[2] As the settlement grew, it was renamed Humbug City, and then the more dignified Bloomfield.

When a post office was established on June 1, 1857, residents selected the current name to differentiate the town from Bloomfield, California.

But in 1884, when hydraulic mining ended because of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, a lawsuit by Sacramento area farmers, North Bloomfield became an uninhabited San Juan Ridge ghost town.

[3] In the present day, the town of North Bloomfield is contained within the Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park.

Some of the town's original buildings remain and a few have been reconstructed:[4] The post office was open from 1857 to 1942, moving once in 1875.