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Donovan Mill Complex

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1890. East side of NV 342, near intersection with Pedlar Rd.
  • Donovan Mill Complex (Bret Morgan)

The Donovan Mill is an industrial complex of wood-frame buildings sheathed in corrugated metal. Builders usually placed these structures on the slopes of hills so that gravity could help feed the ore through the system. The complex originally included a ten-stamp mill used to pulverize ore; it was enlarged to thirty stamps in the early twentieth century. The mill switched to cyanide processing around 1900 to retrieve microscopic gold and silver deposits. It remained in operation until 1959. The buildings are excellent utilitarian examples of the industrial architecture that played a major role in the state's mining history.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Julie Nicoletta
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Data

What's Nearby

Hardwicke House
Gold Hill Hotel
Virginia and Truckee Depot
Fourth Ward School
C. J. Prescott House

Citation

Julie Nicoletta, "Donovan Mill Complex", [Carson City, Nevada], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NV-01-NW063.

Print Source

Buildings of Nevada, Julie Nicoletta. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 97-97.

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