Cortez is a ghost town in

Lander County Lander County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,734. Its county seat is Battle Mountain. History Lander County was created in 1862 as the result of a mining boom on the Reese River along the ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The

GNIS The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the associated states of the Marshal ...

classifies it as a populated place.

History

Located near

Mount Tenabo Mount Tenabo (Shoshoni: "Lookout Mountain") is the principal peak in the Cortez Mountains. The mountain is of cultural and religious significance to the Western Shoshone people. Etymology There are various theories as to the name's etymology. ...

, Cortez first attracted attention in 1862, when Mexican miners transported silver ore from the site to

stamp mills Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

, south. In the spring of 1863, a group of eight miners exploring the area, came across Native Americans collecting silver in gulleys southwest of the

mountains. Investigating the source of the silver ore, the group climbed the rock face above, and located the ledges of silver. The discovery led to the organization of the Cortez district. A few months later, roads were constructed from the town site to the mining area. Machinery to build an eight-stamp mill in town was transported from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The community was named after

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (December 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions o ...

, the 16th-century Spanish conquistador. In 1864, Simon Wenban, one of the original eight miners, and

George Hearst George Hearst (September 3, 1820 – February 28, 1891) was an American businessman, politician, and patriarch of the Hearst family, Hearst business dynasty. After growing up on a small farm in Missouri, he founded many mining operations a ...

, father of

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

, became mining partners. Hearst sold his shares in the partnership in 1867, when the miners encountered problems that slowed operations. By 1870, Wenban had enlarged the mill in town, and was employing Chinese miners because they were willing to work for lower wages than American and Mexican workers. For the next 20 years, the mining district was profitable. A fifty-ton leaching plant was built in 1886, and ran continuously until the mid-1890s. Cortez thrived until the depression of the 1930s. A post office was in operation at Cortez intermittently between 1868 and 1943. In 1969, the Cortez Gold Mine was established in Cortez.

References

{{Lander County, Nevada Ghost towns in Lander County, Nevada

History

See also

References