Belmont was a silver mining town and became the county seat of Nye County in 1867. Belmont  had a population of 2000 by 1868. In 1874 Belmont was the site of a lynching; two miners Charlie McIntire & Jack London got into an argument with a local citizen H.H. Sutherland, which resulted in gunplay and Suthernland being wounded by Walker. The pair of miners were jailed and later the same month they escaped but were found hiding in a mine shaft just outside of town. Around midnight vigilantes showed up and disarmed the sheriff and his deputy. The sheriff and deputy were discovered by the night watchman and untied from their bonds, they hurried down stairs to the jail to find both McIntire & London swinging by their necks, each man had a note pinned to their backs reading "301", the signature of Belmont's vigilantes.