Goldfield’s Building Boom

Goldfield Drilling Contest – 20,000 Spectators

The boom years in Goldfield ran from 1905 through 1908. Starting with the discovery of gold in the area in 1902, by 1903 a tent camp of twenty people, and by 1907 grew to be the largest city in Nevada with a population of over 20,000 people.

Goldfield 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, gold, high grading, and all the hopes of prosperity any individual would want to find.

In the 1907 Goldfield Directory it lists… Saloons 49, Restaurants 27, Barber Shops 15, Bakeries 6, Assayers 54, Attorneys 84 (try finding one of those around here today). Brokers 162, Cigar Stores 14, Grocers 21. Hotels 22, Laundries 17. Doctors 40 (another hard group to come by), Undertakers 10 (they’d be the last ones to let you down).