Alunite

<br><b>Seeking Pay Dirt</b><br> In 1908, mining engineer Robert T. Hill staked a claim in Railroad Pass hoping to find gold deposits as rich as those in Goldfield to the north and Searchlight to the south. Hill reasoned that gold could surely be found at this location, since he had discovered large deposits of alunite, a white mineral typically used as an indicator of gold deposits. <br><br> <b>Dust in the Wind</b><br> Hill formed a syndicate and built a bustling mining camp known as Camp Alunite southwest of here with a blacksmith shop, stables, an assay office, and tent houses for his miners. Hill and his syndicate sank several shafts in the mountains and flats around Railroad Pass &#8211; but they ran out of money without finding the elusive wealth Hill believed was there. The Railroad Pass "gold boom" went bust and Camp Alunite was abandoned, its building and workings reclaimed by the desert.