The rich placer along the Yankee Fork and up Jordan Creek encouraged the miners to build Bonanza City in 1876.

By 1880 the town had fifteen hundred people, a post office, stores, hotel, many houses and a newspaper, The Yankee Herald.

Some log buildings remain along the road in Bonanza, but many have tumbled down and been destroyed.

Since nearby Custer didn't have a cemetary, the one back in the hills behind Bonanza served both communities.