Ruins of Rhyolite, Nevada

Winding throughout the rich and colorful Silver State, Nevada’s highways and byways are ideal for discovering America’s history. Route 374 is a prime example and leads to the much-photographed ghost town of Rhyolite. Located four miles outside the city of Beatty, 120 miles from Las Vegas, and about five miles from the California border of Death Valley National Park, Rhyolite is easy to reach and worth a stop. The town’s Cook Bank, constructed in 1907, is said to be the most photographed ruin in the state of Nevada, so bring your camera.

As far as boomtowns go, Rhyolite is a “newer” ghost town, having been born and busted between 1904 and 1920. What’s also special is that its crumbling yet photogenic buildings are mostly made of concrete, not wood. Since lumber was scarce in the desert, one creative miner even built his home out of mud and 30,000 assorted liquor bottles! But perhaps what is most unusual here is that you are guaranteed to see ghosts as you head into Rhyolite— yes, even in broad daylight!

As you turn off Route 374 onto a gravel road heading toward Rhyolite, you’ll be surprised to find a 15-acre outdoor sculpture park. Goldwell Open Air Museum is free and open to the public. Among the unusual pieces of art are life-size ghosts, a 25-foot high pink woman made of cinder blocks, a 24-foot high steel prospector posing with a penguin, and much more. This discovery is just one more reason to keep your camera handy; folks back home probably won’t believe you found all this contemporary art backdropped by a desert landscape.

Rhyolite was named for a plentiful, rosy-colored volcanic rock similar to granite. It was just one of many mining towns in the Bullfrog Mining District in the early 1900s, but it was an important one. As soon as Shorty Harris and Ed Cross found gold three miles west of the present-day Rhyolite in 1904, the original Bullfrog Mine was established, and tent towns sprang up immediately. Prospectors poured in, as did industrialists and speculators—everyone was looking to strike it rich. And everyone needed a permanent place to live.

By 1907, Rhyolite had turned into a very cosmopolitan city—nearly 8,000 people lived here, supported by more than 85 active mining companies in the hills around the city. Despite the remoteness, Rhyolite did not lack amenities. A network of 400 electric streetlights kept residents out of the dark, about 50 saloons, an opera house, dance halls, and restaurants kept them entertained, and the Las Vegas and Tonopah rail depot kept everyone connected. A hospital, school, newspaper, and many other businesses also thrived. There were even public swimming pools out here in the middle of the desert!

Unfortunately, the town’s reign of golden glory was short. Within about five or six years, Rhyolite began its career as a ghost town. Although $3,000,000 worth of gold had been extracted from the mines, the Bullfrog strike had not turned into another Comstock. Tens of millions of dollars had been extracted from speculators, but after the richest gold ore was exhausted, production fell, and the money quit flowing. In 1911, the region’s biggest producer, the Montgomery-Shoshone Mine, shut down. By this time, many out-of-work miners had moved away, and Rhyolite’s population dropped well below 1,000. After 1920, it was close to zero and Rhyolite and its ruins mostly became a tourist attraction.

Today, the skeletal remains of Cook Bank, Porter General Store, the school, and other shaky structures still stand. The railroad depot now belongs to the Bureau of Land Management and remains in a state of arrested decay. Some of the ruins are surrounded by a barbed wire fence to discourage vandalism, others you can walk right up to. It takes a little imagination to picture a busy modern town here, but the photos printed on a few interpretive signs help tell Rhyolite’s history. You might expect there to be many more remnants of homes and businesses given the town’s previous size, but even before recycling became popular, much of Rhyolite's infrastructure and buildings were reused in Beatty and elsewhere.

After photographing what’s left of the town, you might want to walk through the Rhyolite-Bullfrog cemetery as well. There are a large number of unmarked graves, but many still have wooden markers that are legible. Reading the names and dates make you wonder about the life and times of the old miners— and appreciate our more modern methods of prospecting and metal detecting that make getting the gold easier, more fun and more profitable. 

This photo feature appears in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of Gold Prospectors Magazine, produced by GPAA.