Manhattan is a small town in Nye County, Nevada located on State Route 377 about 50 miles north of Tonopah, the county seat, off State Route 376. It originally was founded in 1867 as part of the silver mining boom and then, in 1905, as part of the gold boom when "4,000 people flood(ed) into the region". The Nye and Ormsby County Bank, the only stone structure to be built in the town, was erected in 1906, but a decline followed the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the "1907 depression" . The bank was forced to close. However, another boom in 1909 resulted in mining continuing into the late 1940s. Major mining operations opened and operated through the 1970s to the 1990s but production has relatively recently scaled back significantly .