Gold Center
Despite its name, gold was never found at Gold Center. Instead, the townsite was platted in 1904 as a water source along the Amargosa River, serving the nearby camp of Bullfrog (and later Rhyolite). Gold Center's biggest boom, however, came with construction of the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad in June 1906. A temporary yard was set up until the one at Rhyolite was completed, and the first passenger train rolled into Gold Center on October 7, 1906. Before the end of the year, the Tonopah & Tidewater also rolled into town, followed soon after by the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad.
Gold Center peaked in 1907, with the three railroads, post office, hotel, bank, stores and saloons, and newspaper - the Gold Center News. Most impressive, however, was the Gold Center Ice & Brewing Company's large stone brewery and ice house. Built in 1907, it was the only distilled water ice plant in Nevada and was a supplier of both draft beer and ice to saloons in the region. Eventually, even mining was attempted by the Gold Center Water & Mills Company, who sank several shafts and drove tunnels, even building a 30-ton concentration mill, but a lack of valuable ore soon brought that operation to a close.
After Rhyolite began its decline late in 1908, Gold Center followed. Businesses closed, including the brewery and ice house, but the final death knell came when the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad removed its rails. Though the Tonopah & Tidewater would still pass through the old camp until 1940, Gold Center was finished. Ruins of the thirty-ton mill remain, overlooking scant foundations of the townsite.
