Nevada Ghost Towns: Rawhide

Most Nevada ghost towns have a similar story. Ore is discovered. People arrive in droves. Some find work. A lucky few find a fortune. Rawhide, Nevada’s tale is different. Sold as the second coming of Virginia City, investors thought they would find riches. They’d soon discover that the only money in Rawhide was in the pockets of swindlers who disappeared overnight. Get to know a Nevada ghost town: Rawhide.

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Rawhide (located in Mineral County, roughly 20 miles outside of Fallon) was founded in 1906 after a group of prospectors discovered gold and silver in the area. They quickly sold their claims, causing a rush of people to arrive in Rawhide. Within a year of its establishment, the town’s population swelled to 7,000.

However, Rawhide’s story isn’t one of a successful mining boom. While there was high grade ore in the area, there just wasn’t very much of it. That didn’t stop notorious swindlers like George Graham Rice from pitching the town as the next mining utopia. Fresh off grifting people in Goldfield by selling stocks to non-existent mining companies, Rice claimed Rawhide’s hills possessed, “gold with a little rock in it.”

As he had in Goldfield, Rice set up a number of fake mining companies, convinced people to invest in them, and skipped town before people realized they’d been cheated.

A few mines briefly operated in Rawhide, though they produced little compared to the riches that had been promised. Mother nature ultimately finished off what little hope there was. Most of the town was destroyed by a devastating fire in 1908 and a flood the following year. By 1910, only 500 people remained. A few holdouts stuck around until the 1960’s before Rawhide was abandoned for good.

George Graham Rice’s con-artistry eventually caught up with him and he’d go on to serve multiple prison sentences. While serving time for a mail fraud conviction, he wrote his autobiography, appropriately titled, My Adventures with Your Money.