Tag Archives: barite

Dunphy, Nevada

Places that you may have never heard of

I’ve been writing about places with interesting names. They’re mostly in remote areas of the country that are unfamiliar to most travelers. As I roam the roads, I keep my eyes open for these kind of places.

You can’t help by notice the large green signs along the road tell us where to find certain towns and interesting places. Once in a while I come across an interesting name and wonder what this place is all about. Dunphy is one such place.

In north central Nevada along the I-80 freeway is a sign for Dunphy. It’s located between the two better known towns of Carlin and Battle Mountain.

I found that the TS Lazy Ranch was started by an Irish immigrant named William Dunphy. Dunphy and other partners used the open ranges in this area as a large, successful ranching operation.

Barite, a mineral used in oil drilling process, was discovered in the area in the 1930s. The raw barite ore was shipped to Modesto, California to be processed. Not long after a mill was constructed along side the Western Pacific railroad to crush and ship the raw materials onward.




In 2014 the Halliburton Corp built a new 66,000 sq ft plant to process the barite.

The TS Lazy Ranch ranch is still in operation operation as a cattle ranch using modern management of the land, livestock and wildlife

For more info about the Halliburton Barite Plant click here.

Dunphy turns out to be another neat place with an interesting name.


These are more of my places that you may never have heard of

Aragonite, Utah
Wamsutter, Wyoming
Argenta, Nevada

Argenta, NV

Places that you may have never heard of

Friends know that I’m a big fan of traveling and do so frequently by car. Whether I’m visiting relatives who live far away or I’m vacationing at distant places, it’s usually a cross country trek.

Anyone who has traveled on our extensive road system has driven past signs denoting names of places of which they’ve never heard. Those places that especially stick out to me are ones that have colorful names. One of my “hobbies” is to note these names and later (sometimes weeks, sometimes months later) find out more about these places.

One of these places is Argenta, Nevada and this is what I learned.

Argenta is a ghost down in central Nevada. In the mid 1860’s prospectors discovered silver in the area. The town was planning to develop as a shipping center for the nearby mines and in Austin to the south. However, the town of Battle Mountain had stronger ties to the silver industry and by 1871 the entire town moved to Battle Mountain making Argenta effectively a mining ghost town.

Argenta remained vacant until 1930 when barite was discovered nearby. This mine in Argenta Mountain was operated by the Baker Hughes Company until it closed in 2015.


One of the Baker Hughes operations alongside a railroad siding and Interstate 80

Well, that’s the short story about Argenta, NV.

Yet curiosity remains high and I hope to report on other interesting names of places that are part of my hobby.

More of my places that you may never have heard of are

Wamsutter, Wyoming
Aragonite, Utah
Dunphy, Nevada