Goldfield, Nevada

USA / Nevada / Tonopah /
 unincorporated area / community, CDP - Census Designated Place, county seat
Goldfield is dead. Except for the padlocks, the boarded -up windows, bars across the doors and other means of denying entry, Goldfield would look very much alive. To its credit, there are few mining towns, if any, that have such an array of original buildings in good repair. Founded in 1902, Goldfield boasted a population of 30,000 during its boom year of 1906 when it produced $11million in gold. The town probably has the longest bar in the history of mining towns. The bar, Tex Rickard's Northern, was so long it required 80 tenders to serve its customers. By 1912, ore production had dropped to $5 million. Those who recognized the signs began to leave and Goldfield eventually became what it is today-a ghost town. A drive south on highway 95 from Tonopah will take you to Goldfield-one of the must see towns.

Along Highway 95 in the eastern part of Esmeralda County is a town made famous by the Earp brothers, Wyatt and Virgil, following their famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Wyatt was already in Goldfield and wrote Virgil, who was living in California at the time, to move to Goldfield where “money was following like wine.” Virgil arrived in Goldfield in the spring of 1904. Soon after arriving in Goldfield, he was hired as a deputy sheriff. Wyatt was working as a pit boss in Tex Rickard's gambling casino. On July 8, 19 05, Goldfield suffered its first major fire when a stove exploded in a millinery shop. The town was saved when the wind shifted but not before two blocks of business houses burned to the ground. Three months later, Virgil contracted pneumonia and died. Wyatt left Nevada shortly after Virgil's death and spent many years mining in the Whipple Mountains on the California side of the Colorado River. He died on January 13, 1929 at the age of 80.

www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/goldfield.html
www.rockhounds.com/rockgem/articles/tonopah_goldfield.h...
www.accessesmeralda.com/Goldfield.htm for a more up to date website with info on Goldfield
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfield,_Nevada
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°42'32"N   117°14'14"W

Comments

  • I'd buy into this place. They are just down the road from the Lithium boom town of Silver Peak. This could become sort of a low budget bedroom community on a better road then the ones serving Silver Peak.
  • And now the 2nd least populated county in the USA (pop. 1,000) has a murder case on its' hands. 2015 AD. One of the two suspects is being held in the Goldfield jail. The other is in Tonopah as the Goldfield jail only has room for one, maybe.
This article was last modified 6 years ago