Divide
In 1901 during the initial rush to Tonopah, Christ Runge and I. Roesch located gold a few miles south of that new town. The following year, the Tonopah Gold Mountain Mining Co. was organized and as other mines were located, a camp and mining district called Gold Mountain formed with three saloons, a boarding house, and general store. Overshadowed by Tonopah and Goldfield, Gold Mountain soon died on the vine and by 1905 only leasers worked the area.
In 1912, the still-extant Tonopah Gold Mountain Mining Co. was reorganized as the Tonopah Divide Mining Co. by George Wingfield and Wilse Brougher (the term 'Divide' was used to refer to the divide between gold found here and silver found at Tonopah). About five years later, Brougher uncovered rich silver in an old, played-out gold vein and a rush to the newly-renamed Divide district began. Numerous mines were reopened or placed into operation, but the largest remained the Tonopah Divide, originally the Tonopah Gold Mountain, which was electrified in October 1918. By Spring 1919, Divide City was laid out along the highway between Tonopah and Goldfield and wooden buildings were brought in from around the region. Unique among Nevada's mining camps, no saloons were opened as poor Divide City was born during prohibition. During fall, a post office finally opened to serve the town, but it was called 'Sigold' (a portmanteau of silver and gold) as the name Divide was rejected by the post office department. Nevertheless, newspaper articles soon erroneously claimed that it would be renamed 'Dividecity', but this was debunked less than two months later.
By the end of 1919, mining began to slow and, compounded by fires in 1920, Divide City began to fade. Construction on a new highway bypassing Divide City began in October of 1920, and the town was soon a memory. Mining continued intermittently throughout the remainder of the twentieth century, and countless shafts and holes are the most prominent reminders of Divide's bygone importance.
