Nevada Mine Map

While I was working on data entry for a new set of SUV and ATV trails in Southern Nevada, near Las Vegas to be precise, I needed to verify locations of several mines. And thinking of a conversation that I've had over and over with Gordon about "someone needs to do a map of all the Nevada Mines", when I ran across a USGS "Department of Names" I decided to see what they did.

What a suprise to find that there is a whole government department in charge of collecting and "officializing" the name and location of every lake, stream, mountain, gap, peak, city, town, airport, basin, bay, building, cliff, crossing, flat, local, populated place, post office, range, resevoir, ridge, school, spring, summit, tower, valley, well, woods… do you get the point yet? If not I could go on. AND… MINE!   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Nevada Mines]

So, five hours later…
(after I had figured how to extract just the Nevada information so the silly file would even fit in Excel), then just the Nevada Mine information (because it still wouldn't fit in Excel), and programming macros to generate the Google Earth file, and programming styles so that you could even read them — voila… Bob's your uncle. The "Nevada Mines" google Earth file was born!

As usual, click on the link above to download the file. If you already have Google Earth loaded on your machine (and who doesn't) then all you need to do is selct "Open" from the download box and it will grab the file then open GE with the file already installed.

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

I should warn you that, as GE map files go, it's a REALLY big file and it will slow down the program a bit. But you will be able to see all 3,794 mines (known to the USGS as of Oct 2009) plotted all across the state.

Clicking on any of the icon's or labels will bring up the Offroading Home description box with the official ID Number, the County that it's in, the USGS map that it's on, the Date that the thing was "officialized" and even the Date that it was "modified" if it ever was.

Zoom in to Gold Butte, for instance, and take a look at all the mines there. However, you should notice that in the grand scheme of things the entire area is only sparsely filled with mines compared with the Potosi Mountain Range down by Goodsprings, southwest of Las Vegas.

There are a lot of mines down there, along with some great Offroad ATV and SUV rides… but I get ahead of myself – that's the next post.