Businesses
Idaho Hotel
Rooms,Meals,Drinks
Pat's What Not Shop
Jewelry*Gifts*
*Souvenirs
Books & Cards
Silver City Fire & Rescue Store
Art, Antiques,Gifts & Backroom Bargains
Road Information
Silver City Area
Phone Numbers
EAGLE Informer
Silver City Article
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A Short History of Silver City, Idaho
Silver City, Idaho is one of the few old mining towns that did not
burn down or become commercialized into a modern city. Visiting
Silver City is like going back into history. The Idaho Hotel is
as it was 100 years ago with a few modern amenities. Sinker Creek
Outfitters will provide you with a historic ride back into history
on horse back exploring the Owyhee Mountains, Silver City, Empire
City, Ruby City and more. At Pat's What Not Shop, books, souvenirs,
local mineral samples are available. Silver City Fire and Rescue
Store provides Art, Antiques,Gifts & Backroom Bargains. Rugged
and picturesque, the 8,000 feet-high Owyhee Mountains surround Silver
City, elevation 6,200'. The history-filled town contains about
seventy-five structures that date from the 1860's to the early
1900's. During its "heydays", Silver City had about
a dozen streets, seventy-five businesses, three hundred homes, a
population of around 2,500, twelve ore-processing mills, and was
the Owyhee County seat from 1866 to 1934. Some of the largest stage
lines in the West operated in the area, and Silver City had the
first telegraph and the first daily newspaper in the territory in
1874. Telephones were in use here at least by 1880, and the town
was "electrified" in the 1890's. There were four separate
burial areas nearby, with a few very interesting stones remaining;
some quite large and elaborately carved. All are well worth the
hike to see and photograph. More that two dozen camps provided shelter,
supplies and amusement for the thousands of people who came to the
mountains seeking their fortunes in one way or another. The ruins
of some of these can still be found though nature is reclaiming
most of them at an accelerated rate. Almost a dozen cemeteries and
many more remote burial sites attest to the hard and sometimes dangerous
and violent lives led by many. Hundreds of mines pock-mark and honeycomb
the mountains; one had upwards of seventy miles of tunnels laboriously
hand-dug through it. Between 1863 and 1865, more than two hundred
and fifty mines were in operation and hundreds more were developed
thereafter. Through the seventy-odd years of mining, more than twelve
ore-processing mills gleaned rich rewards in tons of gold and silver.
Large stacks of gold and silver ingots were photographed for posterity.
At the very least, sixty million dollars worth of precious metals
were taken from the area. At today's prices, that amount would
be even more impressive. At the present time, there are no major
mines operating in the area. The De Lamar Silver Mine began operation
in 1977, shut down in 2000, and is one of the largest open pit gold
and silver mines in the U.S. Today 3 businesses are open in Silver
City. The historic Idaho Hotel, Pat's What Not Shop and Silver
City Fire & Rescue Store. Each has a link on the left side of
this page to take you to their respective pages. Also visit ghosttowns.com
for more information on Silver City, Idaho and surrounding mining
and ghost towns.
Links
Owyhee County
Ghosttowns.com
Ghosttowns.com Silver City Page
Comments or questions about this page.email: webmaster@historicsilvercityidaho.com
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