If you blink on the seven-hour drive from Reno to Las Vegas, you’ll miss the historic mining town of Tonopah.
A century ago, miners risked their lives to pull a fortune of silver and gold from the nearby mountains. Though the mines went quiet years ago, the town of a little more than 2,000 people is betting that another boom is on the horizon.
“Anytime you have mining, you’re always going to have a rollercoaster ride. You have peaks and valleys. Good times, bad times,” said Jeff Martin, host of the Tonopah Historic Mining Park, a 100-acre museum on the site of the original mines.
Martin predicts the “good times” are on their way back to Tonopah.
The beginning of ‘a boom’
In the past year or so, the price of silver and gold has been soaring. Soon after taking office last year, President Trump signed an order to expedite the development of critical minerals, like gold…