In the top photo (see File:Aurum Ghost Town, Nevada (15453169497).jpg), an ore track coming out of the historic Silver Canyon Mine in the Schell Creek Mountain Range in Nevada, east of the BLM’s Ely District. At one time the track ended at a wooden chute that sent the extracted ore from the mine down into a lower elevation where it was milled.

Further down in the valley bottom is the ghost town of Aurum, originally known as Silver Canyon, which sprang up in 1878. By 1881, Aurum had become a fair sized town with a store, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, two boarding houses, a small school, and its own post office.

On February 11, 1884, a snow slide buried one of the boarding houses and other buildings in the camp killing several men. The men killed in the snow slide rest in Aurum Cemetry, captured in this photo.

But Aurum experienced a revival in 1887, and by 1888, the town once again had up to 50 residents. The revival peaked in 1898 but by 1906 the camp was all but abandoned. The last resident left in the mid 1920’s and Aurum officially joined the White Pine County Ghost Town roll.