Goldfield
Esmeralda County, Esmeralda County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Goldfield. For a twenty-year period prior to 1900, mining in Nevada fell into a slump that cast the entire state into a bleak depression and caused the loss of a third of the population.The picture brightened overnight following the spectacular strikes in Tonopah and, shortly afterwards, in Goldfield. Gold ore was discovered here in December 1902 by two Nevada-born prospectors, Harry Stimler and Billy Marsh. From 1904 to 1918, Goldfield boomed. The city had a railroad that connected to Las Vegas and a peak population of 20,000, making it Nevada’s largest community at the time. Between 1903 and 1940 a total of $86,765,044 in precious metals was produced here.
Erected by Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The Story
After two decades of decline that drained a third of Nevada's population, the state's fortunes turned overnight with rich strikes at Tonopah and, in December 1902, here at Goldfield. Nevada-born prospectors Harry Stimler and Billy Marsh found gold ore, and from 1904 to 1918 Goldfield boomed into the state's largest city, peaking near 20,000 people with a railroad linking it to Las Vegas. Before the mines gave out, they yielded more than $86 million in precious metals.
Why it matters
Goldfield's strike launched Nevada's early-20th-century mining revival, proving the state's frontier boom was far from over.
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Related people
- · Harry Stimler
- · Billy Marsh
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lida
Esmeralda County, NV
Set in a valley long used as a gathering place by Shoshone and Northern Paiute people, Lida began drawing prospectors in the 1860s, and by 1872 a proper town had been platted amid the stores, stables, and post office of a working mining district. The richest ore was too valuable to trust to local mills and was hauled to Austin or Belmont for treatment. After 1880 the camp faded, flared briefly during the turn-of-the-century Goldfield rush, and dwindled to a tiny community that hung on until World War I.
Tonopah
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In May 1900, Nye County District Attorney Jim Butler made the discovery that ended a twenty-year slump in Nevada's economy — the Paiute had long used the name Tonopah for a spring in the nearby mountains. The strike proved to be the richest silver producer in the nation, spawning a railroad, great mills, and a population of some 10,000, and by 1905 it had taken the county seat from Belmont. Though the mines faltered in the 1920s, Tonopah's lasting fame rests on the financiers and politicians it launched.
Palmetto
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Prospectors who mistook the local Joshua trees for palms gave this 1866 silver camp the hopeful name Palmetto. A 12-stamp mill chased the ore, but thin deposits killed the town more than once, even as fresh strikes briefly revived it. A 1903 rush swelled Palmetto to 200 tents and a full commercial street by 1906, only for the miners to drift away that same autumn, leaving lease work and a notable nearby talc deposit behind.
Columbus
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