Last reviewed 4 November 2026 · A two-minute read · 1860–1975
Mineral's record centres on Valley Road, open ground near Gillham, Arkansas, where antimony and lead-zinc mining began at Silver Hill in 1873, the settlement was relocated and renamed in 1897, and a 1928 fire later destroyed its downtown.
The short answer
Valley Road is open country near Gillham, Arkansas, close to the vanished mining settlement of Silver Hill, where antimony and lead-zinc mining ran from the 1860s through 1924, and near the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store, a surviving landmark from Gillham's railroad boom listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1900 to 1911
A general store outlasted its boomtown neighbours
You're standing on Valley Road, open country near the vanished settlement once called Antioch. No town ever grew back up around this stretch. The nearest real landmark sits about a mile and a half east, in Gillham, Arkansas.
There, just north of the railroad tracks, stands the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store. It went up in pieces. The first section, a wood-front building with a tin cornice, opened in 1900. A concrete-block addition followed in 1906, then another in 1911. By the early 1900s Gillham was booming on the strength of the railroad, and this store outlasted nearly every other building from that era. It was still open as a general store in 1996, the year it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
1860s to 1897
Silver Hill mined antimony mistaken for silver
Gillham did not start where it stands now. Before the railroad came through, the town was called Silver Hill, and it sat up in the hills to the north, built on mining. Prospectors there found what they thought was silver. It turned out to be antimony, a metal used for hardening lead. Miners pulled it out of the ground from 1873 until 1924, with the biggest push during World War I. Close by, the Bellah Mine (lead-zinc operations) worked lead and zinc out of three shafts sunk back in the 1860s, cut straight into the local quartz veins. Two miles south-southwest, the Otto Mine (first antimony discovery in Arkansas) made its own mark on the record books. A Philadelphia company found antimony there in 1877, the first antimony strike in Arkansas. That mine ran until 1888, then came back to life briefly in 1941 and again in 1951.
1897 to 1902
A mining town moved to meet the railroad
In 1897, the mining town moved. A new railroad, the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf, laid track about a mile and a quarter southeast of Silver Hill, and the whole settlement picked up and resettled alongside it. The new town took the name Gillham, Arkansas, after Robert Gillham, the railroad's chief engineer. By 1902, when it incorporated, about 400 people called it home.
January 1928
Fire destroyed most of downtown Gillham
Fire tore through downtown Gillham in January 1928. It wiped out the telephone exchange, four businesses, and three houses, and it scorched the bank and the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store besides. Most of the rest of the boomtown's buildings from the railroad years did not make it through that fire, which is part of why Goff and Gamble stands out on the register today.
2016 to 2025
Sevier County weathered repeated storm disasters
Sevier County has taken its share of weather disasters in recent years. In 2016, the federal government declared a disaster here for severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding. In 2020, Hurricane Laura brought another declaration. In 2025, the county saw two more: one for severe storms and tornadoes, another for flooding tied to the same system. None of these struck Valley Road by name.
Valley Road still runs quiet between the empty ground where Antioch once stood and the small town that grew up around a railroad depot and an antimony boom.
A lead-zinc mine with 3 shafts and extensive underground workings in quartz veins of Stanley Shale began operations at Gillham during the Civil War era and continued onward.
The Otto Mine, located 2 miles south-southwest of Gillham, was the first discovery of antimony in Arkansas, found in 1877 by the U.S. Antimony Company of Philadelphia. It operated 1877–1888, then reopened in 1941 and 1951.
The mining community of Silver Hill was relocated and a new town laid out on the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad about 1.25 miles southeast. The town was incorporated in 1902 as Gillham.
A fire in 1928 destroyed the telephone exchange, four businesses, and three residences in Gillham, also damaging the bank and the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store.
Severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding brought federal disaster declarations to Sevier County in 2016.
Era background — not a record of this tile · FEMA Disaster Declarations
2020
Hurricane Laura brought federal disaster declarations to Sevier County in 2020.
Era background — not a record of this tile · FEMA Disaster Declarations
2025
Severe storms, tornadoes and flooding brought federal disaster declarations to Sevier County in 2025.
Era background — not a record of this tile · FEMA Disaster Declarations
Questions about this place
Answered in one sentence, then in full above
What was here before Gillham was built?
Before Gillham existed, the area was home to Silver Hill, a mining community founded on antimony deposits first worked from 1873, which miners initially mistook for silver.
What happened at Silver Hill?
Silver Hill was a mining town where antimony was extracted from 1873 until 1924, with its heaviest production during World War I; in 1897 the settlement relocated about 1.25 miles southeast to sit alongside the new Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad and was renamed Gillham.
What caused the 1928 fire in Gillham?
The surviving record does not give a cause, only that fire swept through downtown Gillham in January 1928, destroying the telephone exchange, four businesses, and three houses, and damaging the bank and the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store.
Why is the Goff and Gamble Merchandise Store significant?
It is a surviving commercial building from Gillham's railroad-era boom, built in stages between 1900 and 1911, damaged but not destroyed in the 1928 fire, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Where was antimony first discovered in Arkansas?
Antimony was first discovered in Arkansas at the Otto Mine, two miles south-southwest of Gillham, found in 1877 by the U. S. Antimony Company of Philadelphia; the mine operated until 1888 and briefly reopened in 1941 and 1951.
