet. I am going to post extensive historical photographs for each of these towns though. Each one of these towns also has its own Nevada historical marker from the Nevada- State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). Each one of these towns will have their historical quote posted to its page.

Also see the following pages: Daney Mine; Dayton Fraternal Burials; Rock Point Mill.

Nevada Historical Marker #7- Dayton:
"Dayton, one of the earliest settlements in Nevada was first known as a stopping place on the river for California-bound pioneers. Coming in from the desert they rested here before continuing westward. In 1849, Abner Blackburn found a gold nugget at the mouth of Gold Canyon and prospecting began in the canyons to the north. Ten years later, this led to the discovery of the fabulous ore deposits at Gold Hill and Virginia City in 1859. Called by several different names in its early years, the place became Dayton in 1861, named in honor of John Day who laid out the town. For many decades Dayton prospered as a mill and trading center, and remained the county seat for Lyon County until 1911."