Abandoned Towns
Old two-story storefronts with balconies along US 50 in Austin, with a church steeple further down the street

Silver mining town

Austin

A silver strike in Pony Canyon filled Austin with thousands of people in a year, and the town ran Lander County for more than a century. About 170 people live along its old main street now, among churches, lodges and stores from the 1860s and 1870s.

39°29′31″N 117°04′13″W · ≈6,580 ft

Photo: Famartin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Living town

Austin is a lived-in town of 167 people (2020 census) on US 50. Its old buildings are homes, churches, lodges and shops, so see them from the street unless one is open to visitors. Stokes Castle, west of town, was still behind its chain-link fence in a video posted September 2025; look from outside it.

Overview

The town a silver strike built

Austin in 1868, photographed by Timothy O'Sullivan for the King Survey
Austin in 1868, photographed by Timothy O'Sullivan for the King Survey · Photo: Timothy H. O'Sullivan (Smithsonian Institution), Wikimedia Commons, No known copyright restrictions

On May 2, 1862, William Talcott was hauling wood out of Pony Canyon, on the west slope of the Toiyabe Range, when he found silver. The rush that followed filled the canyon. A camp called Clifton grew at its foot, but Austin, a mile up the canyon, took the Lander County seat and the people with it. By the summer of 1863 one count put more than 10,000 people in Austin and the Reese River district. Lots on Main Street sold for an average of $8,000 in gold, and the Reese River Reveille began printing.

The ore came in narrow quartz veins. The rich surface ore ran out early, and the deeper silver had to be roasted before it could be worked, so only high-grade ore paid. Production faded after 1872. The Nevada Central Railroad arrived from Battle Mountain in 1880, with the boom nearly over, and major silver mining ended by 1887. Austin kept the county seat until 1979.

The town never emptied. Wikipedia calls it a living ghost town: 167 people at the 2020 census, in a canyon of brick and stone buildings from its first two decades. US 50 is the main street, and three of its churches date from 1866 to 1878.

Video

A spring walk down Main Street

A YouTuber walks the length of Main Street on a weekday early in the season, when, a local tells him, the last snow had just melted. He browses a rock and gift shop, finds several cafés and the museum closed, and sits by the veterans' monument to tell Gridley's flour-sack story. The owner of the Magnolia Gallery shows him the inn rooms upstairs, and the librarian shows him the Gridley Store, now a public library. The video ends with views over the town and its churches and at Stokes Castle, with its fence beside the road. The history in the narration is the creator's own; the timeline below follows the state marker, Wikipedia and our other sources.

Play “A Mule Discovers Silver and a Town is Born - Austin NV” from YouTube
“A Mule Discovers Silver and a Town is Born - Austin NV”, by Go Explore Today on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

From Pony Canyon strike to county seat

The Gridley Store, February 2008
The Gridley Store, February 2008 · Photo: AlishaV, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
  1. William Talcott, hauling wood out of Pony Canyon, finds silver. His strike starts the rush to the Reese River district.
  2. David Buell maps out a town and names it for his partner, Alvah Austin.
  3. Austin wins the Lander County seat from Jacobsville. Sources give 1862 and 1863.
  4. By summer more than 10,000 people are in Austin and the Reese River district, by one count. The Reese River Reveille starts printing, and part of Virginia City's International Hotel is moved to Main Street.
  5. Clifton, Austin and Upper Austin are combined as the City of Austin. Clifton, down the canyon, is abandoned once its mill closes in 1867.
  6. Reuel Colt Gridley auctions a sack of flour again and again and raises more than $250,000 for wounded Civil War soldiers.
  7. St. Augustine's Catholic Church and the Methodist church are built.
  8. Floods from cloudbursts in Pony Canyon tear through town.
  9. The last strong year: about $250,000 in ore.
  10. St. George's Episcopal Church is consecrated.
  11. The Nevada Central Railroad reaches Austin from Battle Mountain, with the boom nearly over.
  12. The city disincorporates in 1881. Major silver production ends by 1887.
  13. Anson Phelps Stokes finishes his stone tower west of town. His family uses it for a month or two.
  14. The county seat moves to Battle Mountain.
  15. The census counts 167 residents.

Legend and record

Who found the silver

The state's historical marker is plain about it: William Talcott, who came from the Jacobsville stage stop on the Reese River, found silver at the spot while hauling wood, on May 2, 1862. The town's favorite story is different. In one version a Pony Express horse kicked over a rock and someone noticed silver in it. In another, the horse belonged to a man named Talbott and kicked up a piece of quartz with gold and silver in it, which he sent to Virginia City for assay. The horse is a story; the date and the woodcutter come from the marker.

Gridley's flour sack is better documented. In 1864 Reuel Colt Gridley auctioned one sack of flour over and over, and the drive raised more than $250,000 for wounded Civil War soldiers. His stone store was still standing in a 2008 photo.

What's left

What you'll see

St. George's Episcopal Church, September 2012
St. George's Episcopal Church, September 2012 · Photo: Jarenblake, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Stokes Castle behind its fence, April 2015
Stokes Castle behind its fence, April 2015 · Photo: Famartin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Main Street is US 50. Along it and the steep side streets stand the old Lander County courthouse, the Masonic and Odd Fellows hall, the old city hall, the Gridley Store and the International Hotel, part of which was first built in Virginia City and moved here, in 1863 by Wikipedia's account and late in the 1860s by another. Many are on the National Register of Historic Places. Wikipedia, read in October 2026, says the hotel serves meals and drinks but no longer rents rooms; we didn't confirm that.

The three churches are State Historical Marker 67. St. Augustine's Catholic Church went up in 1866 of local brick and stone, and its first Mass was held at midnight on Christmas Eve that year. The Methodist church, also 1866, was paid for by selling stock in a "Methodist Company." St. George's Episcopal was consecrated in 1878; its organ was shipped around Cape Horn and hauled by wagon from San Francisco.

West of town, Stokes Castle is a three-story tower of granite blocks that Anson Phelps Stokes, a mine developer and railroad man, finished in June 1897 as a summer home for his sons. The family used it for two months, by the state marker, or one, by Wikipedia, and the marker says it has stood empty since, with one possible exception. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire surrounded it in April 2015 and again in a photo of May 22, 2017, and the fence is still there in a video posted September 2025. The cemetery, in use since 1863, straddles US 50 near the SR 305 junction: Masonic and Odd Fellows sections on the north side, Catholic and "Citizens" sections on the south.

The old USGS sheets in the next section show Austin in Pony Canyon with Stokes Castle to the west, a railroad grade west of town and, on the 1988 sheet, the Jackpot and Ophir mines and mine dumps on the hills around it.

  • Old Lander County courthouse
  • St. Augustine's Catholic Church (1866)
  • Methodist church (1866)
  • St. George's Episcopal Church (1878)
  • Gridley Store
  • Masonic and Odd Fellows hall
  • Old city hall
  • International Hotel
  • Stokes Castle (1897)
  • Cemetery
USGS topographic map of Austin in Pony Canyon, with Stokes Castle to the west
USGS The National Map, topo. Austin along US 50, with Stokes Castle to the west and North, South and Central hills around town.
Aerial view of Austin's streets climbing the slope of Pony Canyon
Aerial imagery, same area. The town's streets climb the north side of the canyon above Main Street.

Historic maps

Austin on USGS maps, 1955–1988

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Austin, 1955
Millett sheet, 1955, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Austin is on US 50, which crosses Nevada east to west. From Eureka it's 70 miles west on US 50. From Reno, take I-80 east, then US 50 Alternate, McLean, Sheckler and Wildes roads, and US 50 east, about 173 miles.

USGS topographic map along US 50 between Eureka and Austin with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From central Eureka69.8 miabout 1 h 22 min
  1. Leave Eureka on North Main Street, US 50.1.2 mi
  2. Continue west on US 50, the Lincoln Highway.68.3 mi
  3. US 50 becomes Main Street in Austin.0.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • US 50 is the main street, so you can drive right through the historic district.
  • Austin sits at about 6,580 feet on the west slope of the Toiyabe Range, and Wikipedia describes its winters as cold and snowy.
  • Many of the buildings are private homes or businesses. Look from the street and the sidewalks.
  • Stokes Castle was still fenced in a video posted September 2025. View it from outside the fence.

Photos

Austin in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Austin?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Silver mining

More silver mining ghost towns

The nearest in Nevada.

The two-story red brick Belmont courthouse with a white cupola, on a sagebrush slopeGuide

Belmont

38.59, -116.88

Nye County, Nevada

Belmont was the Nye County seat for nearly forty years and turned out more than $15 million in silver. A few people still live among its ruins, and…

Ruins · 2026 videoSilver mining
An arched brick facade at Hamilton, photographed in 2007Guide

Hamilton

39.25, -115.48

White Pine County, Nevada

Hamilton became White Pine County’s first seat during the 1868 silver rush. Fires and shallow ore deposits left scattered ruins in the White Pine…

RuinsSilver mining

All 69 silver mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Austin

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Nevada index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Austin": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time, remains), its excerpts from Shawn Hall's Romancing Nevada's Past: the Talbott horse story, Clifton, Main Street lots, the Reveille, the floods of 1868 and 1874, $50 million in ore, 1872.
  2. Wikipedia, "Austin, Nevada", revision of October 11, 2026: Buell and Alvah Austin, the county seat (1862, moved to Battle Mountain in 1979), the 1863 population, the 1864 incorporation, Gridley, the Nevada Central, 1881 and 1887, the ore, the churches, the International Hotel, Stokes Castle, the National Register listings, the 2020 census, coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
  3. Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, Centennial Marker 8, "Austin": Talcott's discovery on May 2, 1862, Clifton, the 1863 county seat, the 1880s decline.
  4. Nevada SHPO, State Historical Marker 67, "Austin Churches": the three churches, their dates and stories.
  5. Nevada SHPO, State Historical Marker 59, "Stokes Castle": Anson Phelps Stokes, June 1897, two months of use, empty since with one possible exception, the granite construction.
  6. Famartin, "Stokes Castle in Austin, Nevada", Wikimedia Commons, April 2, 2015: the chain-link fence around the castle.
  7. Lorne Randell Houle, "Stokes Castle", Wikimedia Commons, taken May 22, 2017: the chain-link and barbed-wire fence still around the castle.
  8. Wikipedia, "Austin Cemetery", read October 24, 2026: first burials in 1863, the four sections on either side of US 50.
  9. Go Explore Today, "A Mule Discovers Silver and a Town is Born - Austin NV", YouTube, posted September 12, 2025: the video on this page; the Gridley Store open as a library three days a week (its librarian), the museum closed for the season, closed cafés, Stokes Castle's fence.
  10. Land: BLM national surface management map, queried October 24, 2026 (private land at the town point). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits