Jonathan and I have stuck close to home since Matty was born, and to be completely honest, I have been going a little stir crazy. Slowing down and taking things easy have been the biggest adjustment since he was born: forget the middle of the night feedings and endless poopy diapers; I miss just being able to go out and DO stuff. Anyways, with the 4-day weekend and Matty hitting the 5-week mark, I finally convinced Jonathan that it was safe to take a short trip out of the city. He told me to pick a place and, after some thorough searching, I decided on Rhyolite, Nevada, one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in America.
So we loaded up the kids and headed out in to the Nevada desert. I tried to get everyone excited. "Hey, Matty! Wanna go see a real-live ghost town?!" Nothing.
Okay, well maybe Oskar would be excited. "OKB--wanna go see a ghost town?!" Still nothing.
Well, I was excited anyway. After about 2 hours, we arrived at Rhyolite. What makes this town any different from the hundreds of other ghost towns littering the Old West? Well, like many other towns, Rhyolite got its start in 1905 when gold was found in the nearby Bullfrog Mountains. By 1907, the town had between 8,000 and 10,000 residents, and was on its way to becoming Nevada's next metropolis. Unlike other mining towns that were mainly filled with wooden shanties and, at most, contained simple necessities like a general store and blacksmith, Rhyolite's buildings were made of stone and concrete and included three-story office buildings, banks, churches, an opera house, hotels, a public swimming pool, police and fire departments, a hospital, a train station, rail depot, and a school. It had dozens of streets and concrete sidewalks, as well as electricity, plumbing, telephone service, and a daily newspaper. It even had a stock exchange and, of course, a red light district.
Unfortunately, all that hard work was for nothing. Rhyolite's population began to decline only a few years after its establishment due in part to the railway disruptions caused by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the financial panic of 1907, which restricted funding for mine development. Prospectors were ultimately only able to establish one mine in the surrounding mountains, and it was an unprofitable one at that. When it was closed in 1911, the Montgomery mine had only given up $2 million in gold. By that time, Rhyolite's population had dropped well below 1,000; in 1922, the census reported the town as having only 1 resident: a 92 year-old man who died two years later.
A lot of Rhyolite's buildings were taken down and sold as building materials in other nearby towns, but several skeletal remains can still be seen, as well as trash left by the townspeople as the fled the dying town. Because so many of the buildings were made of stone and concrete, they have withstood the test of time and led several filmmakers to shoot movies here, including The Island, Twice As Dead, and A Line in the Sand.
The Rhyolite Mercantile building. . .
This is the remains of the Rhyolite public school. The first school building was a small wooden structure that opened in 1906; it had 28 students. By February 1907, that number had swelled to 250 and a bigger school was needed. This one was completed in January 1909 and was the last building to be built in Rhyolite. However, by the time it was completed, people had already started leaving the town and there were not enough children to fill the school. Therefore, the upper floor was used as a meeting hall and social area.
There were lots of tin cans, nails, and various trash left over when Rhyolite's population abandoned it. We had to be VERY careful where we stepped.
But of course, rusty nails and old cans weren't the only things we had to watch out for. Jonathan was NOT amused.
The old Miner's Union Hall was moved and became the Old Town Hall in nearby Beatty, Nevada.
Looking up Golden Street into Rhyolite. . .
The Porter Brothers General Store opened in 1906. At one time, it had huge glass windows in the front so passerbys could see everything the store had to offer. They sold everything here a person could possibly need except alcohol--there were already enough saloons to quench the town's thirst. One of the Porter Brothers, L.D. left with his family in 1915 after it was apparent that Rhyolite was dead. However, the other, H.D., became postmaster and stayed until the absolute very end. The post office was the last business to close in Rhyolite, shutting its doors in 1919.
The Overbury Bank Building originally housed the First National Bank of Rhyolite before it moved to the Cook Bank Building (see below). Afterwards, it housed various offices and a jewelry store.
This is the Cook Bank Building. It cost over $90,000 to build and at one time had marble floor imported from Italy, mahogany woodwork, electric lights, telephones, and indoor plumbing. At three stories, it was the tallest and most extravagant building in Rhyolite. The town's post office operated out of the building's basement.
More stuff left behind from the town's settlers. This looked like an old stove.
The Rhyolite Railroad Depot welcomed its first train on December 14, 1906. At one time, there were 3 railway lines going in and out of Rhyolite. By 1916, the number had dropped to one and, in 1917, the remaining rails were pulled up from the town due to the iron shortage of World War I. Since then, the building has been used as a home, a boarding house and mess hall, a casino and bar (the 'Rhyolite Ghost Casino' still hangs on the building today), a museum and gift shop, and even served as a church for the 7 people who lived in Rhyolite in the 50's and 60's (not to mention for the crazies who wanted a 'ghost town wedding'!)
Old road signs still mark the dozens of streets left throughout the town.
This is one of three bottle houses to be built in Rhyolite. It is made of over 30,000 bottles (most of them beer and whiskey). Wood was a rarity in these hills but, with over 53 saloons around, bottles were not and they made an excellent building material, apparently. This particular house was built by Tom Kelley in 1906. It was renovated in 1925 by Paramount Studios who used it to film the silent movie Air Mail and again in 2005 by the Central Nevada Museum and Beatty Museum.
This old caboose was turned into a gas and service station in the 1930s.
Part of the Montgomery Mine. . .
Another view of the town. . .
Just outside of town is the Goldwell Open Air Musuem, an outdoor sculpture park featuring various odd pieces of art, like this "Ghostly Last Supper" by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. I don't really understand art, and I wasn't QUITE sure what this had to do with Rhyolite (unless you just equate the ghosts with a ghost town), but it was fun to look at.
A few of the remaining shanties on the outskirts of Rhyolite. . .
A few miles south of town is the Rhyolite cemetery. It was a sad, desolate place with only a few headstones, most of them wooden with the names of those buried weathered away. However, a few were made of stone, but still broken and unkempt.
A view of Rhyolite and the Bullfrog Mountains from the cemetery.
So that was our day in "the most photographed ghost town in the west." How did my traveling companions do? Well, Jonathan was fascinated and loved it as much as I did. Oskar got hot and had to be carried most of the day, And Matty? Well, Matty was still not impressed with any of it. In fact, he slept through the whole thing.
