The Kelsey Mill, the first ore-processing mill to occupy this site, was built in 1861 during the mill building craze of the Comstock Lode era. The mill operated a steam powered 10-stamp mill. In the late 1880’s the Comstock entered a period of decline and the Kelsey Mill was dismantled.

In 1890, Jean B. Dazet, a Virginia City liquor dealer, and mining partners Felix Lacrouts and Napolean Landry of Silver City, built the Dazet Mill on the Kelsey Mill site. The mill did not depend on silver from the Comstock, but worked ore from the gold mines in the area. By 1893 the partners, overwhelmed by legal fees and debt leased the mill to a series of small operations.

In 1895, Prof. R.B. Jackson, Director of the School of Mines at the University of Nevada, purchased the Dazet Mill tailings and erected an experimental cyanide plant adjacent to the mill, the Jackson Cyanide Plant. Jackson, with his students and partner Dr. Phillips, perfected the Macarthur-Forrest cyanide process to successfully treat Comstock ore. This process changed milling methods and is still used in mining operations today.

In 1912, William Donovan, Sr. and his son William Donovan, Jr. acquired and operated the plant. In the 1930s the plant was expanded into a fully integrated cyanide milling operation. The Donovan family operated the plant for forty-seven years up until 1959. For the next fifty years, the mill sat as a reminder of Nevada’s great history, but also fell into ruin.

In 2015, the Comstock Foundation for History and Culture acquired the Donovan Mill with a mission of preserving the mill’s history for future generations.

Dedicated September 8, 2017 (6022)

by the Snowshoe Thompson Chapter #1827

Of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus