"CANDELARIA AND METALLIC CITY" a Mina Travel Page by JeanCooke

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Since ghost towns are not considered TOWNS on Virtural Tourist, Mina is the nearest active, albight tiny, town.

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CANDELARIA

Discovered by roving Spanish prospectors in 1863, Candelaria was not worked on a large scale until 1873 by immigrant Germans, Slavonians and others who built the boomtown.

Water was hauled from a spring 9 miles away for 17 years. A gallon of water cost $1; whiskey was cheaper! The stamp mill dispensed with water resulting in a pall of dust that caused dozens of miners to die from “miner’s consumption.” In 1882, water piped from Trail Canyon caused the price of water to drop to five cents per gallon.

Candelaria was the largest town in the immediate area and boasted of having three doctors, three lawyers, two hotels, six stores, a post office, 11 saloons, a schoolhouse, 2 newspapers, but NO church. It's silver veins produced over $33,000,000. In 1885 the Carson & Colorado railroad was extended to Candelaria.

Even in prosperity, Candelaria was uncomfortable and uninviting. Relentless sun beat down on flimsy wooden shacks and humble tents while the hot dry wind blew the mills powdery dust into miners lungs with each breath.

A fire in 1883, legal strife between mines and a strike combined to bring decay to the town. It was a ghost town for many years then boomed again in the early 1980's, producing millions in silver. Small quantities of excellent turquoise containing small veins of beautiful Spider-vein turquoise varicite was found in the large open pit of the Candelaria mine in the 1960’s.

Site reclamation has been ongoing for the past several years with tailing dumps re-contoured and re-seeded.

METALLIC CITY

Half mile southeast of Candelaria, this mining camp, the suburb and “Sin City” for Candelaria, was also called Pickhandle Gulch for the citizens preferred method of settling fights. In 1880, 300 citizens included two dozen “ladies of the night”.