Good Times in Goodsprings

The new Fall/Winter 2026 Nevada Magazine arrived the other day. It’s a bi-monthly free subscription and considered a Visitor’s Guide, but for residents like us, it’s a great resource for finding new places to discover in the state, especially those within day-trip range. We’ve visited several suggested towns and sights, and we were looking for yet another. The current issue featured an article on Goodsprings, Nevada, a living ghost town less than an hour’s ride south from home. It sounded like a good Sunday afternoon outing. We exited I-15 at Jean and headed onto Nevada SR-161 aka Goodsprings Road and followed it through typical arid, undeveloped Mojave Desert landscape to Goodsprings. At 7.277 (11.71km) miles long, SR-161 is one of the state’s shortest highways and abruptly ends on the west side of this tiny community. With a current population of <300 residents, the town was founded in 1856 after the discovery of lead ore by Mormon miners in the Southern Spring Mountains, where they…