This was is unexpected find - I saw the name of the town on the Google maps, but there were no photos and I thought it will be enother empty field covered with desert greasewood. Was glad to find much more than that.
First, a little bit of history. Bonnie Claire is a ghost town located in Nye County, Nevada. It had a very short history (as so many other settlements in this area). The town was established in October 1906 on the place of the earlier camp, known as Thorp’s Wells. It was supposed to be the center for the several nearby mines. The arrival of the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad could be considered the kick-off point for the town. A year later, in 1907 the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad built a depot in Bonnie Claire. At that point town was already having several saloons and mercantile establishments. The town population reached it’s peak that year (about 100 inhabitants).
Here is how it looked in it’s glory:
Panoramic of Bonnie Clare Mill, 1908; Nevada Historical Society.
The decline of the neighboring mines caused the decline of the town. By the 1914 it was evident the town will die soon. Some life was boring back in 1920s, when town became a supply point for the construction of Scotty’s Castle located in Death Valley about 20 miles to the southwest. Town gave up when mining activity seized after the railroad folded in 1928.
There was some minor activity reported during the period from 1940 to 1954 but Bonnie Clare was abandoned since then. There were mentions of the “Bonnie Claire Gold Tailings Project” at the town mill in 2005, but I could not find information if the project ever took place. The townsite and the mill looked pretty dead when I visited them in 2018. The Bonnie Claire mill site is now fenced and posted as private property, unfortunately, so you can observe it only from the distance.
Here are my photos from 2018 trip:
Small cemetery
To the east of the buildings I found two graves. Was very curious what was the history. When I got back home I found information on Bonnie Claire Burial Ground. These were the graves of Dora C Black and Dorothy Ione Patnoe. Dorothy dies at the age of 5. You can find people still leaving toys near her grave (you can see a very dirty plush duck at the bottom photo).
