Nevada City, Montana

Nevada City in southwestern Montana is the place where visitors can get a taste of some of the adventures of the famous gold rush days the state is renowned for.

Along with Virginia City, Nevada City became the base for the operations of the Alder Gulch diggings, which turned out to be the richest gold deposits ever discovered.

As was the case with many ‘discoveries’ in the prospecting days, the formations of a lively town quickly sprung up in 1864.

A mere 5 years later there were barely more than 100 people hanging in there, and by the latter half of the 1870s, the town was all but deserted.

Quite a bit later on in the 1940s, history buff Charles Bovey decided it would be an idea to transport his collection of buildings from the Old West–collated from across the state–into what remained of the former Nevada City.

The novel idea paid off and today the town is considered something of an open-air museum.

There are over one hundred original structures from the gold rush era, fourteen of them authentic segments of Nevada City.

Historic reenactments are common during peak periods and offer visitors the chance to witness monumental events from the city’s past.

Along the Alder Gulch, Virginia City and Nevada City are separated by just about one mile—and this area represents the original Old West in every sense.

Virginia City was actually even designated as the territorial capital of Montana in 1865 once Alder Gulch looked to have struck it big.

At one time as many as 10,000 people populated this area once known as “Fourteen-mile City” due to the numerous settlements lining the gulch.

As Nevada City began to die, Virginia City became the territory’s first social and transportation hub.

Virginia City is open year-round although Nevada City opens just Memorial Day weekend through September, the busiest season being between Memorial Weekend and Labor Day You can find Nevada City 70 miles to the southeast of Butte along Highway 287 in the Alder Gulch region.