Welcome to the tour

This tour provides a glimpse of Silver City before it became a ghost town. Thousands of people made this place their home, and businesses thrived with the money brought in from the area mines. This photo shows Silver City in its heyday around the turn of the century. 

Initially, Ruby City was the main city in the area, but due to Silver City's proximity to the mines and wider valley with better building sites, many buildings were moved from Ruby City to Silver and soon Ruby City was completely abandoned.

Silver City had two boom and bust cycles. The first boom started in 1863 when Michael Jordan and his prospecting party, known as the original 29, discovered gold on what is now called Jordan Creek. Silver City grew quickly with mining focused on War Eagle Mountain. However, in the mid 1870s a financial crisis caused by bank failures in California sent Silver City into decline. Many mines closed and miners left the town to find work elsewhere.

The area rebounded in the 1890s with discoveries of gold and silver veins on Florida Mountain. The town flourished for another 20 years until the mines ran so deep it was not cost effective to continue. Silver City went into steep decline after 1910.

Silver City remained the county seat until 1934 when it was moved to Murphy. After that the town was nearly abandoned except for a few hardy old timers. Many buildings were lost from 1934 until the town was rediscovered as a summer getaway in the 1960s. Since then most of the buildings have been saved and restored. Many of the current homeowners are decendents of the pioneers who settled here. 

There are two main streets in Silver City:  

Jordan street is the street you drove in on. It goes by the Idaho Hotel through where the Red Light District was located. It ends at the BLM campground, which was once the site of Silver City's Chinatown.

Washington Street is the other main street of Silver. It runs parallel to Jordan Street past the old granite ruins. It was the business district of Silver City.

The tour starts at the Idaho Hotel, continues up Avalanche Street and then up Washington Street. The tour then returns to Jordan Street before heading up to Morning Star Street where it concludes. 

Enjoy the tour!