Goldfield, an Almost Ghost Town

OK. This will be my last post about Nevada communities. 

I have often thought of the western part of South Dakota as rather desolate country. I am happy I do not live there. Usually there is very little variety in the color and landscape. However, after having driven through Utah, east to west (not including the magnificent National Parks) and through Nevada east to west, and then south, there are many other places I am glad I do not call home. And maybe we drove through the most desolate parts of UT and NV, but on my gosh...not a lot of change in scenery, or color, or land features. Maybe that is why when we did come upon a community, I grabbed the camera and clicked the shutter. Often. If only I had had another hour or so in Goldfield...

I have enjoyed googling and researching the unique communities in which we have geocached.  I guess that is the teacher in me. So here goes...Goldfield NV, an Almost Ghost Town.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1902. A tent city of twenty or so shelters developed in 1903. Wyatt and Virgil Earp lived in Goldfield in 1904. Virgil was hired as a deputy sheriff. Wyatt worked as a pit boss in Tex Rickard's gambling casino. Rickards probably had the longest bar in the history of mining towns. The Northern Saloon's bar was so long it required 80 tenders to serve its customers. 

Goldfield suffered its first major fire in July 1905 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. 

By 1907, Goldfield was the largest city in Nevada with a population of over 20,000. It had all the amenities of any large city with fancy restaurants, hotels, athletic clubs, church and social groups of every kind, theaters, shopping, sporting events, unions, all the general businesses of the day, casinos, red light district, and all the hopes of prosperity an individual would want to find.

The Goldfield Historical Society states a 1907 Goldfield directory lists: 49 saloons, 27 restaurants, 15 barber shops, 6 bakeries, 54 assayers, 84 attorneys, 162 brokers, 14 cigar shops, 21 grocers, 22 hotels, 17 laundries, 40 doctors, and 10 undertakers. 

Also in 1907, Goldfield became the county seat of Esmeralda County, and remains so today.

The Goldfield Hotel was built in 1907 and was the most prominent building built in the community. It operated through the 1940s. The guest rooms were furnished with carpeting, telephones, draperies, glass lamps, hardwood dressers with glass plate mirrors, cuspidors and brass beds. Today the hotel is privately owned and is not open for tours. It is in good shape, remarkably.

The fire of July 6, 1923 completely destroyed the Main Street area, a total of about 25 blocks. The fire started in the house of T. C. Rea, at 6:40 am. It is believed a liquor still in Rea's house exploded. Two lives were lost in the fire. 

Another devastating fire in September 1924 destroyed two other main buildings: a newspaper office and the Montezuma Club. The two fires and the empty gold veins led to the demise of the once largest city in Nevada. In the boom year of 1906, $11 million in gold was mined from the area. By 1912, ore production had dropped to $5 million and the population to just 4000.

Also built in 1907 was the Goldfield High School. This is the south side of the building. The Goldfield Historical Society is trying to restore the building to house a museum.

These photos were on a bulletin board near the building.

The wide wooden steps leading to the main doors of the stately high school.

The north side of the building. This website has some very interesting photos of the inside of the building. But then many of us of a certain age know exactly what the inside of the building looked liked. Strange Geographies: the Forgotten High School of Goldfield, Nevada

Stained glass window of a church.

The fire station located across from the courthouse.

I have no idea what this is, but it did catch my eye and that of everyone else who drives through town.

Another interesting building. I believe it is a business, but don't know what it is.

And then there was the MOST interesting building. We stopped because a geocache was placed at "The Bottle House".

It appears large stones were mixed with the clay to create the bottom half of the adobe house. I don't know if they ran out of stones or if the builders started drinking, OR maybe Tex Rickards owned the house, but bottles were placed in the top half of all the walls. 

The adobe walls were about 10-12 inches thick...as deep as a good bottle is tall.

The front of the house? It was not facing the highway. Although there was a partial fence around the Bottle House, there were major gaps allowing me and others to walk right up to the walls.

Plaster covered the adobe. In its time, it probably was a good looking home. Today it was just...interesting. A piece of history in a town that almost isn't.