Twenty-six rocky uphill dirt-road miles from the already-remote Oregon town of Jordan Valley Oregon lies the sort-of ghost town of Silver City Idaho. "Sort-of" because while the town looks like it did in the late 1800s, the structures are all privately owned and some of them are occupied, mostly as summer homes.
The whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places — and the outsides of the buildings can't be modernized or altered. There's no electricity, but other modern conveniences can be added to the insides of the structures.
Silver City was founded in 1864 after silver was discovered on nearby War Eagle mountain. Soon it was a bustling little community of 2500 people with 75 businesses and was even the county seat for a few years.
Although mining never did come to a complete halt, the original War Eagle mine became depleted and financing for other mines failed. As agriculture in the lower valleys grew in importance with the advent of irrigation, population in this extremely remote mountain town declined steadily and by the 1930s it was a nearly unoccupied ghost town.
A kind of revival began after World War II when transportation became more available and visitors to the area increased. Property owners and Owyhee County have worked hard for many years to preserve intact this remnant of Western history.
Today there are just a few businesses on the old Main Street… a small inn/ restaurant (where they cook using propane gas), a souvenir shop, and a campground. But no grocery store or gas station.
Every old-west town has to have a street that was the scene of gunfights and stabbings and Silver City is no exception.
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