Berlin was a late addition to a series of mining camps that sprouted in the Union Mining District beginning in 1863. The original towns included Union, Ione, and Grantsville. Although Berlin Canyon was prospected in 1869, mining did not begin there until 1895 when silver was extracted from the Berlin Mine.
A consolidation of area mines by the Nevada Company in 1908 brought Berlin to prominence, with a population of between two hundred and three hundred people. A thirty-stamp mill was the town’s largest building, but the community also featured a post office, a stage station, an assay office, a union hall, and miners’ residences. The historical photos I have seen show only wood-frame buildings, but Fermin Bruner, who lived in the camp as a child, reported that Louie Chirac lived in a two-story brick building, the second story of which was occasionally used for community dances.
Berlin was virtually dead by 1909, although a cyanide plant was built to work the mill’s tailings for three years beginning in 1911.
WALKING AND DRIVING AROUND BERLIN
Berlin is a part of the Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A modest fee is required to enter, payable at the park headquarters, which is located in the former mine supervisor’s office. You will be given a brochure of a walking tour of the townsite, which includes, among twelve standing buildings, the assay office, the stage station, a machine shop, and the huge shell of the Berlin Mill. The mill was stripped of its equipment during World War II as part of a national salvage effort. And Louie Chirac’s large brick building? When a mining town is abandoned, brick is one of the first commodities to be salvaged and used elsewhere.
A path leads to the town’s cemetery southeast of town.
Fossils of ichthyosaurs, fifty-foot-long prehistoric marine reptiles, were discovered near Berlin in 1928 and excavated from 1954 into the 1960s. They are the largest ichthyosaur specimens ever found.
Berlin, now inside a Nevada state park, includes, among many others, these three buildings, left to right: the assay office, the machine shop, and the Berlin Mill.
WHEN YOU GO
Gabbs is 111 miles northwest of Tonopah via U.S. Highway 6, U.S. Highway 95, and Nevada Highway 361. From Gabbs, drive north on Highway 361 for 2.8 miles and turn right onto Nevada Highway 844. Follow that road for 16 miles to a clearly marked turnoff to Berlin. The townsite, which will have been visible for many miles across the Ione Valley high on the side of the Shoshone Mountains, is 2.1 miles from the turnoff.