Mining Town Name Generator

Boomtowns, coal patches, and gold camps

Places & GeographyPart of: town and city generators500 namesUpdated Aug 2026Free · no sign-up

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Generate mining town names that sound dug out of the ground: gold-rush camps, silver boomtowns, Appalachian coal patches, Cornish and Welsh pit villages, and fictional ore towns for westerns, RPGs, and worldbuilding.

About mining town names

Real mining towns were named in a hurry by the people who staked the first claims, so the names are blunt and specific. The commonest pattern is the metal plus a landform: Goldfield, Silver Plume, Leadville, Tin Cup. Next come names for the diggings themselves, since a camp often grew up around a single bar, gulch, reef or shaft and kept the name: Poverty Flat, Deep Lead, Last Chance Gulch. Coal country works differently. Company towns in Appalachia and the Pennsylvania anthracite patches were named after the operator, a director's daughter, or just a number, which is why Number Six Camp and Scrip Town ring true.

The best names carry the mood of the place. Hard Luck Camp and Busted Flush tell you how the miners felt; Prosperity and Welcome Stranger Flat tell you what they hoped for, and read as irony once the town is a ruin. Regional flavor comes from vocabulary: Wheal for Cornwall, Cwm for Wales, Gully and Reef for the Australian goldfields, Bench for the Klondike, Mina and Veta for Latin America, Grube for the German Erzgebirge.

This list mixes all of those traditions with miners' own jargon (tipple, headframe, tommyknocker, cousin jack) so you can name a whole district, from the county seat down to the tent camp at the end of the tramway.

How to choose mining town names

Decide what the town digs before you name it: gold and silver camps get Bar, Gulch, Diggings and Reef; coal towns get Patch, Hollow, Colliery, Pit and Row; iron and copper towns tend toward plain -ton, -ville and Harbor names.
For a ghost town or an abandoned settlement in a game, pick a hopeful name like Prosperity, Jubilee or Golden Point and let the ruins supply the irony.
Use a numbered or company-style name (Number Six Camp, Syndicate Hill, Scrip Town) when the town is owned by one operator; it immediately signals the power structure of the place.
Match the region's vocabulary: Wheal or Bal for Cornwall, Cwm for Wales, Gully for Australia, Bench for the Yukon, Mina or Cerro for Spanish-speaking settings, Grube for German mountains.
Keep fantasy mining towns grounded by building them from the same parts as real ones (Ironvale, Gloomshaft, Blackvein); a dwarven mine that sounds like Leadville feels more lived-in than one that sounds like a spell.

Frequently asked questions

How did real mining towns get their names?

Usually from the ore they produced (Goldfield, Silverton, Leadville), from the landform where the first strike happened (Cripple Creek, Poverty Flat), from the mine or company that owned the town (Homestake, Number Nine), or from a joke about the miners' luck (Hard Luck, Last Chance, Tombstone).

Are any of these real mining towns?

A handful of well-known historic names appear for flavor, but the large majority are invented in the same style, built from genuine mining terms and regional place-name patterns so they read as authentic without belonging to a real place.

Which names work for a coal town rather than a gold town?

Look for Patch, Hollow, Colliery, Pit, Row, Tipple, Breaker and Culm, plus the Welsh and northern English forms like Cwm Du, Pitwick and Ashbrook Colliery. Gold and silver camps use Bar, Gulch, Diggings, Reef, Placer and Bench.

Can I use these names for my western, D&D campaign, or Red Dead roleplay?

Yes. Every name is free for personal and commercial projects, including novels, tabletop settings, video game maps and roleplay servers. The fantasy-flavored entries like Gloomshaft and Ironvale are written to drop straight into a dwarven or frontier setting.

More like this

Browse categoryAll Places & Geography

All 500 mining town names

This is the complete list the generator above draws its random batches from, sorted A to Z and grouped by first letter.

Plain text, one name per line.

A: 15 names

Aberglo
Abergwaith
Ah Toy's Bar
Alpine Shaft
Amethyst Diggings
Anthracite
Anvil Creek
Anvil Rock
Argent Hill
Argonaut
Ashbrook Colliery
Ashcroft Diggings
Ashtown
Assay Springs
Avalanche Gulch

B: 47 names

Bal Maiden Row
Bandicoot Bar
Bear Paw Camp
Bedbug Flat
Bedrock
Bedrock Bend
Beech Bottom
Bergmannsruh
Bergstadt
Big Seam
Biscuit Bar
Black Diamond Patch
Black Stump Diggings
Blackdamp
Blackdene Level
Blackhall Moor
Blacksmoke
Blackvein
Blackwater Hollow
Blaen-y-Pwll
Blaenglo
Blast Furnace Flats
Bleistollen
Blue Vein
Boarding House Hill
Bonanza Bench
Bonanza Hill
Boomtown
Boot Hill Bench
Borax Flats
Bottle Hill
Brannigan's Bar
Breaker Boy Row
Breaker Hill
Brimstone
Brimstone Gap
Broken Pick
Brolga Reef
Bryn Glo
Buckeye Hollow
Bullion City
Bullion Flat
Bullocky Creek
Burnt Shaft
Burro Bend
Bust Creek
Busted Flush

C: 63 names

Cabin Fever Camp
Cable Camp
Cactus Claim
Camp Despair
Canary Hollow
Canvas Creek
Canvas Town
Carbide Camp
Carbon Hill
Cariboo Landing
Caribou Crossing
Carmody Pit
Carn Dolcoath
Cassiar
Cave-In Creek
Centennial
Cerro Brillante
Cerro de la Plata
Cerro del Cobre
Chalk Bluff
Cheechako Landing
Chicken Creek
Cinder Bottom
Cinnabar Springs
Claim Jumper
Coal Bank Hollow
Coal Dust Landing
Coal Harbour
Coal Run
Coalbeck
Coalbrook

C, continued

Coalmont
Coalport
Cobb's Claim
Cockatoo Reef
Coffee Pot Hill
Coffin Flat
Coke Oven Flats
Coke Town
Cokedale
Coldberry Bank
Collier's Rest
Company Row
Confederate Bar
Copper Gulch
Copper Penny
Copperfield
Copperhead Gulch
Copperknob
Copperopolis
Copperrock
Cork Town
Cornish Flat
Council City
Cousin Jack Hollow
Coyote Diggings
Cragmoor
Culm Bank
Culm Hill
Cwm Carreg
Cwm Du
Cwmgwaith
Cwmllo

D: 23 names

Dawson Bench
Deadman's Drift
Deep Lead
Deepdelve Landing
Devil's Slide
Diamantkraal
Diamond Drift
Digger's Rest
Diggersrus
Dingo Flat
Discovery Claim
Donnelly Gulch
Drift Creek
Dry Bone
Dry Diggings
Dunleavy Hollow
Dunmar Pit
Duskhollow
Dust Pan Flats
Dustbowl Flat
Dutch Patch
Dutchman's Claim
Dynamite Gulch

E: 14 names

El Pozo Negro
El Socavón
El Tajo
Eldorado Bar
Elkhorn City
Elkhorn Patch
Emberfall Pit
Emberton
Emerald Lead
Emu Flat
Erzberg
Erzgrund
Erzhausen
Eureka Gully

F: 20 names

Famine Gulch
Faro Flats
Fat Chance
Fellside Pit
Fernhill Colliery
Fever Creek
Firedamp Hollow
First Chance
Fool's Gold Flat
Forge Hollow
Fortuna
Forty Below Camp
Forty-Niner
Fortymile
Four Bit Bar
Frenchman's Bar
Frenzy Flat
Frostbite Creek
Frying Pan Gulch
Furnace Hill

G: 44 names

Galah Gully
Galena Crossing
Gallows Frame Gulch
Garnet Gulch
Gidgee Creek
Gila Gulch
Glacier Bar
Glenore
Glofa Fawr
Gloomshaft
Glory Hole
Glückaufstadt
Glyncoed
Goanna Gap
Golconda
Gold Bottom
Gold Dust Landing
Gold Hill
Gold Run
Gold Rush Bar
Goldbug
Goldcrest
Golden Fleece
Golden Point
Goldgrube
Goldreef
Goldstone
Granite Gap
Gravedigger's Rest
Gravel Bar Landing
Greenhorn Gulch
Greyhope Level
Grimeford
Grimstone
Grindstone Gulch
Gritstone
Gritstone Row
Grizzly Bar
Grizzly Gulch
Grubenhain
Grubstake
Gumtree Gully
Gwennap Pit
Gypsum Bend

H: 21 names

Half Dollar Hill
Hammerfall
Hangman's Shaft
Hard Coal Landing
Hard Luck Camp
Hard Money
Hardrock
Hardscrabble
Hatcher's Diggings
Hazel Patch
Hellgate
Hematite
High Stakes
Hope Shaft
Horn Silver Camp
Hornsilver
Howgill Level
Huckleberry Camp
Hungry Hill
Hushing Gill
Hydraulic Flats

I: 10 names

Independence Bar
Ironbark Flat
Ironhollow
Ironmonger's Rest
Ironsgill
Ironsides
Ironstone
Ironton
Ironvale
Ironwood Bluff

J: 3 names

Jackass Flats
Joshua Tree Diggings
Jubilee

K: 12 names

Kettle Hollow
Keystone Bend
King Solomon's Diggings
Kirkland Siding
Kirkpit
Kit Hill
Klondike Bar
Knocker's Creek
Kookaburra Gully
Kupferberg
Kupferhain
Kupferthal

L: 25 names

La Bocamina
La Veta
Lantern Hill Pit
Las Minas de Plata
Las Vetas
Last Dollar
Laurel Patch
Leadbelly Gulch
Leadwood
Liberty Shaft
Lime Kiln Hollow
Lodestar
Lodestone
Log Town
Long Odds Bar
Long Tom Landing
Long Tunnel
Los Tiros
Lost Burro
Lost Dutchman
Lost Horse Claim
Lost Lode
Luckstone
Lucky Cuss Camp
Lucky Strike Bar

M: 26 names

Malachite Wash
Marble Hollow
Mariposa Bar
Mattock Hill
McTavish Landing
Mescal Bench
Mica Springs
Midnight Sun Camp
Mina del Diablo
Mina Dorada
Mina La Esperanza
Mina Perdida
Miner's Delight
Mineral del Oro
Mint Hill
Moose Gulch
Moosehide Landing
Mopoke Flat
Mother Vein
Motherlode Gap
Mud Lick Hollow
Muddy Gulch
Mudtown
Mule Barn Hill
Mule Ear Gulch
Mulga Flat

N: 7 names

Nantcoed
Nickel Landing
Nickel Plate
Nugget Bar
Nuggetville
Numbat Lead
Nut Coal Siding

O: 8 names

Obsidian Flats
Ocotillo Camp
Ophir Bar
Ore Cart Junction
Ore Dock Bay
Ore Knob
Ore Wagon Crossing
Orebend

P: 30 names

Paddy's Gully
Pantygraig
Payday
Paydirt
Paymaster
Pen-y-Pwll
Penhallow Stamps
Pennyweight
Penrose Stamps
Perdition
Pig Iron Landing
Pitwick
Placer Flats
Plank Town
Polcarrow
Polwhele Stamps
Pontyglo
Porcupine Bench
Possum Hollow
Potosi Bench
Poverty Flat
Poverty Reef
Powder House Hill
Pozo Rico
Prosperity
Ptarmigan Bench
Ptarmigan Pass Camp
Pueblo Minero
Purgatory Bar
Pyrite Gulch

Q: 6 names

Quandong Gully
Quarryville
Quartz Reef Camp
Quartzburg
Queen Copper
Quicksilver

R: 14 names

Radium Hill
Rag Town
Rattler's Claim
Real de la Fortuna
Red Ore
Redvein
Reefkop
Rock Lake Siding
Rockdrill Flats
Rotgut Gulch
Rough Diggings
Ruby Gulch
Rudnogorsk
Rusty Pick

S: 69 names

Sagebrush Shaft
Saltpeter Gap
Saltville
San Antonio del Oro
San Cristóbal del Plomo
San Juan del Cobre
Santa Bárbara de las Minas
Sarsaparilla Flat
Satan's Kitchen
Scarrowcliff
Schwarzbach Grube
Scorpion Flats
Scrip Town
Seven Devils
Shaft Number Nine
Shanty Hill
Shotover Flat
Sidewinder Wash
Silberberg
Silbergrund
Silberstadt
Silbertal
Silver Cliff
Silver King
Silver Lining
Silver Plume Camp
Silver Reef
Silverbell
Silverlake Portage
Sing Lee Flat
Sixtymile
Skeleton Gulch
Skillet Creek
Slack Hollow

S, continued

Slag Hill
Slate Creek Diggings
Slate Run
Slatepit Moor
Slattery Patch
Sledge Creek
Slim Chance
Sluice Box Landing
Smelt Mill Burn
Smelterville
Smokey Hollow
Snowshoe Landing
Soda Creek
Soft Coal
Sootbridge
Sootley
Sourdough Flats
Sourdough Gulch
Sourdough Hill
Specimen Hill
Spike Town
Spinifex Diggings
Squatter's Flat
Stamp Mill Bend
Stampede Landing
Stanhope Pit
Starvation Creek
Steel Spike
Stollenberg
Stonewell
Stoney Fork
Stope City
Stringybark Creek
Stubborn Mule Gap
Swinthorpe Pit

T: 23 names

Taconite Junction
Tailings Bend
Tent City
Thornvein
Timberline Camp
Tin Cup Hollow
Tin Pan Gulch
Tin Plate
Tipple Creek
Tipple Town
Tommyknocker Gulch
Touchstone
Tramway Flats
Tregonning Bal
Tremaen
Tremorvah
Trevenna Downs
Trevithick's Level
Trewin's Claim
Tug Fork Camp
Tungsten City
Turquoise Wash
Two Bit Gulch

U: 2 names

Ugolny
Uranium City

V: 3 names

Vermilion Camp
Veta Madre
Villa del Estaño

W: 11 names

Waratah Reef
Welcome Stranger Flat
Wheal Constance
Wheal Hope
Wheal Prosper
Whetstone Gap
Whiskey Shaft
Widowmaker Hollow
Windlass Hill
Witwaters Kop
Wombat Gully

Y: 1 name

Yellow Jacket Camp

Z: 3 names

Zeche Nord
Zinc Springs
Zolotaya Gora