Eldorado Canyon
Head of Steamboat Navigation in Nevada
Eldorado Canyon runs east from here to the Colorado River and was the site of one of Nevada's mining booms. Prospectors began digging for gold and silver here, about 1859, forming the Colorado Mining District. The three largest mines, the Techatticup, Wall Street, and El Dorado Rand Group, yielded over $6,000,000.
This portion of the Colorado River was navigable before Dam construction, allowing steamboats and barges to freight good 350 miles from the California Gulf to the mouth of Eldorado Canyon and upriver. The steamboat era peaked in the 1860s, but continued to the turn of the twentieth century.
In 1867, the U. S. Army established an outpost at Eldorado Canyon to secure the riverboats' freight and protect miners in the canyon from Native Americans. The military abandoned the camp in 1869. In the 1870s, the mines flourished again, producing ore until World War II.
Marker is at the intersection of U.S. 95 and Nevada Route 165, on the left when traveling south on U.S. 95.
Courtesy hmdb.org
