Rosita

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Rosita was founded in late 1872 by prospectors attracted by discoveries of silver. The town was composed of tents and log cabins, and soon had stores, carpenters, a hotel, saloon, blacksmith shop, and an assayer. In 1874 the town had more than a thousand residents and 400 buildings. A US post office opened in 1874, and in September 1874 the Rosita Index began as a weekly newspaper. Rosita took the seat of Custer County away from Ula (now also a ghost town) in 1878.

Despite some rich strikes in the Pocahantas and Humboldt mines, the silver veins around Rosita ran out of ore in a few years. In the early 1880s, Rosita was surpassed by the nearby mining towns of Querida and Silver Cliff. After a bitter four-year fight, Silver Cliff took the county seat from Rosita in the 1886 election, and Rosita declined further.