Abandoned Towns
Log and false-front buildings of Nevada City along MT 287, with the Star Bakery and Nevada City Hotel signs and cars parked in front

Gold mining town

Nevada City

A gold camp of 1863 in Alder Gulch, where the Montana Vigilantes got their start. It was a ghost town by 1876. Collectors filled it with buildings from all over Montana, and the state now runs it as a summer open-air museum.

45°18′27″N 111°58′05″W · ≈5,600 ft

Photo: Tumbleweed1954, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Summer season

Nevada City's museum is a summer attraction run by the Montana Heritage Commission. Its page still shows the 2025 season, May 24 to September 1, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, with adult admission of $10 on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays; it hadn't posted 2026 museum dates when we checked in October 2026. In 2026 the Alder Gulch Shortline train ran May 23 to September 7, and a state article of June 2026 had living history running on summer weekends through September 7. Check virginiacitymt.com or call 406-843-5247 before you go.

Overview

A gold camp emptied, then filled again

Nevada City lies in Alder Gulch, a mile and a half down the creek from Virginia City. Gold was found in the gulch in May 1863, and by early June Nevada City was occupied. It was one of the two commercial centers of the strike, and that December it held the miners' court that convicted George Ives of murder. He was hanged in the middle of town before as many as 2,000 people, and the case set off the Montana Vigilantes.

The boom was short. Nevada City was incorporated in 1865, but by 1869 only about 100 people were left, and Legends of America calls it a ghost town by 1876. Gold dredges of the Conrey Placer Mining Company then worked the gulch for more than 20 years and destroyed many of the old buildings. Highway construction removed more.

What a visitor sees now is mostly a collection. From the 1950s Charles and Sue Bovey bought land here and moved in old buildings from around Montana, nearly 100 of them over about 20 years, to stand with the handful of originals. Among them are seven buildings tied to the Chinese communities of Madison County, set up as a Chinatown, and a music hall built in 1912 at Yellowstone's Canyon Lodge that now holds what is billed as North America's largest collection of automated music machines. The state bought the Bovey properties in 1997, and the Montana Heritage Commission runs Nevada City as an open-air museum each summer, linked to Virginia City by the Alder Gulch Shortline.

Timeline

From Alder Gulch boom to open-air museum

  1. Miners find gold in Alder Gulch, about 80 miles east of Bannack, and a rush follows.
  2. Nevada City is occupied by this date, by Wikipedia's account.
  3. On December 19 a miners' court tries George Ives for murdering Nicholas Tbalt (Tibalt to Legends of America), with up to 2,000 people watching; Legends of America says the trial lasted three days. Wikipedia says he was hanged in the middle of town within the hour; Legends of America dates the hanging to December 21, 58 minutes after the verdict. The case leads to the Montana Vigilantes.
  4. Nevada City is incorporated. It is one of the towns considered for territorial capital, along with Bannack and Virginia City.
  5. About 100 people remain, with three general stores and two saloons.
  6. Legends of America calls Nevada City a ghost town by 1876. About 50 people live there in 1880.
  7. The Conrey Placer Mining Company dredges Alder Gulch and destroys many buildings. Wikipedia says dredging ran 24 years from 1896 and mining ended in 1922; Legends of America puts the dredges at work from 1899 to 1923.
  8. Charles and Sue Bovey, who had been collecting old Montana buildings since the 1940s, start buying land in Nevada City and moving buildings in.
  9. Bovey is asked to take his "Old Town" exhibit off the Great Falls fairgrounds. Over about 20 years nearly 100 buildings come to Nevada City.
  10. The State of Montana buys the Bovey properties in Nevada City and Virginia City. The Montana Heritage Commission runs them.
  11. The Alder Gulch Shortline runs between Virginia City and Nevada City from May 23 to September 7, and living history weekends run from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.

What's there

Originals and arrivals

The Nevada City Hotel and the Star Bakery along MT 287, June 2015
The Nevada City Hotel and the Star Bakery along MT 287, June 2015 · Photo: Tumbleweed1954, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Nevada City is not a ruin. Its buildings stand in rows beside MT 287, and only a small share of them began here: Wikipedia counts 14 originals among 108 buildings, and the operator speaks of about 100 buildings from 1863 to the early 1900s. The rest were moved in, many by the Great Falls house mover Forrest "Scotty" Zion. The Nevada City Hotel joins a building from Salisbury, Montana, with one from Yellowstone. Along the highway a few businesses, among them the hotel and the Star Bakery, have operated in summer, and some year-round.

The old maps show the gulch before the collection arrived. The 1888 Three Forks sheet marks Nevada City in Alder Gulch between Adobe and Virginia City, with Junction a little way down the gulch. The 1950 Virginia City sheet labels no town at all: it shows a few buildings and a cemetery along highway 34, with the old placer mines filling the gulch beside it and Virginia City a mile and a half to the southeast.

  • About 100 historic buildings, 14 or 15 of them original
  • Nevada City Hotel
  • Music Hall (built 1912 at Yellowstone)
  • Chinatown (seven buildings)
USGS topographic map of Nevada City on MT 287 in Alder Gulch, with ponds along the creek and Browns Gulch to the southwest
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite's streets sit on MT 287 at center, with ponds strung along Alder Gulch below them and Browns Gulch joining from the southwest.
Aerial view of Nevada City: buildings and trees along a highway, with pale dredge tailings and dark ponds in the gulch below
Aerial imagery, same area. The buildings line the highway from upper left to lower right; the pale strips and dark ponds below them lie in the dredged gulch.

Historic maps

Nevada City on USGS maps, 1888–1950

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Nevada City, 1888
Three Forks sheet, 1888, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to Nevada City from Ennis

Take it with you

Day trip itinerary

The essentials, the sample day with boxes to tick, what to photograph and the coordinates, on two printable pages. Handy where there's no signal.

Download the PDF (589 KB)

Nevada City is a summer day trip from Ennis, half an hour over the hills on MT 287. Spend the morning in the open-air museum, then ride the Alder Gulch Shortline a mile and a half up the gulch to Virginia City. The museum and train are closed now: when we checked on October 21, 2026, the museum page still showed the 2025 season, so confirm next summer's dates before you go.

A sample day

  1. Leave Ennis on MT 287 over the hills, through Virginia City and down Alder Gulch, about half an hour.
  2. The museum opens. Start with the music machines at the entrance, then walk the streets of moved-in buildings and Chinatown.
  3. Lunch, then cross to the Bovey Visitor Center for the train to Virginia City.
  4. Walk Virginia City's boardwalk, then ride the train back. The 2026 schedule listed departures until 6 p.m.
  5. On the drive home, stop at the free outdoor mining exhibits and the Mount Vernon Dredge on MT 287 between the two towns.

Coming from Bozeman? It's about 1 hour 45 minutes by MT 84 and US 287. Leave by 8:15 a.m. to be there at opening.

What to photograph and film

  • The Nevada City Hotel. It faces MT 287 with the Star Bakery beside it. Shoot the row from across the highway.
  • The train. Catch it leaving the Bovey Visitor Center, or ride it and film the gulch from the car.
  • Living history. Weekend interpreters in period dress make good video. Ask before close-up portraits.
  • The Mount Vernon Dredge. A big dredge on the west side of the road between the towns, with mining equipment around it.
  • Drones. The Heritage Commission's pages don't mention them. The museum is state property, so ask the office first.

Map & directions

Getting there

Ennis is the nearest larger town, about half an hour east over the hills on MT 287; the drive passes through Virginia City, a mile and a half up the gulch. From Bozeman, the route runs west on US 191 and MT 84, south on US 287 to Ennis, then on to Virginia City. Both drives pass through Virginia City on Wallace Street and come down Alder Gulch to Nevada City.

USGS topographic map between Ennis and Nevada City with the route on MT 287 drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Ennis15.9 miabout 29 min
  1. From Chowning Street, turn onto West Main Street and follow US 287 and MT 287 west out of town.0.5 mi
  2. Continue on MT 287 (Bauer Lane) over the hills to Virginia City.13.0 mi
  3. Follow MT 287 through Virginia City as Wallace Street.1.0 mi
  4. Continue on MT 287, Nevada Street, down Alder Gulch.1.3 mi
  5. Turn right, then left on Brewery Street in Nevada City.0.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The routes are computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.
  • The museum and train are summer attractions. Outside Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, expect them closed, and check the operator's page for the current year's dates.
  • Train tickets are sold at the Nevada City Museum and Music Hall, by the operator's Virginia City page.

Photos

Nevada City in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Nevada City?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Nevada City

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Montana index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Montana Heritage Commission, "Nevada City Old Town Museum and Music Hall", read October 20, 2026: the 2025 season, hours, last entry and admission, about 100 buildings from 1863 to the early 1900s, phone.
  2. Montana Heritage Commission, "Train Rides and Schedule", read October 20, 2026: the Alder Gulch Shortline, its 2026 season of May 23 to September 7, length, ride time and fares.
  3. Montana Heritage Commission, "Plan Your Visit", read October 20, 2026: the Memorial Day to Labor Day season and train tickets sold at the Nevada City museum.
  4. Montana Department of Commerce, "Nevada City Living History Program Now Open", June 9, 2026: the 2026 living history weekends through September 7.
  5. Wikipedia, "Nevada City, Montana", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation, the June 1863 date, the Ives trial and hanging, incorporation, the capital question, 1869, 1872 and 1880 figures, dredging, the Boveys, Scotty Zion, the Chinatown, the music hall, the hotel, 108 and 14 buildings, the businesses.
  6. Legends of America, "Nevada City, Montana", updated November 2025: the Ives dates, the vigilantes, ghost town by 1876, the Conrey company and dredge years, the Boveys and the Great Falls exhibit, the 1997 purchase, the music hall's Yellowstone origin.
  7. Legends of America, "Bannack, Montana", updated August 2026: the May 1863 Alder Gulch discovery, 80 miles east of Bannack.
  8. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, credited below. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.
  9. Montana Heritage Commission, "Mining History", read October 21, 2026: the free outdoor mining exhibits and the Mount Vernon Dredge at 1559 MT Hwy 287, west side of the road.
  10. Montana Heritage Commission museum, train and Plan Your Visit pages above, read again October 21, 2026, for the day trip: the museum page still showing 2025, living history weekends and the Facebook schedule, the daily 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. train departures, in-person tickets, no trains in bad weather, the Bovey Visitor Center departure, restrooms and outhouses, the 1.5 miles to Virginia City. The Eat and Drink page they link to returned a 404.

Photo and map credits