Nevada's First Mine, The Mormon’s Potosi Lead Mine

Nevada's First Mine, The Mormon's Potosi Lead Mine

In May 1856, a group of Mormon missionaries left Salt Lake City to establish a Mission at Las Vegas in what was then western New Mexico Territory. They arrived at the Las Vegas site in June and began to plant crops and to build a “fort” for living quarters. Almost a year later, in April 1856, they discovered lead in the Spring Mountains northwest of the Mission and in May a second lead occurrence was found to the southwest near Cottonwood Springs. The first location proved to be of no interest, but at the second they found “a great quantity of lead.” Mining, at what they named the Potosi—Nevada's first mine—began in August 1856. In January 1857, only five months later and producing some 9,000 pounds of lead, work stopped. And in March, most of the missionaries abandoned the Las Vegas Mission and returned to Salt Lake City—why? Joe Tingley boasts a remarkable career in mining. He holds degrees in mining engineering from the University of Idaho and Nevada. Tingley an exploration geologist focused on uranium, copper, and gold across several western states. He worked as a research geologist at the Nevada Bureau of Mining and Geology, where he remained until his retirement in 2004. Tingley authored several geologic guidebooks for NBMG and volunteers as a docent at the NHS and has given several presentations on mining topics for Artown. Joe and his wife love taking trips into the desert in their motorhome, loving to smell the sagebrush and collecting a few rocks along the way.