Buena Vista
(Sunland/Bley)
Like neighboring Gold Hitt, Buena Vista came into being following new discoveries of gold in the Oneota District in Summer 1905. A townsite was laid out by fall, and 64 people were recorded in town in October. Despite not growing as fast as Gold Hitt, Buena Vista was the first camp in the district to receive a post office, doing so in December, and by New Years Stocking & Dennison purchased a 25-ton Hendy mill from San Francisco for their holdings. It appears, however, that this mill was never actually erected at Buena Vista.
After the initial 1906 boom Buena Vista faded from view for a few years, but didn't die completely. In 1911, a renewed interest led to the camp and post office being renamed Sunland. That year the Tip Top, one of the prominent producers since Buena Vista's earliest days, was taken over by C.M. Thorndyke and E.H. Chafey (the latter temporarily lent his name to the townsite and post office at Dun Glen). By 1913, the Tip Top was controlled by the Thorndyke-Bley Mining Company, under whom a 10-stamp fifty-ton mill and cyanide plant were completed in 1914. During subsequent months, it is likely that the Bley post office operated at the mine. By August, the property was foreclosed upon and purchased at sheriff's sale by Walter E. Trent, who earlier installed the 50-ton mill and served as manager of both the mine and mill. It has been abandoned since about 1918, at which point about $130,000 had been produced.
