Athens

In 1909, John Martinez, J.R. Stott, and James Herald discovered rich ore here, and by July 1910 seventy-five men had arrived at the new camp of Athens. A townsite was laid out by Lester Bell, and before long Athens had a lodging house, store, and saloon. Meanwhile, a rival camp called Juniper Springs grew up nearby at the discoveries of N.E. Dyer, and soon had its own Juniper Lodging House & Guy Eckley's store. Before long, the two camps merged, retaining the Athens name, and a tri-weekly stage was established to Mina. Unfortunately, the ore proved to be of poor quality and Athens died before the end of the year.

In 1912, the Warrior mine was discovered by a Civil War veteran and led to a revival, which brought the first permanent buildings to Athens. The mine was soon purchased by the Warrior Gold Mining Company. In 1913, Harry McNamara (who also owned a mine in the district) erected a small stamp mill. During these first months, $20,000 in gold ore was produced. In 1921, the property was bought by the Aladdin Divide Mining Company, who uncovered some new deposits before selling out to the Olympic Mines Company that same July. The Olympic company began shipping ore to its mill at Omco. Meanwhile, the Lucky Boy Divide Mining Company (with McNamara as president) also bought land nearby and began development in 1922. This activity lasted a few more years before coming to a close.

In December 1931, a final attempt began when J.J. McNeil brought in new equipment and reopened the Warrior mine. The following year, his holdings were purchased by Warrior Consolidated Gold, which ended up being unsuccessful. L.B. Spencer and L.J. Smith purchased the property at a sheriff's sale the following year, and it was worked by leasers until 1939 (during which time ore was shipped to the Dayton Consolidated Mill at Silver City. The mine has remained idle since.

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