Shelby Copper Mining

Shelby Copper Mining – Ely was settled in the fall of 1878 when the Selby Copper Mining & Smelting Company established a small smelter at the site. A post office was established in November of that year.

At the time there wasn’t much interest in copper mining, and Ely remained a camp of little significance well into the 1880s. The settlement was little more than a stage station and post office – no business district had developed.

Ely finally got the boost it needed in 1887, when the state legislature designated Ely as White Pine County’s seat of government.

By 1900 the copper deposits near Ely were attracting new attention. In 1902 approximately $500,000 in copper was produced in the district. In 1903 many of the claims were consolidated under the ownership of the White Pine Copper Company. A second company, The Giroux Consolidated Mining Company, made promising copper ore discoveries in one its shafts.

In late 1905 construction started on the 140-mile Nevada Northern Railway, linking Ely to Cobre on the Southern Pacific main line.

With the railroad on the way, smelters being constructed, and millions of tons of ore in reserve, Ely became a boom town in 1906.

This is what the mining area looks like today. With the technology of todays mining equipment, this area looks like a piece of art from above. With the different layers and colors. Precise piling of material as they dig into the earth.

Shelby Copper Mining

Sandra J