Silver City

Tucked into the remote terrain of northwestern Owyhee County, Idaho, Silver City is a ghost town with a well-documented past and a place on the National Register of Historic Places. At its peak in the 1880s, the settlement supported roughly 2,500 residents and around 75 businesses built around the mining industry — a scale that made it a genuine boomtown by the standards of its era.

Today the town exists as a preserved ghost town, offering visitors a rare look at standing historic structures in a setting that feels genuinely remote. The combination of documented history and surviving architecture makes it a compelling destination for photography and sightseeing.

Getting here is not casual. A four-wheel-drive vehicle is required, and the surrounding county's high-desert conditions mean the road is typically accessible only from late spring through early fall. Winter months bring real hazards, and visitors planning a trip should account for the seasonal window carefully before heading out.