Ely, Nevada — located about 240 miles from Las Vegas — is much like the mines that made it, nearly broke it and partially sustain it today: It doesn’t look like much on the surface, but scrape away the dust and the dirt and you’ll uncover more than a few gems.Named in 1878, Ely, which sits at 6,437 feet, was a stagecoach station until 1906, when the discovery of copper sent it into the boom-and-bust cycles common to mining towns.