If you blink on the seven-hour drive from Reno to Las Vegas, you’ll miss the historic mining town of Tonopah.
A century ago, miners risked their lives to pull a fortune of silver and gold from the nearby mountains. Though the mines went quiet years ago, the town of a little more than 2,000 people is betting that another boom is on the horizon.
“Anytime you have mining, you’re always going to have a rollercoaster ride. You have peaks and valleys. Good times, bad times,” said Jeff Martin, host of the Tonopah Historic Mining Park, a 100-acre museum on the site of the original mines.
Martin predicts the “good times” are on their way back to Tonopah.
The beginning of ‘a boom’
In the past year or so, the price of silver and gold has been soaring. Soon after taking office last year, President Trump signed an order to expedite the development of critical minerals, like gold.
Indeed, an array of new projects are coming to life in the vast expanse of open desert outside of town. People are buzzing with talk of a new lithium and boron mine set to start construction later this year.
Zanskar, a geothermal energy company, recently discovered an impressive reserve of heat deep underground and has plans for a new power plant nearby.
And to the south, near the town of Goldfield, a new gold mine is preparing to open in 2028.
Many of these projects were in the works before Trump returned to the White House, but his policies are popular in Nye County, where Trump got 70% of the vote in 2024.
“I feel like we’re in a boom right now, at the beginning of it,” said town manager Joe Westerlund. “Trump is kicking butt. I love the administration, and I think all the things they’re doing is what the United States needs.”
Tonopah could use the economic boost that would come with new well-paying mining jobs.
Westerlund said the town’s median household income is about $37,000 per year — far below the rest of the state, where the median household income is around $81,000 per census data. More than a decade ago, the town’s hospital shut down, and people still lament having to drive long distances to see a doctor.
Tonopah’s economy depends on government jobs and a nearby military test range, said Joni Eastley, a former Nye County commissioner.
“What I like to say is we aspire to be rural someday, but right now we’re still part of the frontier,” she said. “From a practical point of view, it means there are few services.”
Its remote location could make it difficult for Tonopah to accommodate new development. Officials here face the same problem that developers across the state are grappling with.
It’s difficult to build houses that workers can afford.
There’s probably 100 vacant houses in town, “but they’re not livable,” Westerlund said. And there aren’t enough contractors to do the work.
“They’re so busy we can’t hire them,” he said.
Westerlund said the town is working with mining companies to figure out a solution to build more housing.
Where there’s a boom, there’s a bust
Nevada is still the top gold-producing state in the country, and it does benefit from the pro-mining attitude in the White House, according to Simon Jowitt, a state geologist.
“There’s a lot of interest in all sorts of different commodities in the state,” he said. “We’ve got exploration looking at gold, silver, lithium, geothermal, zinc, copper. You name it, people are looking for it.”
But commodity prices are volatile, and Jowitt warned that no boom lasts forever. In some cases, Trump’s aggressive cuts to the federal workforce have actually slowed some development down, Jowitt said.
“It’s hard to fast-track when you don’t have the people to help the fast-tracking along,” Jowitt said.
A highly touted solar project outside of town that promised to rival the size of the city of Las Vegas hit a significant snag last fall, according to the Nevada Independent.
Business owner Harry Chahal understands the risk of big promises, and he’s betting on the new development anyway. The owner of the Dream Inn Motel on the main road that runs through Tonopah, and he’s been renovating the lodge’s 39 rooms with fresh paint, new carpet and updated furniture.
Chahal said the past four or five years have been “super slow,” but he’s banking on the fact that workers at the planned mines will need a place to live for a few weeks at a time, or longer.
“I’m investing for the long term,” Chahal said. “My personal opinion, if you don’t take the risk, you cannot [be a] success.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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