Hamilton is an abandoned mining town located in the White Pine Range

White Pine Range

The White Pine Range is a group of mountains in southern White Pine County, in eastern Nevada. The range runs for approximately 51 miles from Beck Pass in the north to Currant Pass in the south. To the west of the range are the Duckwater tribal lands and the northern arm of large Railroad Valley...

, in western White Pine County

White Pine County, Nevada

White Pine County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. Its population at the 2010 census was 10,030. Its county seat is Ely. It is the home of Great Basin National Park...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The town boomed in 1868 and 1869 following the discovery of rich silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 deposits nearby, but the ore deposits proved shallow and by 1870 the region was already in decline. Hamilton became the first county seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of White Pine County in 1869, but lost that designation to the town of Ely

Ely, Nevada

Ely is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906...

 in 1887.

The Hamilton post office was first opened in 1868, and closed in 1931.

Hamilton is now a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

, with only scattered ruins remaining at the site.