Goldfield. For a twenty-year period prior to 1900, mining in Nevada fell into a slump that cast the entire state into a bleak depression and caused the loss of a third of the population.The picture brightened overnight following the spectacular strikes in Tonopah and, shortly afterwards, in Goldfield.  Gold ore was discovered here in December 1902 by two Nevada-born prospectors, Harry Stimler and Billy Marsh.  From 1904 to 1918, Goldfield boomed.  The city had a railroad that connected to Las Vegas and a peak population of 20,000, making it Nevada’s largest community at the time.  Between 1903 and 1940 a total of $86,765,044 in precious metals was produced here.