The Streets of Aurora

The ghost town you could make a violent western about. The town's history during the 1860s is kind of like the story of High Plains Drifter, except the town members eventually rose up against the lawless. In fact, one of the members of the Daly Gang tried to escape and was caught very close to where the town of Lago was filmed in HPD.Show more

Note: the subtitles and transcript should work. I need to do a little more editing of the timing in the next few days.

This is an updated video of the ghost town of Aurora, NV. It corrects some of the mistakes I made in the original video(s) twelve years ago. I had annotations for the mistakes at the time, but I think they were taken down when Youtube changed the way annotations can be done. In any case, this version gives you an idea of how the town was even though there is nothing really there anymore. I cover the main two intersecting streets where most business and the wild west action took place, but keep in mind there were other streets around and people lived in homes surrounding the area. It is my fun place to play amateur archeologist in my attempt to imagine and recreate what the town would have been like.

Please note the pictures are just for context, to give you an idea of how the place was, and I was not in the exact spots where those pictures were taken. I note in the video why it was much more difficult this year (2023) finding my way around the town.

If you saw the screen title that has "Wide West Mining Co. 1862" on it that is interesting because it is the oldest inscribed inscription in the Eastern Sierra, but it is now a stepping stone in front of the Bodie Historic Park Museum.

I have some recent blog entries about my most recent trip(s) to Aurora, but I will also link the old blogs I did twelve years ago. Note: that if you want to read these in chronological order you want to scroll down to the bottom and start reading there after you click any of the following links:

Aurora 2023 blog series: https://tinyurl.com/54dhryxp

Aurora 2011 blog series: https://tinyurl.com/2yjsaktp

Aurora 2011 East Pine Street: https://tinyurl.com/5992e856

The books I mentioned:
1)McGrath, Roger D. Gunfighters Highwaymen & Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier. University of California Press, 1984.
Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/3ejduebr

McGrath's book is the classic for all the "wild west" information regarding Aurora and Bodie ghost towns.

2)Shaw, Clifford Alpheus. Aurora Nevada 1860-1960 : Mining Camp Frontier City Ghost Town. Second ed. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.
Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/bdd4pzeh

Most people will want to get the paperback edition in the above link. This the best handbook for trying to "recreate" the town of Aurora. LOTS of pictures through the book. In fact, using this book and pausing my video might be the best way to appreciate the town! :)

3)Silver, Sue. Mineral County Nevada. Museum Ass. of Mineral County, 2011.
Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/wzjknjwa
This book has a chapter on Aurora that was useful.

4)Shaw, Clifford Alpheus. The Last Days of the Daly Gang at Aurora Nevada. CreateSpace, 2014.
Amazon link: https://tinyurl.com/bdd4pzeh
This small book gives most of testimony people had in the days following the final murder committed by the gang up until they were hanged. I would recommend the McGrath book with the chapter on the gang first, then getting this one if you are looking for more information. It does include some of the location pictures of where things happened (kind of like what I did in the video).

Neo Western Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Western Streets Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Blue Sizzle Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/