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2013-06-28 12 35 38 View north along Elko County Route 748 (Charleston-Jarbidge Road) in Jarbidge in NevadaPhoto: Famartin · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
History · Jarbidge

Jarbidge’s post office opened in 1910

Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1943 on.

1910first post office
0on the National Register
3old photos & papers
From Jarbidge’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Jarbidge began

When was Jarbidge founded?

1910

The Jarbidge post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name.

116 years
Founding year: the first Jarbidge post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Jarbidge’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Jarbidge’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Jarbidge’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The story

How Jarbidge came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Jarbidge.

Read it all →

Jarbidge is a name derived from the Shoshone language meaning "devil". Natives believed the nearby hills were haunted.

Gold was discovered near Jarbidge in 1909, making it the site of one of the last gold rushes of the American frontier, and incidentally was the site of the last stagecoach robbery in 1916.

Its population swelled to near 2,000 in 1911; however, it began a slow decline thereafter, when the mining facilities were largely cannibalized for the war effort during World War I. Mining operations ceased completely in 1932. However, in 2013 permits for the removal of the gold were re-issued and the mine is reopening.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Jarbidge, 1850 to 1986

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Nevada - Elko County - ED 4-1, ED 4-2, ED…
  3. 20th century
  4. 1909In the archiveJarbidge tent resaurant
  5. 1910Post officeThe Jarbidge post office opens
  6. 1943On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1986Post officeThe Jarbidge post office closes
By decade

Jarbidge, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

On the map

Jarbidge on the map, 1943 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jarbidge. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Jarbidge on the 1943 USGS mapJarbidge on the 1986 USGS map1943Jarbidge sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Jarbidge.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Nevada - Elko County - ED 4-1, ED 4-2, ED 4-3A, ED 4-3B, ED 4-4
Retake this view1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Nevada - Elko County - ED 4-1, ED 4-2, ED 4-3A, ED 4-3B, ED 4-4, 1850

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Jarbidge’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Jarbidge had its own post office from 1910 to 1986.

Jarbidge
1910–1986
19101970today
Gone or out of use
Elcora Minemine

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Jarbidge’s history

What year was Jarbidge founded?

The Jarbidge post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.