"Well then. No love for our historic markers. Nevertheless, this is an interesting area! ... With a stern demarcation of the Mojave as seen by this thick and stately forest of Joshua trees. Right at the meeting of these deserts, #90 should be standing to honor a long and winded gold camp, but instead, the view only seems lonelier. What makes this worse is I wouldn't even know who to contact in this isolated patch of the Battle Born State." -- April 2009

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Along US 93, 18 miles S of Caliente Lincoln   37.619655, -114.794834

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Original Date Visited: 4/18/09
Signed: No

Marker History: At one point, even a county as far and away as Lincoln couldn't escape from the MIA dilemma that we had here in Nevada. Aside from a handful of people, the quest to find Marker 90 was at first a solo effort. Relatively few Nevadans had traversed this far in search of Nevada's state markers. Hunters who did set out to conquer it found a very scenic, but lonely locale - set atop a divide that separates the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. All who planned to conquer this marker were greeted by a litter barrel and a prolific forest of Joshua trees.

The first thing to notice was the clearly-marked road to the Delamar townsite, yet there was a complete lack of signage for the marker! Upon my conquering of Lincoln County in 2008, I had an unexpected chat with "Rob", a Lincoln County Sheriff while on a lunch break in Alamo. He regularly patrolled the entire area from the Clark Line north to Pioche and Lake Valley overall covering this stretch of US 93 inside and out. He remembered seeing a "marker there for Delamar for many years." He knows this because he's pulled many people over at that very spot because of the steep downhill here on Hancock Pass! As far as he knew, "it was taken down because of vandals" and hadn't seen it since. Again, this didn't surprise me considering the turnout's isolation.

Since my home base was some 400 miles away in Carson City, fellow hunter Gary Bodell, NDOT employee at the Lincoln County/Las Vegas branch, had taken up the reigns to search for this elusive marker. It wasn't until 2015, over twenty years later, that Marker 90 was replaced during the SHPO's huge marker re-vamping for Nevada's 150th Sesquicentennial celebration. This campaign restored about ninety percent (and even replaced a few MIAs) of the markers in the State Marker System across the state and Marker 90 was one of the lucky MIAs. It may have taken quite a bit of time, but representation of the state's deadliest mining camp can finally be seen atop this scenic meeting ground of three deserts.

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Here's what you'll see!

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Marker 90 atop Hancock Pass (c) Jacob Barlow The road to Delamar Delamar, circa 1901 The terrible town of Delamar, 1903

Exact Description:
Gold was discovered here in 1889. This isolated, treeless metropolis of over 1,500 residents, had a newspaper, hospital, school, churches, saloons and a stockbroker. Entertainment included brass bands, dance orchestras and stage attractions at the Opera House.

Water came from Meadow Valley Wash, 12 miles away. All other materials were hauled through the mountains by mule team 150 miles from a railroad head at Milford, Utah. For 16 years, most of the bullion was hauled out in the same manner.

The dry milling processes used prior to the introduction of wet methods created a fine silicon or "death" dust which caused the deaths of many residents and gave the town its nickname.

Delamar produced $15,000,000 in gold and was Nevada's leading producer of that decade.

Marker 90 as seen today. Thanks to Karen Bodell for this fabulous update!

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