[6] One notorious, early Goldfield resident was George Graham Rice, a former check forger, newspaperman, and racetrack tipster, turned mining stock promoter.

The collapse of his Sullivan Trust Company and its associated mining stocks caused the failure of the Goldfield State Bank in 1907.

In collaboration with his partner George S. Nixon (who was to become a US senator in 1904), Wingfield started in Belmont, Nevada in 1901, and saw the potential of Goldfield after mining at Tonopah, 27 miles (43 km) north, took off.

[11] Goldfield reached a peak population around 20,000 people in 1906 and hosted a lightweight boxing championship match between Joe Gans and Oscar "Battling" Nelson.

In the early 1900s, Consolidated Mining dug an adit at Alkali, Nevada to deliver water 10 miles (16 km) to the 100-stamp Combination Mill near Goldfield.

Between this branch and the mine owners, serious differences arose, and several strikes occurred in December 1906 and January 1907 for higher wages.

[5] In March and April 1907, the owners refused to discharge carpenters who belonged to American Federation of Labor, but were not members of the Industrial Workers of the World-affiliated Western Federation of Miners; a strike followed, resulting in forcing the IWW out of Goldfield,[5] despite at one point counting the 1,500 miners as well as hundreds of white-collar and service workers as members.

Except for occasional attacks upon nonunion workmen, or persons unsympathetic to the miners' union, no serious disturbance in Goldfield occurred.

However,at the insistence of the mine owners, Governor Sparks, appealed in December 1907 to President Theodore Roosevelt to send federal troops to Goldfield on the grounds that the situation there was ominous, that destruction of life and property seemed probable, and that the state had no militia and would be powerless to maintain order.

[5] On December 4, 1907, Roosevelt ordered the commander of the Division of California at San Francisco, General Frederick Funston, to proceed with 300 federal troops to Goldfield.

Accordingly, a special meeting of the legislature was immediately called, a state police force was organized, and on March 7, 1908, the troops were withdrawn.

[citation needed] The Goldfield Days festival is held in August each year, featuring parades, booths, historical displays, and a land auction.

The Goldfield Historic District encompasses 200 acres (81 ha) and is roughly bounded by 5th Street and Miner, Spring, Crystal and Elliott avenues.

[22] Parts of the cult classic 1971 car chase movie Vanishing Point were filmed in Goldfield, and it was the site of the fictitious radio station "KOW", and the DJ "Super-Soul".

[27] The town was featured in two episodes of State Trooper, Rod Cameron's syndicated television series that aired from 1956 to 1959.