Osceola
Late in the summer of 1872, Joseph Watson & Frank Hicks discovered placer ore, and in October the Osceola district was established, owing its name to the famed Seminole chief. A new placer discovery by John Versan in 1877 brought as many as 400 prospectors to Osceola before the end of the decade, and a new five-stamp mill was built in 1878 to replace earlier, primitive arrastras.
Though a lack of water slowed early development, Osceola's major boom began in 1884 after the Osceola Placer Mining Company completed an extensive ditch system in 1884, bringing ample water to the burgeoning camp; enough water even to employ hydraulic hoses - a first for Nevada! Over the next two decades, three stamp mills pounded away at Osceola gold. Meanwhile, the town gained modern conveniences that the majority of others in Nevada lacked at the time: electricity and telephone.
Osceola's decline began in 1890, when a fire destroyed much of Main Street. Work slowed and the ditches deteriorated, bringing the Osceola Placer Mining Co. to an end in 1900 after producing nearly $2 million. The town survived, however, until the 1920s, and a new revival took place beginning in 1925. The Nicholson Mining & Milling Co. took over several claims, and in 1927 completed an 80-ton mill with a 3500-ft water pipeline. The venture ended in 1932, though minor work has continued in some capacity almost constantly since. Osceola's final residents left in the 1950s, after a fire destroyed what was left of town, bringing an end to Nevada's longest-lived placer mining town.
