Before I finish up this post on the Silver Peak area, I need to talk just a short bit about its history. It wasnt lithium that brought miners to this area. As early as 1863 Silver was found in the area. The town was founded in 1864 located near a good spring. A ten stamp mill was built in 1865 and a 20 stamp was built in 1867.In 1905, a conglomerate bought a number of mines and a new townsite was built a few miles to the north of town. In 1907 a 50 stamp mill was built at the new town-Blair- and it ran for 7 years. In 1915 the mill closed and by 1920, Blair was a full fledged ghost town. Silver Peak has continued to hang on in one for or another. The population in 2010 was pegged at 107. The population of the town rises and falls with whatever mining company is in town. It seems that soon Silver Peak will have a new and very powerful mentor. The Tesla battery factory will directly benefit from the Lithium mined at Silver Peak and in turn, Silver Peak should do well. OK....last day of this trip. The majority of the group rode with us for about a half day before they returned to camp, packed up and headed for Belmont which was the second phase of this trip. The wind was just too much for most folks. A handful of us headed back over Coyote Pass and found the hot springs in the Fish Lake Valley. This is a nice developed spring with a large parking/camping area, some pit toilets and a deluxe pool for soaking. The locals call it the Hot Box. The excess runs out of the box and supports a pretty little pond inhabited by ducks and other water fowl. From there ,we ran down the east side of the eventually landing in Dyer..the settlement located in Fish Lake Valley. We bought some fuel and some cold drinks, yakked with a few locals and then headed out looking for McAfee canyon and a road back over the range to where our camp was. We found the road and glad that we did. It had a different feel than what we had seen the day before and made for any enjoyable late afternoon ride back to camp. The wind had finally laid down and a pleasant barbecue and evening campfire was enjoyed by our small party. The next morning....packed it up and headed for Belmont and the rest of our group. Of course..click through the pictures... most will have a comment of some sort or another.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:51:50 +0000
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