Talk:Eagleville, Mineral County, Nevada

GNIS has TWO eagleville, NV towns listed

Copied from User talk:Milowent

Here is a weird quirk/mystery to work out -- the GNIS has TWO eagleville, NV towns listed. The other is not far away from the first but slightly to the north in Churchill County. [1]. And some old sources refer to Churchill County. Here [2] is a 1910 topo map (excerpted on Rawhide, Nevada) which shows Eagleville due east of Rawhide, where we think it should be -- in what was then Esmeralda County, Nevada before Mineral County was created in 1911. That 1910 map doesn't show another eagleville north of Rawhide, though the 1919 Nevada state highway map shows it there! [3]. My guess - so far- is that there is only one Eagleville but the location was not always tracked exactly -- the county lines on the 1919 highway map are not as precise as they should be.--Milowent • ^hasspoken 19:48, 26 September 2017 (UTC)

@Milowent: I love a mystery. When researching, I noticed information in sources for the Churchill County Eagleville. I created this article from a red link that was formerly in the {{Mineral County, Nevada}} template. Perhaps content about the Churchill County Eagleville should be included in this article? North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 13:51, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

@Milowent:,@Northamerica1000: This is very mysterious. At first I was quite certain that there was really only one Eagleville in the vicinity and that the problem was that the county border between Churchill County and Esmeralda County and later Mineral County had changed. Fortunately, the Nevada Legislature list of border and changes is available. However, I could not find a way to make the border history fit.

My summary is that there were two Eaglevilles, the one in Esmeralda and then Mineral County was first. There was confusion about exactly which county it was in. The newer Eagleville was in Churchill County and was present from the early 1900s until the 1950s. Below is my analysis, I apologize for the length, but there are many inconsistencies here:

GNIS results for Eagleville in Nevada

Search GNIS for Eagleville in Nevada yields these:

Feature Name	ID	Class	County	State	Latitude	Longitude	Ele(ft)	Map	BGN Date	Entry Date
Eagleville (historical)	858636	Populated Place	Churchill	NV	390900N	1181803W	4623	Chukar Canyon	01-JAN-1959	01-JAN-1990
Eagleville Mine	857718	Mine	Churchill	NV	390910N	1181817W	4636	Chukar Canyon	-	01-MAY-1992
Eagleville Mine	856235	Mine	Mineral	NV	390133N	1181502W	5545	Slate Mountain	-	12-DEC-1980
Eagleville (historical)	854763	Populated Place	Mineral	NV	390134N	1181510W	5561	Big Kasock Mountain	-	01-MAR-1990
Eagleville Post Office (historical)	864739	Post Office	Mineral	NV	390134N	1181510W	5561	Big Kasock Mountain	-	01-MAR-1991
Eagleville Mining District	848324	Civil	Mineral	NV	390123N	1181508W	5613	Big Kasock Mountain	-	01-FEB-1991

The first two Eagleville (historical) (858636) and Eagleville Mine (857718), both located in Churchill County, are suspect.

Eagleville (historical) 858636 in Churchill County

Eagleville (historical) 858636 was added in 1959. The Board of Geographic Names brief for 858636 states the following in quotes, my comments are indented

• "Locality, site of an abandoned settlement (1) (5) (14) about 10.5 miles northeast of Rawhide"
  • The location is about 10.5 miles NE of Rawhide.
  • Google Maps Satellite view shows no sign of a community at this location, though there is a turn out nearby that could have been a settlement.
  • The (1) (5) (14) presumable refer to the references listed in the brief below.
• "Application of name for publication purposes; recommended application not the same as that suggested by submitting person, because of its with the majority of evidence; at variance with USGS (The submitting person used the USGS map for a base); not in USNF"
  • There are a number of maps mentioned, the ones with geographic descriptions are below
• "(1)1958-9-Ltrs (4-8-58/8-11-59) from K.V. Steinbrugge enclosing report and map. (recommended application not the same as applied on the above map"
  • K.V. Steinbrugge wrote this article: Steinbrugge, K. V.; Moran, D. F. (1957). "Engineering aspects of the Dixie Valley-Fairview Peak earthquakes". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 47 (4): 335–348. Retrieved April 25, 2020.. Presumably Steinbrugge submitted the location to the GNIS so that he could refer to the location in his publication. I find this to be very strong support for there being a small settlement or its remains called Eagleville at this location in the 1950s. I suppose I could pay the $35 to get the paper and see what it says about Eagleville.
• "(5) not shown (name applied 7.5 miles east of Rawhide)(Mineral Co.) 1908 USGS Carson Sink 1:250"
• "(12) not shown (name applied 7.5 miles east of Rawhide 1957)(Mineral Co.) - Bull Seism. Soc. Am, 47, map"
• "(13) Eagleville 1956 - Nell Murbarger "Ghosts of the Glory Trail" Des. Mag. Press, Palm Desert Calif"
  • "Eagleville, Churchill Co., 52 mi. S.E. Fallon; 10 mi. S. Frenchman's Sta. (Frenchman), on U.S. 50. A small village of the 1900s."
    • The above quotation is verified on p. 258 of https://archive.org/stream/ghostsofglorytra00murb. Note that Nell Murbarger wrote quite a bit about the desert and that there probably something named Eagleville at that location. The location is 10 mi. south of Frenchman, which matches Murbarger's description. I find this also to be strong support for Eagleville being at this location in the 1950s.
• "(14) Eagleville 1903 - G.L.O map - Nevada"
  • earthpoint converts the latitude and longitude to S19 T15N R33E
  • Searching GLO surveys shows no survey for that S19
  • GLO shows Nevada Fairview Mining as having patents on S12, S7 and S18. This does support the possibility of Eagleville Mine 857718 (Churchill County) existing (see below)
• "(17) Eagleville 1913 - Nev. Hist. Soc,, 3rd Biennal Rept. - states "....village near southern boundary line of the County (Churchill Co.)...."
  • I could not find this source online

Here's a confusing thing. The 1897 Nevada - Shows Eagleville in Churchill County

• In this map Eagleville is in what looks like T13N R33E.
• Eagleville (historical) in Mineral County "11 mi NE of Rawhide" is at 39.0260374 -118.2529064
• earthpoint converts 39.0260374 -118.2529064 to T13N R33E

So, it seems like the 1897 Nevada map has the more common Eagleville in Mineral County at T13 R33E incorrectly in Churchill County. Confusing, eh?

As Milowent pointed out, the 1919 Nevada state highway map does have Eagleville in Churchill County. Looking closely at the map, it seems to be in township 15 (that's the "15" near "Eagleville"). It is not clear what Range it is in, but north of the map is a set of ranges and R32 or R33 is probably correct. See above for how the location of Eagleville in Churchill County is at T15 R33 and the Eagleville in Mineral County is at T13 R33.

This reference: Lincoln, Francis Church (1923). "Mining districts and mineral resources of Nevada". p. 2. Retrieved April 28, 2020. states that Fallon, Nevada is 64 miles to the northwest of Eagleville, which disagrees with Murgbarger's statement that Eagleville, Churchill County is 52 miles southeast of Fallon. Also, this reference states that the Eagleville district is in Churchill County, though the GNIS Eagleville Mining District cites this reference (Lincoln 1923) but states that the district is in Mineral County. It could be that Lincoln was writing about the location in Mineral County and had the location wrong.

Eagleville Mine 857718 (Churchill County)

Eagleville Mine 857718 (Churchill County) is suspect because the [4] record states:

• "Citation: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 1:250,000-scale topographic maps; various edition dates. Represents new or changed names from published editions. Map name and year of publication follow (if known): Reno/1962"
  • No Reno 1:250,000 1962 map could be found. The Reno 1:250,000 1960 map is listed at https://www.oldmapsonline.org/map/usgs/5573846. It shows Eagleville Mine as being east of Rawhide in Mineral County
• Google Maps shows no sign of a mine at this location, though there is a borrow pit nearby.
  • In Vanderberg, William O. (May 15, 1936). Placer mining in Nevada (Report). Vol. 30. Nevada Bureau of Mines & Geology. p. 62. Retrieved April 29, 2020.:
    • "Eagleville or Hot Springs District is in Churchill County, near the Esmeralda County Line, a short distance south of the camp of Fairview. A small amount of gold was recovered from placer operations in 1906..."
    • This sort of supports the idea of Eagleville being in Churchill County, but Vanderberg could have been confused by Lincoln, the maps and the small village at that location.
• Nevada Fairview Mining as having patents nearby this location, see above. This supports the idea of a mine being at this location.

Paher, Stanley W. Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps. p. 456. states that Eagleville was 2 1/2 miles east of SR 31 10 miles north and east of Deadhorse Well. Locating Deadhorse Well on the map puts the Eagleville that Paher is writing about in Mineral County. Paher writes that Eagleville started in the early 1880's and produced for about 30 years. Eagleville had a post office from 1889 until 1913.

Summary

There are maps that show Eagleville in both Churchill and Mineral County. (Presumably there are maps that have it in Esmeralda County as well, I just can't find them right now.)

Lincoln (1923) places Eagleville in Churchill County, but the distance from Fallon would put his location in Mineral County.

The Eagleville (historical) (858636) in Churchill County was added to the GNIS in 1959. It cites two reasonably good sources, Nell Murbarger and K.V. Steinbrugge. Murbarger's description coincides with the location in the GNIS. It is unlikely that Murbarger was wrong, though it is possible. It seems unlikely that Steinbrugge was also wrong, but perhaps they relied on Murbarger?

If we assume that Lincoln was wrong about the county but right about the location, then Lincoln was writing about how the area produced small amounts of silver in 1905 and 1908 and this location is the more southern location that is now in Mineral County. At some point, the more northern site in Churchill County was called Eagleville and this is the location that Murbarger and Steinbrugge visited in the 1950s.

So, I believe that there were two Eaglevilles, one in what is now Mineral County and one that was in Churchill County. I don't know that the one in Churchill County is notable, but I'll leave that up to some future discussion. We could add a paragraph here. Cxbrx (talk) 05:37, 30 April 2020 (UTC)