Rhyolite Town Site - Summary Page

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This page last updated on 06/15/2018

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Note: On our visit of 05/30/2017 to Rhyolite we stopped at the Beatty Museum in Beatty on the way to the town. We spent more than 45 minutes touring the museum's exhibits, historical pictures and especially information on the town of Rhyolite. The curator was extremely knowledgeable and provided a wealth of information on Rhyolite. We found it very interesting. I would recommend anyone wishing to visit the historic site of Rhyolite make it a point to stop at the museum first. It opens everyday at 10:00 am. It is actually on the way. Check out the museum's website here ... Beatty Museum.
                                         

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05/30/2017 Trip Notes: My first visit to Rhyolite was back on 05/05/2008 with Connie and our neighbor Marc Resnic. To read historical information about the town of Rhyolite, and a tour of the hills surrounding the old town site, go to this page, Ghost Town of Rhyolite Nevada - Summary Page.

This page summary page provides pictures and information on the few remaining structures in the ghost town today. Today's snapshot only provides a glimpse of what the town once was during its heyday. Once people started leaving the town, people took flooring, roofs, support beams, just anything they could use to rebuild elsewhere. Three houses were actually hauled intact to the the town of Beatty. Over time, vandals and the weather have taken their toll, and the gutted structures have slowly begun to crumble. Today the site is administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and watched over by a citizen's group called "The Friends of Rhyolite." They are raising money to stabilize the buildings, and hopefully prevent further deterioration.  Treasure hunters with metal detectors and the collecting of any artifacts inside the town limits is prohibited. There are BLM caretakers on site, and they insist that visitors remain outside the perimeter of the buildings.  Some are fenced others are not.

Today's visit was my third visit, this time with Jim Herring and Bob Croke, neither of which who had ever been here before. We drove and hiked the majority of town's remaining foundations and structures from one end to the other. See the map in (Fig. 02) for their locations. The town is nestled between the Bonanza and Ladd mountains, both potted with dozens of old mine openings (Figs. 01 & 03). After visiting the Goldwell Open Air Museum, located on the left just before entering the town. We then began our tour of the town by visiting the "bottle" house.

Tom Kelly's Bottle House. Tom Kelly's house was erected in 1906. He built the three room house to raffle it off. It was built with 30,000 bottles of beer, wine, soda and medicine. Because the water line had yet to be laid, water was scarce and cost $5.00 a barrel. As a result, none of them had ever been washed. The house served the winning family for many years. Even though you cannot go into the house, you can peer into the inside through its windows. One was even draped with curtains. He even made a landing for the porch with bottles. when you got close up you could read the labels molded into the bottoms of the bottles (refer to Fig. 05). NOTE: This was not the only house built from bottles in Rhyolite. Just about 100 yards behind this one, was Mr. & Mrs. Wylies home. It was only one room but it was quite a nice little place made of beer bottles. There was also one up on the hill behind the school. That one was quite unusual in that it was mostly underground. Other than the roof, the rest of the house was made of bottles also,

The Rhyolite Mercantile: The building was erected in 1906 (Fig. 07). As with some other buildings, the "false front" at the top served as a billboard, where the merchant would advertise his store and the goods that were offered. In 1914 was moved to the town mining town of Pioneer and then eventually to Beatty. In the 1970's Evan Thompson moved it back to Rhyolite and set it on Chico Street, where you see it today. He then added an addition onto the back for a kitchen and raised several of his children there where he watched over the town. Unfortunately, the Rhyolite Mercantile general store seen in (Fig. 07) no longer exists. It burned to the ground in September 2014 after being hit by lightning.
                                               
We then moved to the ruins of the school (Fig. 07) and took some pictures.
                                
The Rhyolite School. The Rhyolite School was erected in 1909. This was Rhyolite's second school. Rhyolite built its first school early in 1906 and the enrollment soon reached 90. The first school was a wooden building that blew down in a severe wind storm. In the meantime they used the County Hospital to house the school until they decided what to do. By May 1907 the number of students reached 250. After the approving of a $20,000 school bond, this modern new two-story schoolhouse was built with classrooms and an auditorium and a galvanized Spanish tile roof and a bell copula. Constructed of fireproof concrete, it was completed in January of 1909. However, by the time it was built, most of the students had left Rhyolite and the town was already becoming a ghost town. It was only used for about a year. The spacious upstairs later functioned as a meeting hall, for socials and anything that needed a large room. Eventually the roof tiles, windows, and interior wood went to the middle school in Beatty. (notes con't below)
                                         

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Notes Continued:  From the school, we drove down Broadway Street to the jail. This substantial building had heavy steel doors and steel bared windows (Fig. 08). The judge's office was in the front and six steel cells housed Rhyolite's rowdier residences in the rear. The window at the back of the building was as twice as wide as the side windows, and provided a "picture window" view looking over the full valley below the town (Fig. 09). Other foundations along this road were the remains of the adobe Dance Hall and a saloon. Turning and heading up Esmeralda Road there was a building of a residence that may have once been a brothel (Fig. 10). This large, two room house was built in 1905. Further up this road was an area that was referred to as "Nob Hill" where the 'rich folks' lived. All that's left of the Taylor home is the Chimney. The rest of this house survives in Beatty. Next we visited the Cook Bank and the Overbury Buildings (below).
                                     

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Cook & Co. Bank: The Bank of John S. Cook & Company (Figs. 11, 12 & 13) was first established in 1905 by John S. Cook, as a private bank, and with a capital of $50,000. Constructed in 1907 at a cost of nearly $90,000, the three-story John S Cook & Company Building was located on the southwest corner of Golden and Broadway (Ramsey Corner) Streets and was the tallest building in town. Completed and opened for business in January, 1908, the first floor housed the J S Cook banking corporation, which was shortly absorbed by the First National Bank of Rhyolite, Nevada. It had two vaults, marble floors imported from Italy, mahogany woodwork, electric lights, telephones, and inside plumbing.Brokers' offices utilized most of the second and third floors, while the town’s post office occupied the basement. The post office was the last business to leave the town in 1919. The collage in (Fig. 13) show some of the detail of the once magnificent building. Is also shows the sidewalk that ran down the street in front of the entrance (lower right). The lower left picture in the collage shows the remains of the Jewelry store that was attached to the building.

The Overbury Building: In 1907, Rhyolite resident John Overbury returned from a trip to Europe and built one of the most modern buildings in the west. The Overbury Building (Figs. 14, 15 & 16) was a grand, three-story structure that opened in June of 1907. The cost of the building is said to have been $50,000. It was built of rock and concrete and had modern plumbing, fire plugs and fire hoses on every floor, electric wiring and a 5,000 gallon water tank on the roof. The stone was cut from a quarry just north of town.  It housed more than 25 elegant offices. The building was located on Golden Street midway between Broadway and Colorado across from the Porter Store. The First National Bank of Rhyolite, Nevada was housed in the Overbury Building prior to locating in the John S Cook & Co. building a year later. The building also housed a jewelry store. Note: After the town was deserted, a mining company came in and took the stones of the Overbury Building and ground them up to fine power to get the gold out. That's one of the reasons it is in even worse shape than the rest.

The Porter Brothers Store: Built in 1906, the Porter brothers had three stores in California. The Porter brothers were successful merchants in the Southern California mining town of Randsburg, and when Rhyolite hit the news, they headed across the desert to open a branch in the new mining city. Operating their first store in a tent in April 1905, they quickly graduated to a wood frame building in June,. In August of 1906 construction began on a 30 x 80 cut stone store building with a basement that cost $10,000 (Figs. 17 & 18). It opened with a dance on November 12. Grand plate glass windows and a door filled the now empty opening. You could buy anything here, mining supplies, can food, pillows and blankets, etc. They then turned the wooden building into a furniture store. They also had a lumber yard and warehouse. The picture in (Fig. 18) shows the wooden framing behind the front facade. Only three and a half years later, on May 14, 1910, the store closed. H.D. Porter remained behind as the town's postmaster until the post office closed in 1918. Last, at the top of Golden Street (map - Fig. 02) was the Las Vegas & Tonopah Depot. (See below)
             

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(Fig. 16) (Fig. 17) (Fig. 18) The Las Vegas & Tonopah Depot: To this day, it is probably fitting that the Las Vegas & Tonopah Depot (Figs. 19 & 20) is still the best preserved structure in town. It was completed in 1908, at a reported cost of $130,000, equivalent to about $3,470,000 in 2017 when adjusted for inflation. The California mission style depot is built of cut stone that was hauled from Las Vegas. The upper floor was used as housing for ticket agents and other depot employees. The first train into Rhyolite was in December of 1906. There were separate waiting areas and baggage rooms for the men and women, men on the left and women on the right. The second railroad line into Rhyolite was the Goldfield Bullfrog line in June of 1907. The last one, using the tracks of the G&B was the Tonoph Tidewater. The Las Vegas Tonopah Railroad stopped its passenger service to Rhyolite in 1916. Over the years the building has served a variety of businesses, including museum and a casino. (Fig. 20) shows the rear of the building. Behind the depot there is an old Los Angles & Salt Lake Union Pacific caboose (Figs. 21, 22, 23). (Fig. 22) shows the inside of the caboose. Just beyond the Depot there is the remains of another slowly deteriorating residence (Fig. 24). After several hours touring the town, before heading to Beatty for lunch, we drove to the Bullfrog Cemetery (see Fig. 02). Click here for cemetery pictures and information ... Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery. (Fig. 19) (Fig. 20) (Fig. 21) (Fig. 22) (Fig. 23) (Fig. 24) Return to ... Ghost Town of Rhyolite Nevada - Summary Page.

Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery

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This page last updated on 05/31/2017

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05/30/2017 Trip Notes: The Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery is located in Rhyolite; Nevada's most popular ghost town. Our way out of Rhyolite, we decided to visit the cemetery. Just south of the town, it is off a unmaintained dirt road. Turning right on signed side road, and left again on a dirt road. Going down approximately .5 miles you will see gate on left that leads into the Cemetery. There is a monument (Fig. 01) honoring the cemetery that has been placed near the entrance that gives some information on the Cemetery (Fig. 02). It reads,

"This enduring bronze is placed here to the blessed memory of those who sleep herein; and to the remembrance of all others who came this way and opened up this great Nevada desert mining world by those who cared ... April 1959"

There are three recognizabe "rows" (Fig. 03). In this cemetery, there are many unmarked graves and the silence is quite deafening. Most graves are just mounds of dirt, some have fencing around, some have well weathered plaques (Fig. 04), some have headstones (Fig. 05). Some are actually quite elaborate (Fig.05). Actually the grave in (Fig. 06) there is a picture of the person who is burried here.

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back to ... Rhyolite Town Site - Trip Notes for 05/30/2017.

Goldwell Open Air Museum

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This page last updated on 05/31/2017

(Fig. 01)

(Fig. 02) Directions: From Las Vegas, follow US-95 North for approximately 115 miles to the mining town of Beatty, Nevada (Fig. 02). In the center of town, turn left (west) onto SR-374 towards Death Valley. Drive approximately 4 miles and turn right to the ghost town of Rhyolite. The Goldwell Open Air Museum is located on the left just before entering the ghost town of Rhyolite.

Description: The Goldwell Open Air Museum is a 15-acre outdoor sculpture park near the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada. The mission of the museum is to preserve, present, and encourage artistic exploration in and of the Armargosa Desert. The Museum began in 1984 with the creation and installation of a major sculpture by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski titled  “The Last Supper”. Over the years, this ghost like interpretation of Christ and his disciples sited against the backdrop of the expansive Amargosa Valley has inspired many a visitor. Since 1984, several additional sculptures have been added to the property. The museum is a free admission facility open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Parking is available on site. There is an on-site visitor center (Fig. 01) with exhibits and a gift shop, featuring Museum logo merchandise and original artwork. It is open most days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  except Sundays.  (In summer, it is usually closed by 2 p.m. because of the heat). Visitors are welcome to visit the museum anytime, whether the visitor center is open or not. 05/30/2017 Visit: Today I brought Jim Herring and Bob Croke to the museum for their first time. As a result, I added some additional information and a few new pictures to this page. The picture in (Fig. 04) is a shot of Bob taking a picture of the installation "The Last Supper".

The Last Supper and Ghost Rider by Albert Szukalski: Belgium artist and sculptor, Charles Albert Szukalski was born in 1945 and died in January 25, 2000. Known for many years in Europe as the sculptor of “ghosts” and a “situation maker,” Albert Szukalski came to the Nevada desert in 1984 to create what is perhaps the most unique piece of his career, “The Last Supper” (Figs. 03 thru 05). Today, it is the “genesis” piece of the Goldwell Open Air Museum. He made the life-size ghost figures by wrapping live models in fabric soaked in wet plaster, and posing them as in the painting titled “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci. After the plaster was set, the model was slipped out, leaving the rigid shroud that surrounded him. After some more refining, Szukalski then coated the figures with fiberglass making them impervious to weather. His other prominent sculpture is titled, “Ghost Rider” (Fig. 04). (Fig. 03)

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Tribute to Shorty Harris by Fred Bervoets: Born May 12 1942 in Burcht (near Antwerp, Belgum), another Belgum artist created a portrait sculpture of Shorty Harris (Fig. 07) (an early miner in Death Valley) in 1994. This sculpture is located directly in front of the museum. Word has it that because Fred felt so “out of place” in the desert, that he wanted to include in his sculpture something that was an indication of how “alien” he felt in the Nevada desert. A penguin in the desert was the most out of place entity the artist could think of to represent his own feelings of displacement under the Mojave sun. The penguin reflects the optimism of the miners' endeavor. (Fig. 07)

Icara by Dre Peeters: Born December 27, 1948, Dre Peeters created Icara in 1992. The Greek story of Icarus is the jumping off point for Dre Peeter’s wood sculpture “Icara,” Icarus as female (Figs. 08 & 09). The hot and sunny environment of the American Southwest is a natural location for a sculpture that takes as its beginning the story of the headstrong youth who flew too close to the sun with wax wings, which subsequently melted, plunging him back to earth. The Greek myth fits well into the dry desert reality; the female form of “Icara,” arms/wings spread wide, eternally poised at the zenith of her flight, caught between the earth below and the desert sky above. The figure was hand carved on site.

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“Sit Here!” by Sofie Siegmann: Born in Munich, Germany in 1964, Sofie installed “Sit Here!” (Figs. 10 & 11) in 2000. An accomplished painter and public artist, Siegmann left Europe and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. “Growing up in Switzerland meant living in a small country. I sought adventure and moved to spacious California. The sunlight, the lightheartedness of people driving everywhere in cars, and no rain for six months straight has changed how I think and feel. I see colors and apply them onto the canvas: luminous, translucent and thick as tar.” Siegmann was an artist-in-residence at the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum in Las Vegas in 2000. For today's visit I had Jim take a picture of me sitting on the couch (Fig. 12)

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Ghost Town of Rhyolite Nevada

Ghost Town of Rhyolite, Nevada - Summary Page

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This page last updated on 05/31/2017

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Directions: From Las Vegas, follow US-95 North for approximately 115 miles to the mining town of Beatty, Nevada (Fig. 02). In the center of town, turn left (west) onto SR-374 towards Death Valley. Drive approximately 4 miles and turn right to the ghost town of Rhyolite. The ruins of this famous ghost town are just up the hill past the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

History of Rhyolite: Rhyolite is just another of several short lived boom-towns from the late Gold Rush era. It proudly sits just outside the eastern edge of Death Valley, approximately 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas. This legendary ghost town lies in the Bullfrog Hills of southwestern Nevada near the small Amargosa desert town of Beatty in Nye County (Fig. 02). The transformation of this area, eventually known as the Bullfrog Mining District, was due to the discovery of gold by two prospectors named Ed L. Cross and "Shorty" Harris. Having no luck mining around the Funeral Mountain Range to the south near Death Valley, they stopped at Buck's Springs and camped on their way to Goldfield in August of 1904. While prospecting around the area they stumbled upon the Original Bullfrog mine, which showed high values in free gold. According to historic accounts, the rock (mineral) was green and spotted with chunks of yellow metal, looking similar to the back of a frog – thus the name bullfrog. A stampede followed and soon the hills surrounding the new find were filled with eager prospectors.   Gold discoveries at the Ladd and Benson, the Denver, the National Bank and several others followed in rapid succession, but it wasn't until November 1904 when the excitement reached its zenith with the discovery of a nice ore chute on the Montgomery-Shoshone mine. The site of Rhyolite, sprawled along a sloping alluvial plain between Bonanza and Ladd mountains, attracted more boomers, and by the spring of 1905 the streets of Rhyolite were lined with canvas-sided tents and wooden shanties, along with 1500 people. Click here for more info on the Bullfrog Mining District ... The Bullfrog Mining District.                             The town of Rhyolite was founded and platted during February 1905 on $300 borrowed by Frank Busch. About a mile to the north of the Shoshone-Montgomery mine, Rhyolite captured the wandering population and eventually became the central city of this desert area. Dug-outs, tents and adobe houses were the first dwellings of the new civilization. Soon, "grubstakers" came to the front, advancing supplies and funds to mining prospectors, as well as additional capital to develop the district. By the end of 1905 Rhyolite had 50 saloons, 35 gambling tables, a red light district complete with cribs for prostitution, boarding houses, 16 restaurants, 19 lodging houses, a public bath house, weekly newspaper, and six barbers. Progress was rapid, and through 1906 tents and shanties had been replaced by solid wood-frame structures and beautiful but expensive cut rock and concrete buildings, some as tall as three stories. The rhyolite and granite rock was cut, dressed and transported from local quarries. Industrialist Charles M. Schwab bought the Montgomery Shoshone Mine in 1906 and invested heavily in infrastructure, including piped water, electric lines and railroad transportation. As evidenced by the photo in (Fig. 01), Rhyolite had electric lights, water mains, sidewalks, telephones, a hospital, a two-story school, an opera house, police and fire departments, a train station servicing two railroads (the Las Vegas & Tonopah, and the Tonopah and Tidewater). Two daily newspapers, a magazine (only one issue), two churches, auto stages, a stock exchange, doctors, dentists, real estate offices, law offices, banks, eight grocery stores, 50 saloons, restaurants, 19 hotels and boarding houses, a flourishing red-light district, opera house, a baseball team and a 14’ x 40’ public swimming pool that gave the community something few mining camps had. There were many other businesses, all befitting a growing city. Published estimates of the town's peak population between 1907 to 1908 vary widely, but generally place it in a range between 3,500 and 5,000. Unfortunately, Rhyolite declined almost as rapidly as it rose. After the richest ore was exhausted, production fell dramatically. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the financial panic of 1907 made it more difficult to raise development capital. Coupled with the panic of 1907, Rhyolite was dealt a death blow, but it really didn’t know it.  Even though the money dried up, Rhyolite continued on its merry way, booming while it was busting.   In 1908, an independent study of the Montgomery Shoshone Mine’s value proved unfavorable, causing the company's stock value to crash, further restricting funding. By the end of 1910, the Montgomery Shoshone mine was operating at a loss, and it closed in 1911. This was just the start of the decline. By 1908 Rhyolite was finally in distress and in 1910, the door slammed shut.  The city that would "last a lifetime" died with its boots on. As more and more mines fizzled out, people began leaving in vast numbers. By 1910-11 only an estimated 675 people remained in Rhyolite. The lights and power were turned off on April 30 in 1916, and the streetlights were turned off. Next, the water companies were notified they would receive no money from the county, and businesses began to close. By the time the federal census takers found the town, only 675 people remained. By 1919, the post office had closed. By 1920 Rhyolite’s population dropped to 14 and by 1922 to one. By 1924 it became a true ghost town. Though the remnants of some concrete and stone buildings still remain today, almost everything else, from canvas to wood, and even some small adobe structures, were salvaged for building materials and hauled to the town of Beatty.

05/30/2017 Trip Notes: It’s a real shame shame that so many of this towns magnificent buildings have been reduced to shambles. In its day, it had some of the most lavish buildings in the state of Nevada. The remains of its more outstanding buildings that still stand today are barely recognizable, and succumbing daily to Nevada’s extreme desert environment. Click here for pictures and descriptions of today's remaining structures ... Rhyolite Town Site - Trip Notes for 05/30/2017.

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11/07/2013 Trip Notes: The goal of today’s visit to Beatty today was to locate the Ordovician fossils at The Great Beatty Mudmound. Unfortunately, we were unable of find the location of this fossil bed until the very end of the day. As a result, we decided to do some exploring on the dozens of 4WD roads in the old Bullfrog Mining District that surrounds the ghost town of Rhyolite (Fig. 03). Our first discovery near Mongomery Mountain was, what we later learned, the smallest (Figs. 04 & 05) of Barrick Minings’ three open pit mines, know as the Barrick Bullfrog Mine. The largest operation (Figs. 06 & 07) was located on two sides of Ladd Mountain just southeast of Rhyolite and can be seen from NV-384. Between 1989 and 1998, the Barrick Bullfrog Mine company recovered $910 million in gold from this site. Though mining expenses ate up nearly 70% of this, it was still a healthy profit. Note: This was back when gold was going for less than $400 an ounce. At today’s price of gold this would have been 2.9 billion dollars. To add further insult to injury, Barrick noted that one of the earlier mines missed the richest vein by less than 35 feet. Click here for more info on the Bullfrog Mining District ... The Bullfrog Mining District.

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After visiting the open pit area we drove east, past the back side of Montgomery Mountain (Fig. 08) and up the neighboring hillside of Paradise Mountain, to a mine that I have yet been able to identify (Figs. 09, 10 & 11). Notice the “overage” in (Fig. 08) that was dumped on the back of Montgomery Mountain from the excavation on the other side. We were actually able to enter quite far into the adit on Paradise Mountain (Fig. 10), however, this area somewhat confused us. First, the tailing pile in front of the adit appeared too small for the size and length of the adit. Second, we couldn't figure out where the white tailings in the large pile to the right of the adit came from. From this hillside vantage point we actually had a view of Rhyolite to the southwest (Fig. 12). Notice some of the ruins in the right side of the picture. From here we backtracked to the west side of Montgomery Mountain and drove north up the long valley past Rainbow Mountain (Fig. 03). The road led us into the Bullfrog Hills which eventually took us to the top of Sawtooth Mountain (Fig. 03), elevation 6,005 feet, the highest peak in the area. The hills, which are steep, rocky, and practically bare of vegetation, rise sharply from the gently sloping desolate plains that border them on the north and south. The view in (Fig.13) is east towards the direction of Beatty. The view in (Fig. 14) is southeast back towards Rhyolite. The darkish ‘hump’ below the horizon near the center of the picture is Ladd Mountain. On the way back we drove up a side canyon (Fig. 15) to Mason Spring (Fig. 03). On our way out we stopped at the Goldwell Open Air Museum, just south of town. I dedicated a whole page to this museum, click here to view … Goldwell Open Air Museum.

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05/05/2008 Trip Notes: Connie and I visited Rhyolite back in 2008 with our neighbor Marc Resnic on our way to see Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley. Pictures from this visit were incorporated into the following post ... Rhyolite Town Site - Summary Page.