September 14, 2003
Rugged and picturesque, the 8,000 feet-high Owyhee Mountains surround Silver City, elevation 6,300'. 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 six 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.
