thumb|Southern Nevada Consolidated Telephone-Telegraph Company Building, in the [[Goldfield Historic District.]]
Esmeralda County is a county in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2025 estimate, the population was 729, making it the least populous county in Nevada, and the 20th least populous county in the United States. Esmeralda County does not have any incorporated communities. Its county seat is the town of Goldfield.
Its 2000 census population density of was the second-lowest of any county in the contiguous United States (above Loving County, Texas). Its school district does not have a high school, so students in grades 9–12 go to school in Tonopah, in the Nye County School District.
Most residents live in Goldfield or in the town of Dyer in Fish Lake Valley, near the California border. Esmeralda is the only Nevada county in the Los Angeles TV market (or any California market) as defined by The Nielsen Corporation.
History
Esmeralda County is one of the original counties in Nevada, established on November 25, 1861. When it was organized, it comprised the part of the Nevada Territory south of the 39th parallel and east of Mason Valley. Esmeralda is the Spanish and Portuguese word for "emerald". An early California miner from San Jose, James Manning Cory, named the Esmeralda Mining District after Esmeralda the Romani dancer from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Just after the organization of Esmeralda County, the vast majority of the land area had yet to be explored. John C. Frémont was one of the few people who had explored parts of the county. He had crossed Big Smoky Valley in 1845. Also, Aurora and its northern corridor had been encountered. In 1862 and 1863, the area along the Reese River was explored during the Reese River excitement. The event resulted in the establishment of three mining districts in the Toiyabe Range, namely Marysville, Twin River, and Washington, and the establishment of a number of settlements and ranches in Esmeralda County. Explorers pursued south and explored the Shoshone Mountains. The mining district Union was organized after silver was found in 1863 and the settlement of Ione was founded there.
Esmeralda grew from a gold mining boom in the first years of the 20th century. Goldfield, a town founded in 1902, increased rapidly, and it soon became the largest town in Nevada, with about 20,000 people in 1906, but its population rapidly decreased after labor disputes in Goldfield from the efforts of the Industrial Workers of the World and Western Federation of Miners to control labor in the area. The mines were largely tapped out by the end of the 1910s and the economy and population declined afterwards.
Geography
thumb|left|Aerial view of [[Fish Lake Valley, Nevada-California Border. View is generally to the northeast, towards the Silver Peak Range.]]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.2%) is water. It is the fourth-smallest county in Nevada by area. A very small part of Death Valley National Park lies in its southeast corner.
The county is dominated by the Silver Peak and Monte Cristo mountain ranges. Mountains in the county include:
- Boundary Peak, , the highest natural point in Nevada
- Piper Peak, , the most prominent peak in Esmeralda County
- Magruder Mountain
- Montezuma Peak,
- Emigrant Peak,
Highways
- 20px Interstate 11 (Future)
- 20px U.S. Route 6
- 20px U.S. Route 95
- 20px State Route 264
- 20px State Route 265
- 20px State Route 266
- 20px State Route 267
- 20px State Route 773
- 20px State Route 774
Adjacent counties
thumb|[[Boundary Peak (Nevada)|Boundary Peak, the highest point in both Esmeralda County and the state of Nevada, is in the Inyo National Forest]]
- Mineral County - northwest
- Nye County - east
- Inyo County, California - south
- Mono County, California - west
National protected areas
- Death Valley National Park (part)
- Inyo National Forest (part)
- Boundary Peak Wilderness