Did you know Rhyolite is a type of volcanic rock? It is also the name of a ghost town on the eastern edge of Death Valley and over 100 miles north of Vegas in Nye County Nevada. Rhyolite Ghost Town sits dismantled and devastated in the Bullfrog Hills, although it was once a boom town forming in 1905. Charles Schwab bought the Montgomery Shoshone Mine in 1906 and poured a lot of money into this place. It is now incorp
By 1907 Rhyolite had running water, electricity, a newspaper, train station, school, opera house, hospital and a stock exchange. Reports put the population range anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000. The prosperity was short-lived though, and in just three short years the heavily invested mine was working at a loss. It finally closed in 1911. Miners moved away, and the population steadily declined. By 1920 it was uninhabited and reached its now ‘Ghost Town’ status.
open air museum
The first things you see when travelling along the dusty road are parts of the Goldwell Open Air Museum.The museum sits on private property just south of the actual town and operated by the Bureau of Land Management. The small building was closed when we went through, but we did walk around outside and saw many relics.
open air museum slide show
Remnants of cabins and haunting Grim Reaper looking statues are the main focus. These depict “The Last Supper”.
bottle house
After a good mooch and many clicks of the camera, we jumped back in the car and continued to the actual town. The Bottle House is the first stop, which is in excellent condition. As you will see from the photos, it’s easy to see why it is named Bottle House. A peek through the windows will get you a snapshot of a few household objects.
Just outside the yard, there is an old truck and some black and white photographs of Rhyolite from the turn of the 20th century. These showed the growth of Rhyolite from 1905 when it was just a tent city, the bandstand in 1907, and finally when it was nicknamed The City of Dreams in 1908. It is astounding the change in only three years!
We enjoy looking at old pictures like these, especially when you see people forever captured in a single moment. Their clothes, stance, facial expressions, the way they look directly back at you as you study them as if they’re just as curious about your life as you are of theirs.
rhyolite Ghost Town
Back in the van for another short drive up the road to see what remains of the once-thriving town. Buildings that remain are merely a vestige of what they once were. Stone, concrete and brick shells still greet you and warmly beckon for one more photo op, to remain relevant if only for a moment. However, in that instant, they are the most important and main focus we want to capture just perfectly.
We parked the car along the side of the road and walked up to take photos of the remaining buildings. Reading the little plaques to show and tell what they were and how they looked. The last building in the distance was completely fenced off and was in remarkable shape. It is the old Rail Station building which then became a casino and bar, then a souvenir shop. This too now sits void of any activity, except the tourist walking by.
THE OLD RAIL STATION
Heading back toward the entrance of the town, was another dirt road along the right-hand side, and we could see some more buildings.
Apart from some artwork, we found an old jail and remains of what we presumed to be a church. There was a marker for a graveyard, but we were unable to find any graves.
You can see why Hollywood used Rhyolite Ghost Town as a filming location. This is a sweet little spot just outside Death Valley, which means it will get brutally hot and produce a very harsh looking landscape which adds to its allure.
written in one of the plaques
“In 1904 Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ed Cross found green-coloured, high-grade gold ore. The resulting gold rush created the Bullfrog District. Its premier community was Rhyolite. Platted in 1905, it quickly grew into the largest city in southern Nevada. Eventually served by three water systems and three railroads, the Tonopah and Tidewater, the Bullfrog Goldfield, and the Las Vegas and Tonopah- whose 1908 depot still stands – Rhyolite boomed.
By 1907 it claimed a population of 6,000. With the economic collapse of 1907 and the closure of Charles Schwab’s Montgomery Shoshone Mine in 1910, the town died. By 1920 only 14 residents remained. During its heyday, the lack of local timber supplies led to concrete and adobe being used for most buildings, although three buildings were built from empty bottles with one still standing today. The town
‘ s growth was fast and its demise nearly as fast. Today, Rhyolite stands as a testament to the mining heritage of southern Nevada.”
In A Nutshell
- Address: Beatty, Nevada
- Directions: 4 miles west of Beatty on NV 374.
- Opening hours: All the time
- Facilities: None
- Toilets: Yes
location map
- For more exciting places to see in Death Valley, click the link below.
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