The Winna-Winner Claims

About This Claim

40 Acres on a Mountain That Already Paid Once

The Mine Above Town

Drive into Winnemucca on Interstate 80 and you can’t miss it: Winnemucca Mountain fills the windshield, rising straight up from the north edge of town. The Winna-Winner Claims sit on its sunny Southern slope, on ground that has already proven itself — the old Winnemucca Mountain Mine, a documented producer that shipped more than two thousand tons of gold-and-silver-bearing ore to the smelters down the hill. The ore they shipped was perfect: gold and electrum in quartz, copper and molybdenum minerals alongside, all sitting in the baked contact zone around a big diorite intrusion, an exciting find for any prospector. And you don’t have to go to the end of the earth to get at it. Just a mile or two up the hill from the town of Winnemucca, standing on the claims lets the whole valley is unfold out below you — the railroad, the interstate, the rooftops covering the latest generations of old miners who worked the hill themselves. The Winna-Winner claims: Two 20-acre unpatented placer claims made on the historical sites of the old Winnemucca Mine, sitting on the same north-running ore shear the old-timers never followed to the bottom, on a mountain freshly stripped bare by fire - perfect for hunting for new outcroppings.

The history of the area is well-recorded and understood. In the late 1930s two brothers, Gus and Ab Rogers, held this slope as a large twenty-two-claim group and went to work on it with picks, powder and a truck. Between then and 1943, they hauled 2,227 tons of ore off the mountain, worth $27,282 in the money of the day (over $500,000+ today!) — and they kept at it until 1945, which tells you the ore was paying. It was heavy with iron, which the smelters wanted as flux, and it carried gold and silver along for the ride. They worked it the old way, with open cuts and short tunnels chasing the shear zone that runs north through the hill, and they never got below the rusty, iron cap. The structure is still there, still open, and now sits in the open air. The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology recorded all of it in its 1964 county bulletin, the U.S. Geological Survey still carries the record today, and a 1937 prospectus for the Winnemucca Mountain Mines Company survives in the state files in Reno — unpublished, and waiting for someone curious enough to go read it.

Good Company on the Hill

The Rogers brothers weren’t the first to find gold on Winnemucca Mountain. Prospectors discovered it as early as 1863, where smelters were smoking along the Humboldt River before the decade was out, and the railroad arrived in 1868 to haul the ore away. The star of that first rush was the Pride of the Mountain, just a short walk to the south-west of the Winna-Winner in the same baked-slate country. It ran from 1868 through 1877, its early ore assayed at $40 to $100 a ton in gold, and the USGS credits it with about a million dollars in precious metals — in 1870s dollars (closer to $18,000,000+ today!). That ground belongs to someone else today, but it tells you what this side of the mountain is made of.

What’s Under Your Boots

The geology is simple. The south end of Winnemucca Mountain is built of old sea-floor sediments — slate and gray limestone laid down in the Triassic, more than 200 million years ago. Later, a big body of molten rock called a diorite stock pushed up into those sediments and cooked them, turning the slate into a hard, flinty rock called hornfels. That baking zone around an intrusion is exactly where prospectors go looking for gold, silver and copper, because hot mineral-rich fluids follow the contact and leave their metals behind. The Winna-Winner sits right in that zone.

The old workings show what the fluids left. The ore the Rogers brothers dug carried gold and electrum (a natural gold-silver alloy) in quartz and rusty iron oxides, with flecks of molybdenite and chalcopyrite — copper ore — in the mix. The rusty iron cap that made the ore worth shipping as flux is the weathered top of a mineral system, and the brothers never got far below it. Modern exploration on Winnemucca Mountain has gone to the far west side of the hill; but where the Winna-Winners sit is where the old-timers actually made their discovery.

The Cleansing Fire of the Mountain

In June 2025, a brush fire swept across 2,300+ acres of Winnemucca Mountain before the fire crews knocked it down. A year later, the sagebrush that once hid the ground for a generation is gone. The old cuts, the iron-stained rock and the contact zone are sitting out in the open, easier to walk and read than they have been in decades. New outcroppings can be more easily seen with the old brush out of the way - making a starting point for discovery that should've been obvious even more so.

Easy to Reach, Easy to Work

Winnemucca is the county seat, a town of about 8,400 people that has served miners for 160 years. Interstate 80, U.S. 95 and the Union Pacific mainline all meet there. From town, well-maintained dirt roads climb the Southern and Eastern slopes of the mountain toward the claims. They are in good shape most of the year, with the occasional rough stretch, so bring a truck or SUV that is comfortable on dirt — or park below and enjoy the hike up. Fuel, groceries, motels, hardware, equipment rental, assay labs and a workforce that knows mining are all in town. You can sleep in a bed, eat a warm, eggy breakfast at a cafe and be swinging a pick on your own claim before the coffee wears off.

The Neighborhood

Winnemucca isn't in this spot in the world for no good reason: This is serious gold country. Nevada Gold Mines runs the Turquoise Ridge and Twin Creeks operations about 40 miles to the north-east. Hycroft is 54 miles west, Florida Canyon 45 miles down the interstate, and Marigold and Lone Tree are 36 miles east at the Valmy exit. Between 1905 and 1959 alone, Humboldt County’s lode mines turned out more than 811,000 ounces of gold, with another 36,000 ounces from placers — and the county has only gotten busier since. The Winna-Winner puts you in the middle of it.

The Features of the “Winna-Winner Claims” at a Glance

• A Mine With Receipts – 2,227 tons of ore shipped off this ground before 1943, worth $27,282, by Gus and Ab Rogers, who held it as a 22-claim group from 1937 to 1945 - and there's still more to explore!
• Gold, Silver, Copper and More – The old ore carried gold and electrum in quartz and iron, with molybdenite and chalcopyrite alongside. Signs of the Treasured Trinity (gold, silver, and copper) has brought fortune to many men.
• Textbook Gold Geology – A diorite intrusion baked into Triassic slate and limestone — the contact zone that seasoned gold prospectors look for.
• A Known Ore Structure – The mineralization follows a north-running shear zone, opened by historic cuts and short tunnels that stopped in the rusty cap. Going a little deeper could be the start of something big!
• A Million-Dollar Neighbor – The Pride of the Mountain, a short walk away in the same rock, is credited with about $1,000,000 in precious metals in the 1870s, with early ore running $40–$100 a ton in gold.
• Bare Ground After the 2025 Fire – 2,321 acres of brush burned off the mountain in June 2025. The rock is exposed and ready to prospect without needing to worry about uprooting pesky underbrush or disturbing habitats.
• Two Claims, Two Chances – 40 acres in two separate 20-acre blocks about a half mile apart on the same trend, covering the historical sites left behind by the Rogers brothers.
• Three Miles From Town – Interstate 80, U.S. 95, the railroad and every service a miner needs are all in Winnemucca, with well-maintained dirt roads up the slope to the claims.

If you’re interested in purchasing this unpatented Nevada mine for sale, please email me here.

The Winna-Winner Main Features

Photographs of the Ground

The following were taken on the claims and on the surrounding slope of Winnemucca Mountain during a field visit on April 4, 2026. They show the burn exposure, the old workings and concrete foundations, the hillside cuts, and the view down onto the city of Winnemucca. Click any photograph to open it full size.

103 site photographs.

Claim Boundaries, Location Map and GPS Coordinates

The Four Corners

Claim boundaries taken directly from the recorded Google Earth KMZ (WGS 84).

Each claim is a north-south unpatented placer block roughly 1,320 feet long by 660 feet wide, staked at its own discovery monument. The two sit about a half mile apart on the same mineralized trend — two separate bites at the structure instead of one.

• View the claim on the interactive map
• ↓ Download the Google Earth KMZ of “Winna-Winner Claims” Boundaries
• ↓ Read the Historical & Geological Research Report (PDF)

Economic Information About the Deposit and Operations

Mining District

Geologic Structures

The Winna-Winner Claims Mineral Rights Transfer Process

A mining claim gives the holder the right to mine on mineral-rich land that belongs to the federal government. Mining claims are a tangible asset and show proof of all interests in minerals in the area. They can be bought, sold or used as collateral, just like any other piece of real estate.

A mining claim can be sold, traded, leased, gifted, willed, used as collateral or transferred in part or in its entirety just like any other real property using a quitclaim deed which is a recordable conveyance. Questions about the transfer process can be answered by contacting us anytime. All fees and paperwork are current; the first annual BLM maintenance payment comes due in 2027.

Purchasing “The Winna-Winner Claims”

• Full mineral rights transfer for “The Winna-Winner Claims” 40-acre Nevada mining claims
• Official certificates of location, claim locations and digital maps
• Email based support for claim maintenance and questions

Make an Offer

Have questions? Concerns? Want to see the mountain in person? Make an offer on the Winna-Winner Claims.

Contact Us

After your purchase is complete you will be requested to fill out our new claim owner form with your name/address or add any additional claimants you want on the claim.

You’ll get digital copies of your COL and Map of Location delivered via email in PDF format, as well as a Google Earth™ KMZ map file with your claims’ discovery points, corners and points of interest.

We handle all the filing and transfer services on your behalf. Expect to get official stamped/recorded copies of your paperwork mailed to you from the Humboldt County Recorder’s Office and the Nevada Bureau of Land Management officiating you as the new claimant within 45 days of purchase. Then officially enjoy mining gold on your own land!

Mineralization & Commodities

The Winna-Winner Claims are two 20-acre unpatented mining claims on the south slope of Winnemucca Mountain in the historic Winnemucca District of Humboldt County, Nevada. The district has been producing gold and silver since 1863, and this particular ground was still shipping ore to the smelter in the 1940s.

Primary and secondary commodities on these claims include:

The ore the Rogers brothers dug carried gold and electrum in quartz and rusty iron oxides, with molybdenite and chalcopyrite showing up alongside. That heavy iron is what made the ore sell as smelter flux, and it marks the weathered top of a mineral system tied to the diorite intrusion.

Geology & Setting

The Winna-Winner Claims lie on the south flank of Winnemucca Mountain, where a granite-like intrusion meets the old sea-floor rocks of the mountain, in a district that has been producing since 1863. The claim area is characterized by:

• Triassic slate, hornfels and gray limestone — the Winnemucca Formation
• A large diorite intrusion, roughly 2 by 2.75 kilometers, that baked the surrounding rock into a contact zone running through this ground
• A north-running shear zone carrying gold and electrum in quartz and iron oxides
• Historic open cuts and short tunnels on the ore structure
• Bare rock and outcrop exposed by the June 2025 Winnemucca Mountain Fire
• Well-maintained dirt roads up the slope, with Interstate 80, U.S. 95 and the Union Pacific line at the bottom

Two separate claims on the same trend give you two places to work. The ground suits a weekend prospector with a metal detector and a pick just as well as a small operator planning a proper sampling program — and modern exploration has left this side of the mountain alone in favor of the west side.

About the Winnemucca Mining District

Gold and silver were found on Winnemucca Mountain in 1863, and the district that grew up around it was named for the Paiute leader whose name the town also carries. Smelters were built along the Humboldt River in the 1860s, the Humboldt Reduction Works treated ore in town, and from 1868 the transcontinental railroad hauled it to market.

The south and east sides of the mountain are where the district’s first producers worked — the Pride of the Mountain, the Adamson and A. & T. mines, and later the Rogers brothers’ Winnemucca Mountain Mine. Between 1910 and 1935 the district turned out $132,433 in gold and silver, and the USGS put its total gold through 1959 at roughly 35,000 ounces.

The Winna-Winner Claims sit squarely on that historic ground, in plain sight of a town that has never stopped serving miners.