Silver City is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

(CDP) in the mountainous area of central

Tulare County, California Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lake ...

. Silver City sits at an elevation of . It lies 72 km ENE of

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

, within the boundary of

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief ...

. The 2010 United States census reported Silver City was uninhabited. ''Silver City'' is the name of an inholding in Sequoia National Park located at Mile 21 on the 25-mile road to Mineral King. It consists of 58 fee-simple lots, 39 of which have cabins on them, plus a commercial area consisting of a store, restaurant and several rental cabins called the Silver City Mountain Resort. It is classified as a transient non-community because it is occupied only during the spring, summer and fall but not during the winter.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the CDP covers an area of 0.6 square miles (1.5 km), all of it land.

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that the area surrounding Silver City has supported indigenous peoples for thousands of years. A Yokuts tribe called Wukchumni established permanent campsites along the

Kaweah River The Kaweah River is a river draining the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County, California in the United States. Fed primarily by high elevation snowmelt along the Great Western Divide, the Kaweah begins as four forks in Sequoia National Park ...

in the lower elevations below Silver City. During the hot summers, these people moved to the higher elevations, thus becoming the first users of the Silver City area. They traded with the Monache and the Numic peoples who came over the Sierras from the eastern side in hunting and foraging movements. The first settler of the modern historical era homesteaded Silver City in 1856; Hale Tharp. In 1858 Tharp’s brother-in-law, John Swanson, erected a dwelling there. For several subsequent years, valley ranchers used the alpine areas during the summer heat, allowing their cattle to graze there. By 1873, sufficient metal ore had been identified in the nearby mountains to cause a minor gold rush. Although short-lived, it consolidated Mineral King and Silver City into viable summertime communities.
''History of Silver City'', Silver City Mountain Resort (website)

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Tulare County, California Populated places in the Sierra Nevada (United States)