RENO (AP) - Nevada's state historian is criticizing the federal government's plans to demolish the last of what remains of a historic mining mill built near Virginia City nearly a century ago.
The Bureau of Land Management has decided to move forward with demolition of the United Comstock Merger Mill at American Flat. The agency says the crumbling ruins of the mill built in Storey County in 1922 are unsafe.
Acting historic preservation officer Rebecca Palmer says it's a significant structure that should be preserved.
A 2008 audit of the site by the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General concluded it posed a "high-risk liability" to the government.
``It is a safety hazard. It's very dangerous,' BLM spokeswoman Lisa Ross said. ``The building is collapsing in areas. There have been injuries at the site. There was a fatality at the site.'
Built in 1922, the United Comstock Merger Mill was used to process locally mined gold and silver. At the time, it was the largest, most modern and sophisticated operation of its type in the country. By the time the mill shut down in 1926, some $7.5 million worth of gold and silver had been processed there, according to a BLM report.[[In-content Ad]]
