Sonoma
(Sunny Jim)
In spring 1906, J.W. Duval made a discovery near Masonic that led to the formation of the Sunny Jim district. A camp, too called Sunny Jim, was staked out near the strike, but apparently failed to develop much. It took almost two years for the District to gain much attention, and early in 1908 a new townsite called 'Sonoma' was located below old Sunny Jim near the East Walker River on the P.J. Conway Ranch, where plans were underway for erection of a ten-stamp mill. An application was submitted for a post office, which evidently never came to fruition.
By April, plans for the new mill had evolved into a thirty-ton mill and cyanide plant operated by the new Masonic-Nevada Milling & Reduction Company. Plentiful ore was to be brought in from Masonic and the Sunny Jim district, and the operation was to be powered by a three-mile ditch fed by the East Walker River. Apparently these grand plans never materialized, as little mention of Sonoma was found after that year. Not much marks the townsite's location, but a primitive cemetery is located nearby.
