Above: “Last Chance Gas” by Edward Fielding – prints available.
“Last Chance Gas” is a fine art photograph of an old abandoned gas station in old mining ghost town at the edge of the Nelson, Nevada.
Nelson, NV is practically a dead town itself with a population of less then 40 hardy souls trying hard to not dry up and blow away under the harsh conditions of the desert climate.
One doesn’t seek out a life in Nelson for ease of living, perhaps more for cheap accommodations or the hiding from something.
The livability score from “area vibes” https://www.areavibes.com/nelson-nv/livability/ gives Nelson a score of 77. It puts the average home value at $0. The average income is $17,306,42% lower than the US average.
No post office, no supermarket, no gas station, but be on the look out for rattlesnakes and flash floods!
TripAdvisor lists the top things to do in Nelson as the Nelson Ghost Town, Nelson’s Landing Cliff Jumping and Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours.
Finding Nelson, Nevada
- Just South of Boulder City.
- Going southeast as you leave Las Vegas, just past Henderson and Before Boulder City take a right (south) on 95 South.
- You only go about 10 miles and you come to the road marked 165, it will be on your left!
- At that intersection is a Monument, Nevada Centennial Marker #9
1864 Copper Country 1964
The famed open-pit copper mines of eastern Nevada including the Liberty Pit, largest in the state, are located two miles south of this point.
Through the first half of the 20th century, this area produced nearly a billion dollars in copper, gold
and silver. The huge mounds visible from here arewaste rock which was removed to uncover the ore.
Two miles east of here, nearLane City, was the Elijah, the first mine discovered in the Robinson Mining District. Lane City, originally called Mineral City, was settled in 1869 and had a population of 400.At Mineral City
Nevada Centennial Marker No. 9was the Ragsdale Station, one hotel and a stage station.
Nevada Centennial Marker No. 9
This road leads to the town of Nelson, don’t blink or you will miss the collection a private homes, shacks and trailers. Beyond the town of Nelson is the Techatticup Mine in Eldorado Canyon and then on past the private mines on the right side of the road to the Public Recreation Area at Nelson Landing. There is a sign at the start of the public part. It is a long winding downhill grade from there. The road ends at a spectacular overlook at the Colorado River.
The Techatticup Mine was once a hotbed of lawlessness, murder, treachery, and claim-jumping. In the mid-1800s the hills in this area swarmed with miners, civil-war deserters and wanted men digging into the earth following vines of gold and silver.
The remote and inhospitable desert climate was so notorious for murder and danger, no law man set foot in these parts. The boom followed a bust and the town dried up as quickly as it had begun with fortune seekers off to the next promising area.
Further down at Nelson Landing a recreation area and boat launch one sees no evidence of the tragically of 1974 when without warning a flash flood wiped the wharf area of Nelson’s Landing off the face of the earth.
This area was called Colorado City and was used as a landing area for steamships carrying ore out of the valley. Colorado City had a mining camp, steamship terminal and two stamp mills for crushing ore. Most of it
What was left of Nelson’s Landing was removed by Mother Nature. In the flood of September 1974, the entire landing and village