The rural town of Austin is located in the geographic center of Nevada, in the heart of the Great Basin Desert. In 1862, a wrangler found silver ore there while cutting firewood for a nearby Overland Stage station. Some of it assayed in richer than ore from the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, causing a rush to Pony Canyon, where the area exploded to a population of 10,000. The town of Austin was located and quickly became the mining, milling, and...