Abandoned Towns
Goldfield seen from the sagebrush hills, with the four-story brick Goldfield Hotel and mine headframes beyond the houses

Gold mining town

Goldfield

For a few years after 1902 Goldfield was the biggest city in Nevada, with a gold output in the millions and a world title fight. Floods and fire took most of it. About 225 people live among what's left.

37°42′31″N 117°14′08″W · ≈5,690 ft

Photo: Rick Cooper, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Living town

Goldfield is the Esmeralda County seat, on US 95. Its historic district can be walked any day from sunrise to sunset, free, with maps from the visitor center on the highway at the northwest edge of town. The Goldfield Hotel is private and closed; see it from the street.

Overview

Nevada's biggest city, briefly

Main street around 1905
Main street around 1905 · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Harry Stimler and Billy March found gold in the hills south of Tonopah in December 1902. The next year the camp had 36 people. By 1906 it had somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000, depending on whose count you trust, and was the largest city in Nevada. Ore worth $10,000 a day came out of the mines, and in 1907 output topped $8.4 million.

Goldfield had money to show off. Tex Rickard ran the Northern Saloon, with Wyatt Earp as a pit boss, and in 1906 the town hosted the 42-round lightweight title fight between Joe Gans and Battling Nelson. The county seat moved here in 1907, and the courthouse and the four-story Goldfield Hotel went up in 1908. A bitter strike in 1907 brought federal troops at the mine owners' request, and the owners won.

The boom was short. By 1910 the census found 4,838 people. A flood in 1913 swept away hundreds of buildings, and in 1923 a moonshine still exploded and the fire burned 27 blocks. The mines produced more than $86 million before 1940. About 120 buildings from the boom survive in the historic district, and the courthouse is still in use.

Timeline

Boom, strike, flood and fire

The Mohawk mine around 1905
The Mohawk mine around 1905 · Photo: Pierce, C.C. (Charles C.), 1861-1946, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The marker for the 1906 Gans–Nelson fight
The marker for the 1906 Gans–Nelson fight · Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
  1. Harry Stimler and Billy March find gold in the hills south of Tonopah. The district is first called Grandpa.
  2. Thirty-six people live in the camp, many in dugouts along Coyote Wash.
  3. The district produces about $2.3 million in ore, 30 percent of Nevada's output. Virgil and Wyatt Earp arrive.
  4. The Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad arrives. Tex Rickard opens the Northern Saloon. A fire on July 8 destroys two blocks.
  5. Joe Gans beats Battling Nelson in 42 rounds for the lightweight title before a crowd more than twice the arena's 8,000 seats.
  6. Goldfield peaks at about 20,000 people by Wikipedia's count, over 30,000 by Legends of America's, and is briefly Nevada's largest city.
  7. Gold output tops $8.4 million, and the county seat moves here from Hawthorne.
  8. Federal troops are sent in during a miners' strike at the mine owners' request. They stay until March 7.
  9. The courthouse opens in May. The Goldfield Hotel opens with 154 rooms.
  10. The census counts 4,838.
  11. A flood sweeps away hundreds of buildings.
  12. A moonshine still explodes, and the fire burns 27 blocks.
  13. Mines have produced more than $86 million since 1903.
  14. The Goldfield Historic District, about 120 buildings on 200 acres, is listed on the National Register.
  15. The census counts 225 residents.

What's left

What you'll see

The Esmeralda County Courthouse, in use since 1908
The Esmeralda County Courthouse, in use since 1908 · Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Esmeralda County Courthouse has been in use since 1908, and its original jail still holds prisoners. The Goldfield Hotel, built in 1907–08 for over $300,000, has been empty since the end of World War II. The old high school, the Santa Fe Saloon of 1905, the Mozart Saloon and Tex Rickard's 1905 house also stand. Many lots between them have stood empty since the 1923 fire, and the dumps of the old mines ring the town.

The 1908 USGS sheet in the next section shows Goldfield at its height, beside the camp of Columbia, with Diamondfield to the northeast and the railroads that served the district.

  • Esmeralda County Courthouse (1908)
  • Goldfield Hotel (1908, closed)
  • Goldfield High School
  • Santa Fe Saloon (1905)
  • Mozart Saloon
  • Tex Rickard house (1905)
  • Mine dumps
USGS topographic map of Goldfield's street grid and mine workings
USGS The National Map, topo. US 95 runs through the town grid, with mine workings around it.
Aerial view of Goldfield's partly empty street grid
Aerial imagery, same area. Many blocks of the grid now stand empty.

Historic maps

Goldfield on USGS maps, 1908–1987

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 Goldfield, 1908
Lida sheet, 1908, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to Goldfield from Tonopah

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 (572 KB)

Goldfield is 35 minutes from Tonopah, and the free historic walking tour fills a morning. Start at the visitor center on US 95 for maps.

A sample day

  1. Leave Tonopah on US 95 south, about 35 minutes.
  2. Pick up a walking-tour map at the visitor center, or use the booklet you downloaded.
  3. Walk past the courthouse and the Goldfield Hotel, then the Santa Fe and Mozart saloons.
  4. Visit the old high school and the Gans–Nelson fight marker.
  5. Head back to Tonopah, or continue south on US 95 toward Beatty and Rhyolite.

Driving from Las Vegas? It's about 3 hours 30 minutes on US 95. Rhyolite is on the way, near Beatty.

What to photograph and film

  • The Goldfield Hotel. The four-story brick front faces the highway. Cross the road to fit it in.
  • The courthouse. Opened in 1908 and still in use by the county.
  • The old mines. Dumps and workings surround the town. A long lens from the edge of town keeps you off private claims.
  • Drones. No published rule for the town. Don't fly over private buildings or people.

Map & directions

Getting there

Goldfield is on US 95, 27 miles south of Tonopah and about three and a half hours north of Las Vegas. Paved all the way.

USGS topographic map between Tonopah and Goldfield with the route 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 central Tonopah27.0 miabout 33 min
  1. Head south on Erie Street, US 6/US 95, out of Tonopah.1.7 mi
  2. Continue south on US 95, the Veterans Memorial Highway, into Goldfield.25.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • US 95 is paved all the way. Fuel up in Tonopah or Beatty; distances between towns are long.
  • Most historic buildings are private. The Goldfield Hotel is closed to the public.
  • Old mine workings surround the town. Stay out of shafts and off unstable dumps.

Photos

Goldfield in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Goldfield?

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 Goldfield

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Goldfield": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time).
  2. Wikipedia, "Goldfield, Nevada", retrieved October 2026: 1904 output, peak population, Gans–Nelson fight, county seat, federal troops, 1910 census, 1923 fire, historic district, hotel, 2020 census, climate, Goldfield Days.
  3. Legends of America, "Goldfield": discovery, Grandpa district, 1903 population, the Earps and Rickard, 1905 fire, the 30,000 figure, the strike, courthouse and jail, hotel, 1913 flood, 1923 fire extent, production, surviving buildings.
  4. Travel Nevada, "Goldfield Visitor's Center" and "Goldfield Historic Walking Tour": visitor center location and services, walking tour hours, booklet download and no admission, as of October 2026.
  5. Travel Nevada, "Goldfield Hotel" and "Goldfield Historic High School", as of October 2026: the hotel is privately owned, closed and not offering tours; high school tours by appointment, year-round.
  6. Coordinates: Wikipedia (from USGS GNIS). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits