Cornucopia lies about 57 miles northwest of Elko.

Silver discoveries occurred here in 1872.  A town sprang up and it was named after the mythological horn of plenty.  When a rich vein of $1000-a-ton ore was discovered in early1874 the population grew to around 1000.

Mining activity peaked in 1874-75 when the camp consisted of five stores, a bakery, chop house, drugstore, saloons, a hotel, and other lodging houses.  A stage line ran from Tuscarora and Elko.

In 1875, the ten-stamp mill burnt down, and coupled with a boom in Tuscarora, the decline of Cornucopia started. In 1880 a twenty-stamp was constructed to try revive the town, but it too burnt down, and by 1882 the town was pretty much deserted.