Austin is an unincorporated town in Lander County, Nevada, United
States. In 2010, the census-designated place of Austin had a
population of 192. It is located on the western slopes of the Toiyabe
Range at an elevation of 6,575 feet (2,004 m). U.S. Route 50 passes
through the town.This area was long occupied by bands of the Western
Shoshone people. The city of Austin was mapped out in 1862 by David
Buell. This was during the American Civil War, and the Union was eager
to find new sources of precious metals, especially gold, to support
the war effort. The city was named after Buell's partner, Alvah
Austin, during a silver rush. The valued metal was reputedly found
when a Pony Express horse kicked over a rock and observers noticed the
silver. In 1862, it was designated as the county seat of Lander
County. (In 1979, after the center of population had shifted, the
county seat was shifted to Battle Mountain.) By summer 1863, Austin
and the surrounding Reese River Mining District had a population of
more than 10,000, mostly European Americans attracted to the silver
boom. In January 1864, a petition was created to combine Clifton,
Austin and Upper Austin into the "City of Austin." The Governor signed
the bill in February 1864. In 1864, the town launched Reuel Colt
Gridley's impromptu fundraising drive that raised over $250,000 for
wounded Civil War veterans, by repeatedly auctioning a sack of
flour.The Nevada Central Railroad was built to connect Austin with the
transcontinental railroad at Battle Mountain in 1880. However, by that
time the silver boom was almost over. The city was disincorporated in
1881. Major silver production ended by 1887, although there was a
slight revival in the 1910s. In the mid-1950s there was a great deal
of interest in uranium deposits in the area, to fuel the emerging
nuclear industry, but the ore proved to be of low quality.Gold and
silver mining has continued in the area sporadically and at generally
low levels of production. High quality turquoise is still mined in the
area in small quantities. Several shops manufacture jewelry from local
turquoise. Austin, Nevada Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter