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Marietta is a historic ghost town in Mineral County, Nevada, located in the Excelsior Mountains at approximately 38°14′36″N 118°20′19″W and an elevation of about 4,947 feet (1,508 meters). Situated southeast of Hawthorne near the alkali flats of Teel’s Marsh (also spelled Teel’s Marsh), it was never a typical Nevada boomtown fueled primarily by gold or silver. Instead, its economy centered on non-metallic minerals—first salt and then borax—extracted from the nearby dry lakebed. Founded in the late 1870s, Marietta grew rapidly as a supply and processing hub but declined sharply in the 1890s when richer deposits were found elsewhere. Today, it stands as a near-abandoned site of stone and adobe ruins, including remnants of F.M. “Borax” Smith’s company store. Since 1991, the surrounding 68,000-acre area has been designated the nation’s only federally managed Wild Burro Range by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), home to roughly 78–104 wild burros descended from those used by 19th-century miners.

The town’s story reflects broader patterns of Nevada’s mining history: rapid boom driven by resource extraction, isolation-fueled lawlessness, economic vulnerability to distant market shifts, and a lingering legacy in the form of feral animals and occasional modern exploration.

Early Exploration and Salt Mining (1860s–Early 1870s)

Prospecting in the Marietta Mining District (sometimes called the Silver Star District) began in the 1860s, making it the third-oldest mining district in Mineral County. Initial activity focused on small-scale silver, lead, copper, and gold claims in the surrounding ranges, though these yielded limited results compared to neighboring camps like Candelaria and Belleville.

By around 1867, attention shifted to the vast alkali deposits at Teel’s Marsh, a seasonal dry lake about two miles south of the future townsite (roughly 5 miles long, 1–2 miles wide, and covering about 6 square miles). Salt (sodium chloride) was scraped from the surface and transported—primarily by mule teams, though some accounts (disputed by historians) mention camel trains—to chlorination mills in Virginia City, Aurora (Nevada), Bodie (California), and other Comstock-era operations. Salt was essential for processing silver and gold ore at the time. These early operations supplied distant mills but did not yet support a permanent settlement.

Borax Discovery, Town Founding, and Boom Period (1872–Early 1890s)

The pivotal event came in 1872 when Francis Marion “Borax” Smith (often called F.M. Smith) and his brother J.P. Smith, while working salt fields in nearby Columbus, identified rich borate deposits (including ulexite) in Teel’s Marsh. They staked claims across much of the marsh and began large-scale scraping and processing. Crude borax was hauled roughly 115–130 miles north to railheads like Wadsworth by large freight teams (in 1875, 28 teams of 16 horses each were reportedly engaged). The Smith brothers formed the Teels Marsh Borax Company, a precursor to larger entities that eventually controlled much of the world’s borax market. Borax, previously a niche pharmaceutical import from Europe, was marketed by Smith as an abrasive cleaner, expanding demand dramatically.

Marietta was formally established as a town in 1877 (some sources note informal settlement as early as 1872). It quickly grew into a functional community with a post office (established July 1877), a newspaper, a company store owned by the Smith brothers, general mercantiles, and other businesses. Population peaked around 1880 at several hundred residents (exact counts are uncertain due to untracked Chinese laborers who worked the marsh and plants). At its height, the town boasted 13 saloons, stone and adobe structures, a stamp mill (erected early on), and supported intermittent metal mining in the hills above. Borax plants on the southeast edge of Teel’s Marsh produced up to six tons daily at times, operating seasonally for about eight months a year.

Marietta was notably isolated and lawless, even by Old West standards. As a mostly male camp, it suffered frequent robberies—the stage line was reportedly held up 30 times in 1880 alone, including four times in one week. A notorious 1880s gunfight between rival factions (involving figures like Tom McLaughlin and the Brophy brothers) left four men dead in a domestic dispute that escalated into street violence. Despite the chaos, the borax and salt operations proved lucrative, tying Marietta into the regional economy alongside nearby boomtowns.

Decline and Abandonment (1890s–Early 1900s)

Marietta’s prosperity lasted roughly 15–20 years but proved unsustainable. By the late 1880s, borax prices fell, operations slowed, and Chinese laborers (who had leased some works) abandoned the site amid illness in 1891. The decisive blow came in 1892 when vastly richer colemanite deposits were discovered in Death Valley, California. F.M. Smith relocated his operations southward, closing the Teel’s Marsh plants. With the primary industry gone, businesses shuttered, the post office closed (around 1881 in some records, though the town lingered longer), and most residents departed. By the early 1900s, Marietta was largely a ghost town, its wooden structures decaying and stone ruins left behind.

Intermittent Revivals and 20th-Century Mining (1900s–1960s)

Metal mining in the surrounding district continued sporadically. The Endowment Mine (also known as part of the Marietta operations) produced significant silver-lead ore, contributing roughly $1.5 million (with some estimates higher) from the late 1800s into the early 1900s. District-wide output reached about $2 million by 1939, with over half from tungsten mined during World War I price spikes.

Brief revivals occurred in the 1930s with silver and gold prospecting (e.g., shipments from the Joe Rutty Mine and development at the Endowment property, plus a short-lived “Cloudburst” district claim in 1940). Small uranium discoveries in the 1950s–1960s sparked minor interest but never scaled up. Large-scale activity largely ended by 1956, though exploration persisted into the 1980s. A few caretakers and later industrial buildings reflect ongoing (mostly private) mineral work, but these did not revive the town.

Modern Status and Legacy

Today, Marietta consists of scattered ruins—most prominently the stone walls of Borax Smith’s general store, mill foundations, and debris from wooden structures—amid the arid landscape. A handful of modern dwellings and mobile homes house caretakers or private interests. The site is accessible via dirt roads off U.S. Highway 95 (part of the Free-Range Art Highway), but visitors are advised to use 4×4 vehicles, carry supplies, and avoid entering old mines or private property due to hazards.

The area’s most distinctive modern feature is its status as the Marietta Wild Burro Range, dedicated in 1991 (the 20th anniversary of the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act). The burros, descendants of those brought by miners for hauling, roam freely among the ruins and marsh, numbering around 85–100. This makes Marietta a unique cultural and ecological site blending Nevada’s mining past with wild horse/burro preservation.

Marietta’s history underscores the fragility of resource-dependent towns in the American West. From salt and borax booms tied to F.M. Smith’s empire to its quiet endurance as a burro sanctuary, it remains a tangible link to Nevada’s 19th-century mining frontier. Sporadic modern exploration continues, but the town endures primarily as a ghost of its former self.

Marietta Trail Map

Marietta Personalities

References

• Ghosttowns.com