A graphic look at the Montezuma Smelting Works at Oreana, Nevada

© 2009 Clarence D. Basso

Built in1866 and 1867 at an estimated cost of $300,000 along the banks of the Humboldt River about ten miles north of Lovelock, Nevada, the Montezuma Smelting Works was described in1869 as “… one of the most interesting localities to the mining engineer and metallurgist in all the West. It is the seat of the famous Oreana [Nevada] smelting works.”

Now, a series of recently acquired photographs by famous nineteenth century western photographer Timothy O’Sullivan and schematics by design engineer Sydney Tuttle take the reader on a journey inside this marvelous enterprise 140 years after its demise. Photographs of the impressive super structure’s east and west exposures, a closeup of one of the refining furnaces and beautifully detailed drawings of each of the three furnace types in the smelter contrast sharply with a 2008 photograph of the now-bleak historic site. See them and more in A Graphic Look at the Montezuma Smelting Works.

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