Forgotten Giants: the Largest Cities in Nevada 150 Year's Ago That Vanished from the Map

A fresh look at Forgotten Giants: the Largest Cities in Nevada 150 Year's Ago That Vanished from the Map, bringing you critical context.

Directly south of Virginia City lay Gold Hill. Connected by a winding mountain gorge, Gold Hill was not a sleepy suburb; it was an industrial powerhouse in its own right. During the 1870s, Gold Hill contained roughly 5,000 to 6,000 residents, enough to rank as the second-largest settlement in the state. Deep-shaft mines like the Yellow Jacket and Crown Point yielded millions of dollars in bullion, paying high daily wages that drew thousands of immigrants from Cornwall, Ireland, and Germany.

Further east across the Great Basin, towns like Austin in the Reese River district and Aurora in modern-day Mineral County boomed with similar intensity. Austin served as the jumping-off point for silver prospectors in central Nevada, housing more than 4,000 people during its prime and establishing its own municipal government, fire department, and daily newspapers. Aurora, which once had the unique distinction of serving as the county seat of both Mono County, California, and Esmeralda County, Nevada, before border surveys resolved the dispute, supported over 5,000 residents. Today, Aurora is an empty expanse of foundations, while Gold Hill counts fewer than 200 residents.