Goldfield, Nevada
census-designated place in and county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States
Goldfield is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in and the county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada.
It had a population of 225 at the 2020 census, down from 440 in 2000. Goldfield is located 247 miles (398 km) southeast of Carson City, along U.S. Route 95.
Goldfield was a boomtown in the first decade of the 20th century due to the discovery of gold – between 1903 and 1940, Goldfield's mines produced more than $86 million at then-current prices. Much of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1923, although several buildings survived and remain today, notably the Goldfield Hotel, the Consolidated Mines Building (the communications center of the town until 1963), and the schoolhouse. Gold exploration continues in and around the town today.
History
The community was named for deposits of gold near the original town site. Gold was discovered at Goldfield in 1902, its year of inception. By 1904, the Goldfield district produced about 800 tons of ore, valued at $2,300,000, 30% of the state's production that year. This remarkable production caused Goldfield to grow rapidly, and it soon became the largest town in the state with about 20,000 people.
The public source identifies “Goldfield, Nevada” as census-designated place in and county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Goldfield, Nevada and census-designated.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Goldfield, Nevada”, the useful work is to connect “census-designated place in and county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q930361. VIAF identifies the subject as 146607633. The Library of Congress control number is n82144166. Authority coordinates are 37.709, -117.236. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 2000, 1903 and 1940.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Goldfield, Nevada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.