Ely, Nevada
Copper Mining Town And White Pine County Seat On US 50, Known For Its Renaissance Village And Downtown Murals And The Hotel Nevada (1929) · Ely, Nevada
Ely is the seat of White Pine County and the largest town in east-central Nevada, a copper-mining and railroad town of roughly 4,000 people at about 6,400 feet where US 50, US 6 and US 93 meet. It began as a small silver camp and stage stop in the 1870s and grew fast in the early 1900s, when copper mining at Ruth and Kimberly and the smelter at McGill made the Steptoe Valley one of the richest districts in the state; the huge Robinson open pit west of town is still mined on and off. Today Ely is above all a base and a service stop: Great Basin National Park is about 70 miles east, and the Nevada Northern Railway, Ward Charcoal Ovens and Cave Lake are close by, each with its own row. The town itself is worth half a day. The Ely Renaissance Society has covered downtown walls with murals of mining, ranching and immigrant life, the 1929 Hotel Nevada still anchors Aultman Street, the Renaissance Village remembers the immigrant families who worked the mines, and the White Pine Public Museum keeps the local story. It is a small, working, high-desert town with cold winters, not a resort.
Aultman Street (US 50), Ely, Nevada, 89301, United States
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the murals are outdoors and viewable at any hour, the Hotel Nevada and the casino hotels are open around the clock, the White Pine Public Museum keeps daytime hours with shorter winter days, the Renaissance Village has typically opened only on summer Saturdays, and the McGill Drug Store Museum often opens only on limited days or by arrangement. The traps that ruin a day are arriving at the Renaissance Village outside its short season, finding a museum shut in winter, coming back from Great Basin after the restaurants have closed, and planning a winter drive over the passes after dark. Confirm current times before relying on them.