From Ely, it is six miles west on U.S. Highway 50 to the turn off for Ruth. Turn left for two miles to the town of Ruth.
Ore discovered just before 1900, was initially regarded as possible gold and silver property. The name Ruth was given the ore deposit by D.C. McDonald, Justice of the Peace and pioneer of the Robinson District, for his daughter. McDonald showed Dave Bartley and Edwin Gray a number of claims he owned among them the Ruth and the Kearsage. The two miners took a lease option to buy the two claims. When asked what he thought of the ground, Bartley replied that if it were good for anything it would be copper. Bartley had just came from a copper district, and that could explain his fondness for a metal that was much despised around Ely. W. B. Graham, who ran the general store in Ely, grubstaked Gray and Bartley.
Gray and Bartley tediously drove their adit1 315 feet and then sank a 200-foot winze2. A number of drifts and crosscuts were run. It was a very attractive enterprise except for the 150-mile haul to the railroad. They were confident the right man would come along. In the meantime, anybody who happened around was welcome to go into the mine and help himself to samples. An occasional guest during a period of several weeks was an old Comstocker who went by the name of Williams. He ‘swapped yarns’ and worked hard getting a few samples here and there. Williams did not appear to have any specific business and Gray and Bartley missed his company when he left as unceremoniously as he had appeared. In the autumn of 1902, Mark L. Requa appeared and asked, without ceremony, ‘Boys, how much do you want?’ The answer was $150,000 and Requa replied that they should all go down to Ely and fix up the papers.3 ‘Williams’, whose real name was J. G. Stevens, had been scouting the district for Requa.
Requa organized the White Pine Copper Company and further developed the Ruth mine in 1903. Gray was made superintendent of the mine and held that position until 1907. Bartley became owner of the Steptoe Drug Company in Ely. A small experimental concentrator was built in 1904 and the mine was bulk-sampled. This led to the founding of a settlement of tents and shacks near the main mine. With increased development, Ruth had a modest commercial district by 1905. The post office opened on February 8, 1904. Ruth was a company town with boarding house, bunkhouses, a hospital and other buildings. The Nevada Consolidated Copper Company provided for all utilities.
The practice of exploring low-grade copper deposits with churn drills was pioneered in the Robinson District in 1906. In that same year, Giroux Company built a 100-ton blast furnace that was never used. All the ore from the Ruth mine area was extracted by underground methods until 1958.
The major copper deposits of the Nevada Consolidated were mined underground until the summer of 1907 when steam shovels began stripping the overburden from the area above the Eureka mine. A large oval pit soon took shape, and in 1916, it was combined with a nearby pit to form the large Liberty pit. The Veteran mine was developed underground but was converted to a pit operation in 1955. The Emma, Monitor, and Morris-Brooks underground mines were later mined in parts of the Liberty and Tripp pits.
A 1940 guidebook described Ruth as the mine headquarters of Nevada Consolidated with a population of 2,281. The houses were described as scattered over hillsides. Ruth is one mining town that has never died. When room had to be made for the expansion of the pit, the town was literally picked up and moved. Therefore, several places named Ruth are listed on the Nevada ghost town roster. However, the town still survives and cannot be termed a “ghost town.” Around 1955, all the buildings were relocated to the present site called New Ruth to allow for block caving of ore in the new Deep Ruth shaft. Many people moved their houses to Ely.
The Ruth post office continues operation today, making the move with the rest of the town.
1. Adit. An adit is a horizontal passage driven from the surface to work a mine or vein. (A tunnel, for example, would be a passage driven to the opposite side of a hill or mountain).
2. Winze. Winze is a vertical or inclined shaft cut from one level to another in a mine for ventilation or to remove ore.
3. Fix up the papers. Judge Curtis H. Lindley, author of the classic legal treatise, Lindley on Mines, approved the option agreement drawn by the two amateurs as fair and binding to both sides though no occasion arose to test it in the courts.
