Nenthorn Township
Nenthorn was home the last quartz goldmining rush, a rapid rise to prominence and equally rapid decline to destitution. First surveyed and inhabited in 1889, it was completely abandoned less than five years later, resulting in an extremely short period of occupation (although minimal mining continued on site for another five years). This site, if ever study in detail (full excavations of main sites, such as school, hotel, businesses, huts, batteries, etc) would give us the opportunity to study the people and processes involved in the creation, management and collapse of a mining boom. This town was meant to serve as a kind of “second-Dunedin” set in the rolling hills of north central Otago, it was built almost purely on speculation after a discovery of a lode on Deighton Creek, prospecting soon revealed other small lodes, few produced enough gold to warrant further work. There is one claim here, the Surprise Company (an interesting name given the history of the site, it’s a surprise that any claim should have been able to produce), which seems to have produced payable gold for a time, it produced approximately 2oz per ton. It is estimated that for a lode to pay for itself, at least .5oz of gold had to come out of each ton.
Prior to 1889, many miners in the area had suspected that gold existed in payable quantities around this area. It wasn’t until William MacMillan discovered gold bearing quartz while hunting rabbits that anyone took out mining licenses in the area, less than one year later sixteen had been granted. The thought of a new gold mining town this late in the history of goldmining in the Otago Region brought many settlers to the area, including business owners who set up numerous shops along Gordon Street, the main thoroughfare (which still appears on modern political maps and exists as a dirt track today). The only surviving photograph of Nenthorn today comes from this main street. Nenthorn even had its own newspaper called the Nenthorn (Thompson).
The extent of previous research at Nenthorn is scarce. A brief archaeological survey was undertaken in 1984 (Jacomb and Easdale). This survey consisted mainly of investigations of sights identified from an aerial photography, with sites selectively visited if they appeared threatened by pastoral development of the area. Currently, efforts have been undertaken to restore the St. Bathans Hotel, a considerable portion of which still stands today. The restoration had commenced and halted at the time I conducted my mapping in February, 2003 (I also returned in July 2003 to take additional points identified by the aerial photo and posisiton whose accuracy I was unsure of). Recently, several modern mining companies have funded research to see if gold in payable quantities currently exist at the site, none have been successful.
I would like to especially thank Dr. Simon Cox at the Institute for Nuclear and Geologic Science (Dunedin Branch) for freely offering his time when I went calling. His appreciation and sound advice about Nenthorn and this project as a whole went far in helping me develop this virtual tour. Also, his willingness to exchange ideas and data is greatly appreciated.
Nenthorn Township Links
Click the above picture to view the Nenthorn Virtual Tour