Three-Day Weekend - Part 2

We have visited Caliente and have checked out Cathedral Gorge, now it's on to Pioche.

Pioche has a real wild west history to it.

In 1864, William Hamblin, a Latter Day Saint missionary, was led to silver deposits in the vicinity of Pioche by a Native American Paiute. In 1868, San Francisco financier Francois L.A. Pioche purchased claims and constructed a smelter in the area, forming the Meadow Valley Mining Company. The mining camp was called "Pioche's City" and later became known as Pioche.


The town rapidly became the largest mining town in southeastern Nevada in the early 1870's. Population estimates showed 10,000 people by 1871.

The town quickly gained fame for its "toughest town" reputation. Due mostly to confusion over the exact location of mining claims, mine owners finally resorted to hiring guards.

Hired gunmen were imported at the rate of about twenty a day during boom times to fight mining claim encroachments.

Mine owners often paid the gunmen a salary of $20 per day––a more certain investment for owners than settling disputes in court where bribery often determined the final outcome.

The sheriff's office was reputed to be worth $40,000 a year in bribes alone.


Guns were the only law, and Pioche made Bodie, Tombstone, and other better known towns pale in comparison.

It has been reported that seventy-five men were buried in the cemetery before anyone in Pioche had time to die a natural death.

According to one reputable source, nearly 60 percent of the homicides reported in Nevada during 1871-72 took place in and around Pioche.


Not even the building of the county courthouse was exempt from corruption.

Pioche was designated the county seat in 1871 and courthouse plans were initiated.

The county contracted to build the courthouse at a cost of $26,400. In order to raise the needed money, $25,000 worth of bonds were sold at a discounted rate of $20,000.

By the time it was completed a year later, costs had escalated to more than $88,000 because of alterations, cost overruns, mismanagement and kickbacks.

To finance payment of the courthouse, the Board of Commissioners issued certificates of indebtedness at a high rate of interest, and by the 1880’s the debt had risen to $181,000.

By the end of the century it exceeded more than $670,000. The final payment was made in 1937; four years after the building had been condemned.

The total cost of the Lincoln County Courthouse was nearly $1,000,000.



The approximate population today in Pioche is 900.

We are headed to Ely.

More of the three-day weekend will post here tomorrow.