About this city
Also known as: The Last Great Gold Camp
Goldfield, Nevada, is a legendary semi-ghost town and the historic county seat of Esmeralda County. Founded during the massive 1902 gold rush, it rapidly exploded into Nevada's largest and most prosperous metropolis by 1906, boasting a peak population of over 20,000 and drawing famous frontier figures like the Earp brothers. However, its golden era was cut short by a devastating flash flood in 1913 and a catastrophic town-wide fire in 1923, which left the bustling city in ruins and led to a permanent decline. Today, Goldfield serves as an authentic, living museum of the American West, preserved along US Route 95. Visitors travel here to explore historic architecture like the operational 1907 courthouse and the grand, allegedly haunted Goldfield Hotel, as well as the International Car Forest of the Last Church—a striking, graffiti-covered open-air art installation featuring dozens of vehicles buried nose-first into the desert floor.
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Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 1 day
Photograph the imposing multi-story structural detail and grand columns of the historic 1908 Goldfield Hotel. View the bizarre, surrealist alignment of junk vintage cars buried nose-down in the soil at the International Car Forest of the Last Church. Explore local pioneer mining tools and geology galleries downtown.
