At the turn of the last century, Goldfield was a mining boomtown — prospectors were pulling millions of dollars worth of ore out of the ground each year, and with a population that ballooned to more than 30,000 by 1904, it was the largest town in the state of Nevada. It was a classic Old West success story: gun-slinging heroes like Wyatt Earp trod its wooden sidewalks, and in a society where the real measure of a town’s worth was its bar-and-whorehouse scene, Goldfield had the rest beat: Tex Rickard’s Northern Saloon had a bar so long it required 80 bartenders to run it. Of course, I wouldn’t be writing about Goldfield if everything had kept going like gangbusters. By 1920s, the gold mines had started to peter out, and in 1923 a moonshine still exploded and started a fire that took most of the town’s wooden buildings with it. Today about 400 people remain in Goldfield, a semi-ghost town set among the barren wastes of Nevada’s high desert, surrounded by ghost stories and empty buildings — many of which are impressive stone and brick structures that survived the 1923 fire.
One of those buildings is Goldfield High School, built during the boom years in 1907. It graduated its last class in 1952, and has stood proud but shuttered ever since, impressive on the outside, decaying within. Over the past few years, a small team of dedicated volunteers has begun trying to save the high school, but restoring it to its former glory is a gargantuan task. Vandals and the elements have had their way with the building for many years, and it will take many more to lift it from the beautiful state of decay it’s in today.
The first thing you notice is a fascinating jumble of layers and textures — peeled paint, fallen-away plaster, warped and weathered boards and the wooden guts of walls that were never meant to be exposed, all creating this insane, ancient-looking pattern of wear.
The second-floor hallway, and one of many open or broken windows. Anything with wings or a ladder can get inside.
Chalk for a long-gone chalkboard.
Other classrooms still have parts of their chalkboards in tact — a jumble of original classroom writing from the 50s (yes, really) and graffiti.
The teacher’s writing on this board is still readable. Looks like a pop quiz: 5. What is the most important country in the Western hemisphere? Anyone care to take a guess?
The floor is beginning to buckle in this classroom.
Volunteers have started working to replace the floor in another classroom. As you can see, they have their work cut out for them.
The only time I was ever allowed in the girls’ bathroom — and wouldn’t you know it, it’s empty.
A science classroom. How many dissected frogs haunt this room, we may never know.
The school’s main staircase is probably its most impressive feature. Creaking and lacking a few crucial banisters, its a little scary — but beautiful nonetheless.
The staircase from the ground floor, a dizzying maze of angles and textures.
The yellow glow in the picture above is one of the worklights the volunteers have strung around the school. I don’t believe in ghosts, and yet I sincerely hope the volunteers don’t hang around this place at night.
Forty-year-old graffiti.
“Class of 1942,” penciled in a doorjamb.
A teacher’s desk.
A teacher’s chair.
Bars of light in an empty room. The silence in this high school — generally the last place you expect to be able to hear yourself think — was almost unsettling.
Anyone interested in helping out the Goldfield High School volunteers — with work, donations, or anything else — can email them here or leave a message at 775-485-3788.
Check out more Strange Geographies columns here.
If you’d like a print of one of these photos, they’re available here.
Comments (60)
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I work in a school, at night, and you can hear yourself think. That is, when Metallica is not blasting through the halls.
posted by gus on 11-2-2009 at 8:56 am
Awesome pictures!
It’s weird looking at the walls where the plaster has fallen off, but the wood behind it is still there. My house will look like that some day.
posted by Christina on 11-2-2009 at 9:26 am
Looks far too similiar to my son’s high school. His school is in only slightly (okay more than slightly) better repair, but is still in use.
posted by Hyacinth on 11-2-2009 at 9:54 am
How is this a MentalFloss topic? Cool pics, yes. Put travel anywhere through out the great plains states and you will find abandoned school buildings that look just like this. The floor plan looks like the building that was used for my junior high school until it was torn down in the late 1980s after a failed “save the school” campaign.
I expected more from you Mental Floss.
posted by PragmaticCynic on 11-2-2009 at 11:08 am
This reminds me of the old high school across from my grandparents house. The last class was also in the 50s and the rooms look the same; writing and graffiti still on chalkboards, random furniture, and the staircases are identical.
posted by FrankieA on 11-2-2009 at 12:05 pm
@ PragmaticCynic-
Obviously you haven’t been following the mental_floss blog very long. Ransom has been doing these Strange Geographies posts for quite a while. They’re cool pictures of all sorts of random, usually (always?) abandoned places from all over. Part of the point is that you can find cool abandoned places anywhere, part is that they provide a frozen-in-time snapshot of that place or institution, and part of it is that they’re just cool pictures.
I expected more from Mental_Floss readers.
posted by Steve on 11-2-2009 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for a great post, Ransom! Not everyone can travel to these places, and I appreciate the chance to see them and read their histories.
posted by Eva on 11-2-2009 at 12:16 pm
@ Steve:
Well said, fellow Flosser!
posted by Corinne on 11-2-2009 at 12:20 pm
@ PragmaticCynic
Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays!
posted by Jonny on 11-2-2009 at 1:46 pm
@Steve,
You tell him….
LOVE your photo essays Ransom.
And PragmaticCynic:
What is not flossy about geeking out and loving the beauty in a creepy old building?
posted by Chrystani on 11-2-2009 at 1:57 pm
Ranson – I always look forward to your articles. A real treat!
posted by Hummer on 11-2-2009 at 2:33 pm
I absolutely love, love, LOVE this post. The lines in the second picture are a veritable lesson in geometry themselves! *sigh* I honestly miss chalkboards in my classrooms. Bleh to the smell of dry erase markers… Yup, I’m totally geekin’ out on this one, Ransom. Thank you!
posted by Helenann on 11-2-2009 at 2:59 pm
*wait, it’s technically the third photo I’m nuts over…See? I can’t even read right now. :)
posted by Helenann on 11-2-2009 at 3:00 pm
@ PragmaticCynic-
I disagree, these long empty buildings and haunting areas often lead me to search more about the local and the reason for the abandonment. The stories are so bizarre and frequently as interesting as the end result
Ransom is a staple here, and personally one of my favorite bloggers. I would love to visit and photograph places like that more often.
Another great post, can’t wait for the next strange geography.
posted by hockey zombie on 11-2-2009 at 3:05 pm
I agree with most people here–these articles by Ransom are wonderfully flossy in every which way. A word to PragmaticCynic, try not to let the mondays get you down. And if they do, why take others with you, huh?
Ransom, great post. You’re so darn lucky to get to wander through these amazing places!
My recaptcha could perhaps be one of the frogs that haunts the science room… Viscous Erik
posted by Ophelia on 11-2-2009 at 5:15 pm
Ransom,
Maybe you’ve commented on this in past Strange Geographies, but what kind of camera/lens do you use? Do you create HDR images with some of the pictures after-the-fact? The color contrast you get in some of these pictures is amazing.
posted by Steve on 11-2-2009 at 6:32 pm
I only just stumbled upon this place from an abandoned places link and was immediately sucked in. These pictures are beautiful. I feel lucky that you shared them with us. Thank you!
posted by Rachael on 11-2-2009 at 6:51 pm
Count me as another pro-Ransomite.. I love his entries!!
posted by Devin Greaney on 11-2-2009 at 8:29 pm
Excellent as always!
Too bad you didn’t get to St. Louis before they restored/rehabbed the Homer G. Phillips Hospital a few years back…reports of medical documents (newborn baby pics!) and equipment just abandoned all over. The place is retirement community now.
http://www.builtstlouis.net/homerphillips.html
Keep up the good work!
posted by Marty on 11-2-2009 at 8:59 pm
Excellent photos, as usual. I’d love to explore old buildings like this, but I’m afraid that I’d fall through the floor! Luckily we have Ransom to provide vicarious explorations for us. Great work, as always.
It’s most sad when small-town schools close. They are the center of the community, and when they close the towns slides a little faster into oblivion.
posted by Nick Archer on 11-3-2009 at 12:57 pm
Thank you for posting this and sending it to me. I am glad you stopped by to get a tour. I love the way the pictures turned out. Stop by again sometime, work is always being done.
posted by Amanda on 11-10-2009 at 1:14 am
You have a great gift and eye to see Beauty and capture it.I have wandered on these very steps of this School during a Goldfield Auction back in 2000 or 2001.Fell in love with Goldfield with all its abandonment and all its history.Sad to think all this work is fading away.I almost bought this School from the two men that bought it in an auction.But as I walked the top 3rd floor I could feel the room shaking. And as I wandered down to the Bottom Floor I could see the damage to the foundation. The room in the front of the school(south side), had a big hole in the wall.I knew Time was ticking for this old gal.Two years or so later that wall came tumbling down.So I hope the people that bought it has great ambition..I know they are trying to stablize it.Good Luck to the folks in Goldfield.. Hi Amanda!.. I also loved your pictures of Bodie! Another favorite of mine. Love the fact you took a picture of Rosa Mays grave. If you are ever in Goldfield again, go to Joys grave. Great pictures there too.
posted by Desert Wander on 12-1-2009 at 12:49 pm
Any pics from outside on the school grounds? Any evidence of forgotten, forlorn athletic fields? Abandoned gymnasium pics? Anyway, these pics are great and serve as a sad reminder to what has become of what was once Nevada’s largest city. I plan to visit Goldfield in about 3 months.
posted by robert dennis on 1-5-2010 at 10:44 pm
Any pics from the outside of the school? Any evidence of forgotten, forlorn athletic fields? Abandoned gymnasium pics? Anyway, these pics are great and serve as a sad reminder of what has become of what was once Nevada’s largest city.
posted by robert dennis on 1-5-2010 at 10:46 pm
Totally awsome pictures. My mom and uncle graduated from Goldfield high. I took a little unauthorized tour through the school over 50 years ago. Most all the furnishing were still there at that time. I enjoyed the pics. Many thanks.
posted by Frank C. on 1-22-2010 at 2:51 pm
My husband and I both graduated from Goldfield high School. My mother came from Indiana to teach 6th grade there in 1920. We loved going to school there.
posted by MARTHA on 1-26-2010 at 10:54 pm
Waste of the Capitalistic society resembles the end-times photos of the former U.S.S.R. Neither system worked that well in serving the patriots – they were both brutally exploited by the system so a very few wt the top could live in Uber-Luxury. Will the new Asian Empire herald in a brighter fate for the patriots, or are the shirt-sleeves in for another round of the same ? American democracy was the equalizer until the cancer of Corporatism took over and decimated the Middle Class. What next?
posted by Uncle B on 7-11-2010 at 8:24 am
I wonder if Lori r. and Wayne P. are still together
posted by Max on 7-14-2010 at 9:55 pm
James Dean’s high school sits abandoned in Fairmount, IN.
Anyone up for doing a photo essay on it?
posted by Rick Beckman on 7-21-2010 at 10:50 am
Wow. I would love to camp out there one night. It’s beautiful and terrifying. Perfect combination.
posted by Secret Photographer on 7-22-2010 at 6:22 am
Very cool. Wonderful photos and post!
posted by Rassmuss on 7-22-2010 at 2:22 pm
Some decent stuff. It would be kool to cause problems is such an area.
posted by KIF on 7-29-2010 at 6:03 pm
Q: What is the most important country in the Western hemisphere?
A: China(?!?!)
posted by CC on 8-6-2010 at 4:34 pm
I found this very interesting. I wish I was there. Hope it’s haunted. xD
posted by ;] on 8-7-2010 at 12:38 am
Ok, graffiti is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I say “What the bleep is wrong with people??” several times a day because of it (that, and litter), but even I have to admit that the 40 year old graffiti is pretty freaking cool… I am now reconsidering my position on certain graffiti… Somewhat. Maybe.
posted by Katie on 8-7-2010 at 3:35 pm
I wish i lived in an abandoned school
posted by kat on 8-26-2010 at 6:31 pm
There used to be a show on HGTV that featured buildings like this that had been restored to residences. Sometimes businesses and residences combined. This look like a great place for that sort of thing.
posted by Carole on 8-27-2010 at 12:40 pm
Amazing
posted by Hugo on 8-28-2010 at 4:46 am
I stayed there two nights ago. Scary as hell, but definitely a unique experience and I can say for sure that it is haunted. I went there with my friend and the people who kinda own it to take a tour and hang out that evening. Nothing happened while all the lights were on and everybody was there but then my friend went and stayed at another place for the night and the owners went home while I camped out at the school, alone, just to see what it was like. I didn’t get any sleep that night. If you ever get the chance to stay there alone I recommend you bring a lot of coffee and even more nerve.
posted by HROG on 9-15-2010 at 2:05 pm
Being born and raised in one of the many small towns in Nevada, I was enchanted by the photos. I have seen the school, and several other sadly decaying buildings in Goldfield. The whole town is charming. Or would be with the funds to preserve the history haunting it. Right across the street from the school is the Goldfield Hotel. If you can find a window to look into, you can still see the player piano and main safe in the lobby. Please bring Goldfield back to life!
posted by AMLegion on 9-19-2010 at 9:20 pm
How cool is this? Especially the signatures on the doorway? If I were to sign something now and someone comes up to me in 40 years asking me about my old high school imagine how nostalgic! xD Its so cooool
posted by Tala on 10-1-2010 at 6:51 pm
I work in a private school in the UK, the main manor house dates back to the 1600′s and there are links with a local monastery dating back to 900 ad.
And the point is? you might say, ‘my’ school is nowhere near as impressive as this, the history might be comparatively recent, but it’s still history, and that makes it so very important to do this.
I wish you the very best, and I know that you will achieve something great.
I’ll add it to my bucket list.
posted by yeoman on 10-3-2010 at 1:14 pm
i’ve been there!
posted by DoomGrrl on 10-8-2010 at 6:03 pm
My parents went to Goldfield High School in the 1930′s. My siblings and I would go to Goldfield to my grandparents grave on Memorial Day until I begged them to leave me with my other grandma. They are gone now and, of course, I wish I had stuck it out with them.
posted by Sue on 10-23-2010 at 10:19 am
My parents graduated in 1940 from this High School. They live there for awhile after they married and I have very fond memory of Goldfield as a child and young adult.
posted by Pat on 10-25-2010 at 6:23 pm
The graffiti reminds me of Boldt Castle up in the St Lawrence River. It’s a 6 story castle that a man was building for his wife one an island he renamed “Heart Island” and had made into a heart shape. She died about a year before the construction was done and he dropped everything. The restoration had been going on for a while but they still haven’t finished the second floor. Some of the graffiti dates back to the late 20′s.
posted by Amanda on 11-1-2010 at 10:45 pm
My grandpa used to have a similar chair exactly like that one. Amazing to see one of those again
posted by fajas colombianas on 1-7-2011 at 11:18 am
Magnificent time capsule. Those walls witnessed a lot of happiness, sorrow, laughter & tears.
posted by Larry D on 4-8-2011 at 3:56 pm
Love these Posts! So far this is my favourite abandoned building :D looking forward to the book!
posted by Rina on 4-19-2011 at 2:25 pm
HROG or anyone else on this blog, can you guys email me a contact on who to speak to about possibly staying overnight at this wonderful school? We are looking at doing a professional investigation. My email is Madco.paranormal@gmail.com.
Thanks!!!!
posted by Jonho99 on 5-23-2011 at 1:47 pm
Kenneth Goodrich Class of ’42 would be at least 87 years old now. If he is still alive he would be amazed that his hand writing is still on that wood.
posted by Altitude 5280 on 6-6-2011 at 5:30 pm
its the school from Fallout 3
posted by jacks on 6-9-2011 at 10:45 pm
there are at least 3 ghostly figures in the background of one of these photos…the one of the yellow work light. i’m surprised no one else noticed
posted by janna on 6-14-2011 at 10:52 pm
I love how the pop quiz and other chalkboard scrawls give this school a feeling that it was vacated in the middle of the school day. I don’t know what time the fire happened, so it very well could have been the source of dropped chalk!
posted by Jane on 7-10-2011 at 10:30 pm
This must have been a beautiful old building in its day. Since the article is dated 2009, is there any update on the progress the volunteers are making in their restoration work?
posted by Brian on 8-12-2011 at 2:08 pm
OMG, i just LOVE these pics…. I’m upsessed with the 50′s & 60′s, and i would kill to see this place!!!
posted by Kayla on 8-14-2011 at 5:48 am
My town had a school building that was the new high school in 1930 with a huge (ugly) addition from the early 50′s. When they were planning new construction back in the 90′s they said they were going to keep the art deco 1930 building, but then they tore it down. It was stone, or fake stone, every bit of which had the sculpted ornamentation of 1930 art-deco style. It’s a shame, it was like a small version of Rockefeller plaza or the Chrysler Building.
posted by Tdave on 8-29-2011 at 10:16 am
This would actually make a great manor house if it was restored. Problem is that there is not much around Goldfield now. I actually went to Google maps to find it and at first I thought my connection was slow and I needed to wait for it to finish drawing. Then I realized it was done, but there just wasn’t anything around to show.
posted by Brandy Schroeder on 8-29-2011 at 12:43 pm
If I were Bill Gates I would fully restore
it and turn it into home for gambling addicts in recovery.
Seriously though, I have driven through Goldfield twice and have thought about this building and its origins.
Thanks for the photos and info
posted by Scott on 10-23-2011 at 9:51 pm
That is just creepy – it’s just amazing… all that effort to build up the town only to have it die off shortly after.
posted by Jeremy Steele on 11-10-2011 at 10:38 am