Goldfield Hotel

The Goldfield Hotel opened its doors in 1908, just a couple of years before the town’s mining boom was over. Called in its day “the gem of the desert,” the lobby had luxurious mahogany paneling, the rooms had steam heat and telephones. The hotel survived the disastrous fires and floods that have returned to the desert much of what can be seen in this 1909 photograph of the town. The hotel is shuttered.

Click and drag to view Goldfield during its bonanza days, and the present-day Goldfield Hotel.
Find the red hotspot for the Goldfield Hotel. Once you enter the hotel, you can locate hotspots that will ultimately lead you to the “haunted room.” Other hotspots link to remnants of Goldfield’s railroad history.

Between 1903 and 1940, Goldfield’s mines produced more than $86 million—close to $2 billion in 2023 dollars. With 20,000 citizens, by the end of 1907 the town was served by three different railroads.
Much of the town was destroyed by a flash flood in 1913, followed by a devastating fire in 1923. But the Goldfield Hotel, along with the high school and several other buildings survived and remain today. Not quite a ghost town, Goldfield today has a population of around 250.
The Esmeralda County Courthouse, also in Goldfield, may be explored here.

Postcard of the Golfield Hotel, c. 1915

The Goldfield Hotel was designed by architect George E. Holesworth and built by prominent local businessman George Wingfield, who is connected in folklore with a heinous murder committed in the hotel’s “haunted room.” More about this folklore, and the history of the hotel, may be read here.
It had 154 rooms, each with its own bathroom, telephone, and electric lighting, which was a rare luxury in those days. The hotel also featured a restaurant, a bar, a billiard room, and a ballroom. The Goldfield Hotel was a popular destination for wealthy travelers and celebrities, including former President Theodore Roosevelt, who stayed there in 1910.
The hotel’s fortunes, however, began to decline after the mining boom ended, and by the 1940s, it had fallen into disrepair. In the 1980s, the hotel was purchased by a private owner who planned to restore it to its former glory. However, the project stalled, and the hotel remained abandoned for many years. During this time, it gained a reputation as a haunted location, and it was featured in several paranormal investigation shows. In 2018, the hotel was sold again to new owners who planed to complete the restoration and reopen it as a luxury property. The project is ongoing, and the hotel remains closed to the public (2023),

The gallery below features a variety of images, some historic, some merely quirky, found in Goldfield. The photographs of vehicles planted in the ground were made at Goldfield’s “International Car Forest of the Last Church.”

The archival panorama image that begins the virtual tour is from the Library of Congress. It has been processed to remove image defects, enhance its detail, and to add color to the hotel building.