►►ZOOM IN FOR DETAILS◄◄
►►CLICK HERE TO VIEW HARDIN CITY IN GOOGLE MAPS◄◄
41º 06’ 52.55” N 119º 00’ 08.09” W

The remains of Hardin City lay about 6 miles north of Double Hot Springs in the Black Rock desert. The road requires an off road vehicle. It was named after James Hardin, a Kentucky farmer who headed west to find his fortune. Traveling with a wagon train that stopped at Double Hot Springs Hardin set out with a friend to hunt food. He found a vein of lead which he took back to melt down for bullets. Once they reach their destination another friend of his examined a remaining piece of the lead and told Hardin he found it to contain a good response of gold and silver. This fired up Hardin who returned to the area - but never found the location he had found the original specimen at.

A prospector, hearing rumors, went out to Double Hot to pursue Hardin's find and found a ledge of lead at what he called Hardin's Spring. He took samples to a mill near Reno and the mill reported there was substantial gold in the samples to warrant further exploration. Word spread and soon people flocked to Hardin's Spring and a town began to grow. The name was changed to Hardin City and they worked the hills searching for gold and silver.

Reports from the mill near Reno continued to conform the wealth of the Hardin City ore. - However other mills in the area said the stuff was virtually worthless. People decided to do their own milling and built their own mill right in Hardin City. The town grew with about 15 houses built and several official buildings including an actual Post Office. The local mill never confirmed any wealth in the samples found, yet people continued to work the hills. James Hardin visited the town only once but never stayed.

Samples taken to the Reno mill continued to assay out as profitable. But then samples taken to other mills found the stuff to be of little value. The Hardin City Mill continued to find nothing - then someone had a light bulb go on. Research found the mill near Reno never cleared out their testing equipment between tests and the Hardin City ore was tested after ore from other highly profitable mines had been tested. The results showed gold and silver but it was the residue they were reading. Overnight Hardin City was dead.

Not much remains of Hardin City today. A good search will find  old timbers rotting in the dirt and areas that may have had a building standing. There are two rock building corns weathering away and that's about it. Still it's a nice destination for Black Rock trekking. And its history is quite colorful - who would build a town out here?.

Click On An Image For A Larger Version
Chuck stands in the remains of a small building	Tom sits on the corner stones of a larger building
X
Chuck and Larry at the smaller remains	The larger corner remains are weathering away
X
The eastern mountains make you wonder about the black strata	The colorfully painted hills look like mine workings

But wait -!  With a little more snooping around more can be found and so obviously open no one sees it right off the bat.  The remains of a large 'facility' of some type stands waiting to be found.  No one really knows just what it was but what is left points to some sort of processing plant.   Several walls remain along with a doorway and stairs.  A short distance from the large remains is a circular structure that could have been a chimney or a well.  You decide.

Harder to find than the white cornerstones it is definitely out in the open.	The structure is relatively large and my have been a processing plant.
X
The large rocks show no sign of morter	Black rocks are randomnly placed with the red rocks
A circular 'structure' lays East of the large remain..	Either a well of a chimney does show signs of morter. .
A 'side'view shows there were probably several rooms here.