The Pinto District is located west of Ely near the Eureka County line with a small portion of the district in Eureka County. Silver discoveries in 1866 were lead-silver bearing quartz veins.
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, compiled by R. M. Smith in 1970, show two principal mines - the Queen and the Fairplay. The Queen is on the east side and the Fairplay on the west side of Silverado Mountain. The camp of Pinto (Silverado) with blacksmith shops, boarding houses, and post office was soon established. A large mill with twenty stamps and eight reverberatory roasting furnaces was constructed in 1867, but no large amount of ore was produced. The mill operated chiefly on ores from the White Pine and Pinto districts in 1869 and 1870. At the time the post office was established, September 9, 1870, the camp of Pinto was part of White Pine County.
The 1870 Census enumerated August 12, 1870 showed fifty-one residents in the district. There were two blacksmiths, one dealer in general merchandise, two teamsters, two station keepers and two cooks. Only one female was listed - Rachel, the thirty-one year old wife of one of the station keepers, Frank James. The rest were listed as miners with one listed as Mining Superintendent. The oldest person in residence was Henry Eaton, a fifty-one year old miner. The youngest person was Charles Farley, a twenty-six year old cook. All were listed as white. Many were foreign born and eleven were not eligible to vote. Only one person, a miner from Canada, could not read or write.
The post office remained in operation until February 1871. By the time this post office was reestablished in 1875, the White Pine - Eureka county boundary had changed.
There has been intermittent small production in the years since. The largest dollar value was in 1868, when 770 tons valued at $75,847 were produced. Lead and copper were recovered from the ores beginning in 1903 and zinc from 1944. Scheelite was discovered in the dump and workings of the Bay State mine in 1942. Tungsten ore was shipped during the years 1942 and 1944. In 1952, 1955, and 1956, production from the Bay State totaled about 3,000 short tons of WO3 (tungsten), and a little silver, lead, and zinc. Fifteen tons of silver ore produced in 1956 were of value for silica content used as fluxing ore at the McGill Smelter.
