American Ghost Towns: Goldfield, Nevada

There was enough gold discovered here in 1902 to cause a rush and set up the town of Goldfield. Men promoted the mines to raise money and stocks were sold to anyone who wanted to invest and try to get rich.

There were saloons on nearly every corner of town and most miners lived in one room shacks. The trains came to Goldfield as it grew, bringing civilization and making transportation more efficient.

The frame looking wooden structure is called a Headframe.  It was built over the opening to a mine and had a heavy rope to lift men and equipment out of and into the mine.  A miner’s cabin stands nearby.

The Santa Fe Saloon was built in 1905 and is still in operation as the second oldest saloon in Nevada. Beyond the saloon is Columbia Mountain where the 1902 gold discovery was made. 

By 1908 three trains came into Goldfield.  The trains connected the town to major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Money and supplies could arrive in days instead of weeks.

As Goldfield grew and became richer the need for law and order grew with it.  The courtroom became the place where frontier justice was administered.  Here the original judge’s bench and jury box can be seen just as it was in 1908 when the courtroom was completed.

The judges who sat at this bench during Goldfield’s prime presided over some dramatic crimes and some not so dramatic.

For example Independence Day celebrations often resulted in people from outside town, coming in and drinking too much or sleeping in the streets. For such offenses they would be fined $3.00 (a day's wage back then) and ordered to leave town in four hours!

The chalkboard behind the jury box was used for both illustrating points to the jury as well as tabulating the jury count.  Because Goldfield was a mining town, miners were often convicted of stealing gold out of the mines. This was called “high-grading.” 

The original witness box would have seen many testify against the most prolific crime in Goldfield: thievery. So many people did not trust the banks that they kept their valuables at home leaving them vulnerable to theft. 

The Goldfield Hotel stands where two earlier wooden hotels once stood. They were destroyed in the fires of 1905 and 1906.

Fire was a constant threat for boom towns so it was decided to build the new four-story hotel of brick and stone.  Visitors climbed a few steps to the pillared porch. Today the dusty street gives little evidence of the bustling scene it once was. 

The owners of the hotel tried to make the hotel ‘fireproof’ and built black metal fire escapes in the upper floors. There were balconies on the second and third floors so visitors could view busy Columbia Street and surrounding countryside.

It was no accident that the hotel was on Columbia Street. A primary street in town, thriving with businesses, Columbia ended at the foot of the mountain with the same name which became the main landmark for the entire town. 

The Nevada gold rush happened in the 20th century and cars were starting to become common. Here was one of the first Ford dealerships in Nevada, and was established before 1917. The first building burned but was rebuilt in 1923, remaining a garage until 1981.