Eldorado Canyon

Just a cool place right outside of Las Vegas I found to shoot and wanted to share.

Nelson, back in 1775, wasn’t Nelson but was called Eldorado by the Spaniards who made the original discoveries of gold in this area that is now Eldorado Canyon, and no, Anasazi people used to live in the area of another canyon.

A hundred years after they discovered gold here, the prospectors and miners of the day took over and established the notorious Techatticup Mine. Disagreements over ownership, management and labor disputes resulted in wanton killings so frequent as to be routine and ordinary. Despite the sinister reputation of the mine, it along with others in the town produced several million dollars in gold, silver, copper and lead.

The area is accessible through the town of Nelson, Nevada off US 95 about 25 miles southwest of Las Vegas. Mines active from about 1858 until 1945. Many of the men that created this area were deserters from the Civil War. This was one of the first major gold strike areas in Nevada.

Photography by Todd Merrick

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 4:24 am. It is filed under everything else and tagged with eldorado canyon, gold mine, photography, todd merrick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.