From Deadwood, South Dakota to Arizona's "wickedest town in the West," these 19th-century mining settlements were once home to gambling halls, brothels, and some of the frontier's most lawless characters.
A street scene in Virginia City, Nevada. The discovery of silver in the 1850s made this tiny outpost into a boomtown.The Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection
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Stagecoaches in front of the Wells Fargo building in Virginia City, Nevada. The population peaked at 25,000 in the 1870s but is less than 1,000 today.Library of Congress
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A bird's eye view of Bodie, California, in the 1890s. It became a boomtown in the late 1870s after the discovery of gold. Public Domain
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By 1915, however, Bodie was a ghost town. It's one of the most famous ghost towns in the United States.King of Hearts/Wikimedia Commons
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The courthouse in Goldfield, Nevada. Gold was discovered in Goldfield at the turn of the 20th century, making it a major supplier of the precious metal for decades. Public Domain
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Miners at work in Goldfield. By August 1904, the mines in town were producing $10,000 in gold ore each day. However, like elsewhere, Goldfield's fortunes swiftly declined, and much of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1923.Public Domain
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Bisbee, Arizona, circa 1879. Bisbee became a prospector's camp in 1877 after the discovery of copper, and it soon grew to become a copper, gold, and silver mining town.Public Domain
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Bisbee in 1909. Bisbee's population jumped from roughly 1,500 in 1890 to 9,000 in the 1910s and 1920s, but it has declined ever since.Public Domain
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Cripple Creek, Colorado, in the early 20th century. Established in the early 1890s, it quickly became a large mining town. Public Domain
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A colorized photo of the mines in Cripple Creek. Its population steadily declined during the 20th century, and just over 1,000 people live there today.Public Domain
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A street scene in Central City, Colorado, in 1864. The discovery of gold in the area in 1859 brought thousands of miners to the region, though many didn't stay permanently. Public Domain
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People in Central City between 1865 and 1900. The town's population is less than 1,000 today.New York Public Library
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Main Street in Saint Elmo, Colorado, circa 1890. Saint Elmo was founded in 1880 as a gold and silver mining town. It once had a telegraph office, five hotels, a newspaper office, and a school.Public Domain
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Like many mining towns, Saint Elmo later became a ghost town. Railroad service was discontinued in the 1920s, and its population swiftly declined.Public Domain
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Jerome, Arizona, circa 1883. It was founded as a mining town in 1876. Before long, Jerome had churches, post offices, schools, and plenty of saloons. Public Domain
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A street in Jerome, Arizona, circa 1900. By 1903, the Wild West mining town was declared "the wickedest town in the West" because of its glut of bars and gambling halls.Public Domain
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Calico, California, in the 1880s. Founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, Calico once had hotels, bars, brothels, restaurants, and boarding houses. However, its boom times were ultimately short-lived.Public Domain
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A mine in Calico. By the start of the 20th century, Calico was all but abandoned. Today, it's a popular ghost town destination. Public Domain
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The Robert E. Lee mine in Leadville, Colorado, a mining town established in 1877 at the start of a silver boom.Public Domain
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Houses in Leadville. The town's population peaked in the 1880s at 14,000 and had fallen to around 2,600 in 2020.Public Domain
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Vulture City, Arizona, the site of a gold mine that opened in 1863. It was once the most productive gold mine in Arizona. Public Domain
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Violence, alongside prosperity, marked life in Vulture, and 18 men were purportedly hanged during the town's short history. Today it's a ghost town, with perhaps more than one ghost haunting its abandoned buildings.Public Domain
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Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881. Though it's perhaps best known as the site of the infamous Shootout at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone was also a prosperous silver mining town in Arizona. Public Domain
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The "Tough Nut" mine in Tombstone. Tombstone had many boom years, but a series of natural disasters, including fires, led to its decline. Today, it's a popular tourist destination.Public Domain
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One of the most successful Wild West mining towns was Butte, Montana. Settled in the 1860s, Butte was the site of gold and silver mines, but it was copper that ensured the town's success.Public Domain
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Main Street in Butte around 1892. Unlike many other mining towns, Butte's prosperity endured. It's not a ghost town but a thriving city of 35,000 people. Public Domain
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A busy street in Deadwood, South Dakota, circa 1876. The boom years in South Dakota, triggered by the discovery of gold, were ultimately few. However, Deadwood was the site of many memorable Wild West dramas. Public Domain
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Deadwood, seen here in 1890, hosted many notable Wild West figures, including Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, and Wild Bill Hickok. Public Domain
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Ultimately, however, Deadwood met the same fate as many other mining towns. Today, its population is just over 1,000. Public Domain
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Nevada City, California, in 1856. Settled during the Gold Rush, Nevada City was once the third-largest city in California. Public Domain
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A group of people in Nevada City in 1866, with a hotel and courthouse in the background. Today, Nevada City continues as a small town, with a population of around 3,000.Public Domain
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Miners in Wallace, Idaho, circa 1909. Wallace was founded in 1884 after gold was found nearby. The town initially thrived, with schools, saloons, hotels, and stores. Public Domain
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Firefighters in Wallace, Idaho, circa 1906. The population of the town gradually shrank and is less than 1,000 today.Public Domain
33 Photos That Reveal What Life Was Really Like In Wild West Mining Towns
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In the second half of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of people poured west in search of one thing: gold. The California Gold Rush promised quick and easy riches, and prospectors of all types spread across the American frontier. As they gathered in California, Montana, and elsewhere in search of precious metals, Wild West mining towns followed.
Some of these towns are well-known. Deadwood, South Dakota, and Tombstone, Arizona, are famous in Wild West lore. But they were just two of the thousands of mining towns that popped up across the American frontier. Most followed a similar cycle of boom and bust — but at least one Wild West mining town is still a thriving city today.
The Rise Of Wild West Mining Towns
In 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Coloma, California. This launched the California Gold Rush — and the construction of Wild West mining towns across the American frontier.
Two of the most famous Wild West mining towns are Tombstone, Arizona, and Deadwood, South Dakota. Tombstone, the site of the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, was founded in 1879 as a silver mine. The promise of riches drew prospectors — as well as lawmen, like Virgil Earp, and outlaws, like Johnny Ringo. But while Tombstone is most famous for its Wild West drama, it was also an important and prosperous silver mine.
Deadwood, South Dakota, was settled in the 1870s and similarly became known more for its lawlessness than its gold mines. Crime ran rampant in Deadwood — including the murder of "Wild Bill" Hickok — until Seth Bullock arrived in town to lay down the law and rein things in.
Public DomainCity Hall in Deadwood, South Dakota. Circa 1890.
But Deadwood and Tombstone were far from the only Wild West mining towns. Nevada City, California, incorporated in 1856, was once the third-largest city in California. And Cripple Creek, Colorado, was once such a thriving boomtown that it produced more than two dozen millionaires.
Other, lesser-known towns were often just as raucous as Tombstone and Deadwood. Jerome, Arizona, for example, was once called "the wickedest town in the West" because of its proliferation of bars, brothels, and gambling halls.
But most of these Wild West mining towns had one thing in common: Once the ores of gold or silver dried up, so did their populations.
From Thriving Outposts To Ghost Towns
Today, most Wild West mining towns — if they exist at all — are total ghost towns. Places like Goldfield, Arizona, were once so prosperous that it seemed their riches would last forever. Indeed, many believed that Goldfield would grow to rival nearby Mesa. After its establishment in the 1890s, it grew to be a town of 4,000 people with 28 buildings, which included saloons, a boarding house, a general store, a brewery, and a schoolhouse.
Jasperdo/FlickrGoldfield, Arizona, is a tourist attraction today.
However, Goldfield was all but abandoned after its fields of gold dried up, and a devastating fire in 1943 destroyed much of what remained of the town.
The Wild West mining town of Bodie has a similar story. After gold was found in the area in 1859, the town's population grew from just 20 miners to 10,000 people by 1880. Like Tombstone and Deadwood, Bodie was the site of considerable lawlessness — and perhaps as many as 65 saloons — and people routinely greeted each other by asking who'd been killed the night before. But Bodie's good years were few. Its decline began in the 1880s, and it was declared a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962.
But there was one Wild West mining town that escaped this fate. Butte, Montana, began like many of the others — a town built around a gold and silver mine. But it was actually copper that helped Butte escape the fate of other Wild West mining towns. The rise of electronics that needed copper meant that Butte's mines were especially valuable. Far from being a ghost town, Butte is a thriving city of 35,000 people today.
However, Butte is certainly the exception, and the success of most Wild West mining towns was short-lived. The thousands of people who descended onto remote outposts in the American frontier left for greener pastures once veins of gold or silver dried up. They left behind abandoned saloons, hotels, brothels, boarding houses, restaurants, schools, and churches, some of which have been preserved to this day. They also left behind plenty of Wild West legends, from Tombstone to Deadwood.
In the gallery above, take a trip back in time and explore the stories of Wild West mining towns that once dotted the American frontier. Though most are abandoned today, they were once the site of great wealth — and drama.
A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Kaleena Fraga has also had her work featured in The Washington Post and Gastro Obscura, and she published a book on the Seattle food scene for the Eat Like A Local series. She graduated from Oberlin College, where she earned a dual degree in American History and French.
A writer and editor based in Charleston, South Carolina and an assistant editor at All That's Interesting, Cara Johnson holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Washington & Lee University and an M.A. in English from College of Charleston and has written for various publications in her six-year career.
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Fraga, Kaleena. "33 Photos That Reveal What Life Was Really Like In Wild West Mining Towns." AllThatsInteresting.com, June 28, 2025, https://allthatsinteresting.com/wild-west-mining-towns. Accessed June 28, 2025.
