shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileWyoming

in the Wind River foothills, just below South Pass

Atlantic City pioneer mining

Name: Atlantic City pioneer mining — on ceramic tile, by WenderVista
Brand: WenderVista

— — a town the gold rush forgot to take with it.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.

— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand

— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines

— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall

— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround

— a note from the studio

“A wooden cluster of cabins and a saloon on a dirt road in Fremont County, with the sage running off toward South Pass. The gold strike of 1868 brought several hundred prospectors up the creek; most left within a few years. What stayed is the Carissa Saloon, a Catholic mission, a small cemetery, and the long quiet of a place that kept its own counsel after the rush moved on. from the studio

from the studio

— bring it home

Atlantic City pioneer mining, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?

One tile — square or rectangle.

How big?

the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand

6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb

Surface finish

A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.

How it sits

A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.

$58

Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.

— size

6 × 6 in

15 cm

— weighs

1.6 lb

solid in the hand

— surface

ceramic, hand-finished

art rests beneath a thin glossy finish

— from

Knoxville, TN

our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies

— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Atlantic City pioneer mining

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.

— the place

Atlantic City sits in Fremont County, Wyoming, on the southern flank of the Wind River Range, about three miles east of South Pass City and roughly 7,800 feet up. The town grew out of the 1868 placer gold strike along Rock Creek, drew a few hundred miners through the 1870s, then thinned as the easy gravel ran out. A second life arrived in 1962 when U.S. Steel opened the Atlantic City Mine to work taconite iron ore for the Geneva Works in Utah; that operation ran until 1983. Today the population is in the low double digits, and the road in is unpaved most of the year.

— informed by Wikipedia — Atlantic City, Wyoming, Wyoming State Historical Society

— the stone

The standing buildings are the record. The Carissa Saloon dates to the strike years and still serves a short menu on summer evenings. The Atlantic City Mercantile, built of squared logs in 1893, kept the post office and the only grocery for most of a century. St. Andrew's Episcopal-turned-Catholic mission sits on the rise above the creek. The taconite era left a different kind of mark a few miles east: a reclaimed open pit and a tailings pond that the BLM monitors as part of the South Pass Historic Mining District.

— informed by Wikipedia — South Pass City, BLM Wyoming — South Pass

— the visit

The town is reached by Wyoming 28 to the marked turnoff for the Atlantic City Road, an unpaved county route that the state closes informally between heavy snow and late May. The Carissa Saloon and the Mercantile keep summer hours roughly Memorial Day through September. South Pass City State Historic Site, three miles west, holds the better-preserved buildings of the rush and is the place to pair a half-day visit with. No services beyond the saloon; the nearest fuel is in Lander, about thirty miles east.

— informed by Wyoming State Parks — South Pass City

— where

United States · Fremont County, Wyoming

— elevation

2,377 m · 7,800 ft

— position

42.4897° N · 108.7295° W

— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.

5 km W

South Pass City

historic mining town

12 km SW

South Pass

Oregon Trail crossing

48 km E

Lander

Wind River town

Atlantic City pioneer mining

South Pass City

South Pass

Lander

— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Atlantic City pioneer mining — and about bringing the piece home.

— about the place

Placer gold was struck on Rock Creek in 1868, part of the broader South Pass gold rush that also founded South Pass City and Miner's Delight. Several hundred miners worked the gravels through the early 1870s before the easy ore played out.

U.S. Steel's Atlantic City Mine was a taconite iron ore operation that ran from 1962 to 1983, three miles east of town. The ore was railed to the Geneva Works in Utah, and the site is now reclaimed and monitored by the BLM.

Not quite. The town keeps a small year-round population in the low double digits, a working saloon and mercantile in summer, and an active Catholic mission. The buildings are original, not reconstructed.

South Pass City, three miles west, is preserved as a Wyoming state historic site with restored buildings and an interpretive program. Atlantic City is still a lived-in community whose buildings happen to be 150 years old.

The unpaved Atlantic City Road off Wyoming 28 is reliable roughly late May through September. Winter access depends on snow and is usually limited to snowmobile traffic.

A hand-hewn log saloon from the strike years, still operating on summer evenings under private ownership. It is the social centre of what remains of the town and the only commercial kitchen for miles.

— about the piece in your home

Yes, particularly for someone tied to the Wind River country or the South Pass mining district. The piece reads as a quiet record of a real place rather than a state-shaped souvenir, which lands well with people who know the country.

Mountain-modern, Western-traditional, and warm-minimalist rooms in particular. The palette runs to weathered wood, sage, and the long Wyoming sky, so it sits well alongside leather, raw linen, and oak.

It fits the rustic-modern and quiet-Western direction now common in Mountain West interiors, where unromantic frontier subjects are pulling away from polished cowboy art toward something more observational.

A single Large covers a console or a narrow sofa. For a standard three-seat sofa, a four-tile Mural reads at the right scale, and a nine-tile Mural anchors a wider wall without crowding the room.

Yes, on the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and humidity-tolerant, which makes them suitable for backsplashes, shower walls, and powder-room installations.

A soft microfibre cloth and clean water. The colour is infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, so there is no varnish or paint layer to wear off with normal cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is curated and finished in-house at the studio in Knoxville, with no licensed art and no third-party prints.

— if this one stayed with you