Mountain City — Elko County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Mike Higbee / 49erMike). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: elko_nv.shtml. State index: https://web.archive.org/web/20040830075749/http://www.tomashworth.com/goldloc.shtml Area: Mountain City. Map coordinates are an approximate county centroid — not a precise claim site. Mountain City district is in the North Central part of the county, 75 miles north of Elko, in northeast part of the Centennial Range on the North Fork Fork the Owyhee River and 1.5 miles east of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation 15 miles south of the Idaho Line. For the entire length of the Owyhee River, gravel, bench and terrace deposits contain placer gold. North on Van Duzer Creek, the Van Duzer District and many old mines as well. The Cope and The Van Duzer Mines were chief producers. Along Van Duzer Creek the area was worked by hydraulicking. You can still find dust and nuggets in Van Duzer Creek in abundance. North of that along Grasshopper Gulch was some rich placers as well. Southeast to Island Mountain, is the Gold Creek Mine. All area watercourses, benches, and terraces are very rich in placer gold. This is the most prominent area in Nevada to prospect for placer gold. 8 miles north of Gold Creek, in the Alder district, area mines contain lode gold. Southwest 20 miles, the Aura District, in Bull Run Basin, extensively worked for placer gold.