Gothic: From Ghost Town to Field Station The excitement began in
May 1879 when brothers John and David Jennings discovered a rich
silver lode at nearby Sylvanite Basin. Hundreds of eager
prospectors rushed to the area, seeking their own quick riches.
By August 'Gothic City' was officially organized. Along its
streets quickly appeared numerous log and frame residences, two
hotels, three restaurants, several saloons, two general stores,
a school, law and medical offices, a bank, two saw mills, other
merchants' buildings, and a post office. Yet, as revealed in
Gothic's newspaper, The Gothic Miner, the feverish venture
effectively lasted for little more than two years because it
became evident that too few diggings yielded ore rich enough for
processing. Gothic became such a well-known boisterous mining
town that in 1880 Ex-President Ulysses S. Grant came for a
personal visit. Gothic's decline started in the summer of 1881
and, although the town government lived on for a time, it was
virtually abandoned by 1890.