Silver City Owyhee County, Idaho
Former County Seat
Mapped Location
Silver City: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.
Information
General information on Silver City
- Feature Type: Place
Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Silver City
A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Silver City | Official |
Origin Notes and History of Silver City
References to Silver City that document the origin of its place name
OWYHEE.—Named for the Owyhee River (q.v.). The county seat is Silver City, named, in 1863, by the prospectors who discovered rich silver float near there.
A Selected Bibliography of Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho
A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.
Idaho's bonanza years ghost towns, their history and how to find them by Rex Painter, Dorothy Povey
Rex Painter and Dorothy Povey’s Idaho's Bonanza Years: Ghost Towns, Their History and How to Find Them serves as both a pioneer chronicle and a physical navigational guide to the abandoned mining settlements scattered across the Gem State. The narrative maps the rugged, isolated topography that dictated Idaho's late-nineteenth-century mineral rushes, tracing routes through the steep, timbered gulches of the central Salmon River Mountains southward to the arid, high-elevation basins of the Owyhee range. By detailing the rapid rise and inevitable collapse of these remote boomtowns—often built precariously along narrow canyon walls and deep within unforgiving alpine valleys—the authors illustrate the extreme environmental challenges prospectors faced in extracting wealth from the state's formidable interior. Ultimately, the text captures the transient geographical footprint of resource extraction in the inland Pacific Northwest, demonstrating how the harsh physical realities of these isolated mountainous enclaves eventually reclaimed the ambitious pioneer architecture of Idaho's gold and silver rushes.
46 pages illustrations, map 25 cm
Non-circulating [ 1 ]
Historic Silver City the story of the Owyhees by Mildretta Adams
Mildretta Adams’s Historic Silver City: The Story of the Owyhees chronicles the brutal pioneer extraction of immense mineral wealth from the stark, unforgiving high-desert topography of southwestern Idaho. The narrative maps how the severe geographic isolation, punishing alpine winters, and precipitous volcanic canyons of the Owyhee Mountains demanded massive logistical feats simply to construct the precarious toll roads and stamp mills necessary to sustain a booming silver metropolis. By detailing the explosive rise and inevitable collapse of this remote mining enclave, the book illustrates how temporarily conquering the extreme environmental realities of the arid inland empire was the absolute prerequisite for exploiting its geological riches, just as those same harsh geographic constraints ultimately dictated its abandonment.
60 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Non-circulating [ 1 ]
A historical, descriptive and commercial directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, January 1898 Silver City, De Lamar, and Guffey by Press of The Owyhee Avalanche
Published in 1898 by the Press of The Owyhee Avalanche, this volume serves as both a foundational historical record and a practical commercial guide to Owyhee County, Idaho, during its late 19th-century resource boom. The text provides detailed accounts of the region's geography, emerging rail infrastructure, and lucrative mining operations, while also cataloging the local businesses, civic leaders, and pioneer residents who populated towns like Silver City, De Lamar, and Guffey. A keen insight drawn from the publication is how frontier newspapers actively functioned as regional boosters, utilizing these exhaustively detailed directories to legitimize rugged, isolated mining camps into permanent, investment-worthy municipalities by projecting a highly organized image of commerce and rapid modernization.
154 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
ONLINE Circulation [ 1 ]
Owyhee County
- Bengoechea Place
- Bruneau
- Buncel Place
- Carothers Place (historical)
- China Hat
- Claytonia
- Cliffs
- Collier Place
- Comical Turn
- Cottonwood (historical)
- Crill Place
- Dans Place
- De Lamar
- Democrat
- Dew Drop Place
- Dewey
- Dickens Place
- Dickshooter
- Doyle Place
- Dry Forty
- Empire City (historical)
- Fairylawn
- Flint
- Four Corners
- Frost Place
- Givens Hot Springs
- City of Grand View
- Grasmere
- Guffey
- Harvey Place
- City of Homedale
- Hot Springs
- James Place
- Little Sugar Loaf
- City of Marsing
- Miller Creek Settlement
- Morgan Place
- Murphy
- Murphy Hot Springs
- Oreana
- Owyhee Heights
- Petersons Crossing
- Pleasant Valley Place
- Reynolds
- Rickard Crossing
- Riddle
- Rockville
- Sands (historical)
- Silver City
- Sinker (historical)
- Slacks Corner
- South Mountain
- Spiry Place
- Telegraph Hill
- Three Creek
- Tindall (historical)
- Triangle
- Wickahoney
- Wilson
Political Boundaries
Last updated: 2016-12-01