Rhyolite, Nevada

Founded in 1904 and dead by 1916, Rhyolite was one of several short lived boom-towns from the late Gold Rush era. People were drawn to the desert on the edge of Death Valley by the promise of gold found amongst quartz in local mines, and by 1906 the town had all the promising indicators of permanence with largest population in the area. 

 

According to the US National Park Service: "The town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere. One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build. A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, a school for 250 children, an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops and even a miner’s union hospital." 

 

But in 1907, the US financial markets were rocked by a panic that saw closures of banks, businesses, and mines. Rhyolite began to falter. The mine closed in 1911. In 1916, the lights went out forever. Since then it has featured in several Westerns. In 1925 Paramount Pictures restored the bottle house for the film The Air Mail, and it was restored again more recently by locals. 

 

Empty hulks of the three story bank, the general store, and smaller buildings remain. Also there is a great looking train station, as well as some other well-preserved ghost town ruins. One of the most well known houses was constructed using hundreds of glass bottles in the walls from bottles from Adolphus Busch products, more familiar now as Budweiser. 

 

Besides the bottle house, there are a number of weird and bizarre works of art strewn around this ghost town. Part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum, several artists have installed permanent sculptures starting in 1984. Probably the most interesting is the 12 life-sized disciples patterned after "The Last Supper", built in 1984 by the Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. They consist of empty flowing robes (made of fiberglass), so they appear to be ghosts. There is also a 20’ tall model of a miner and his Penguin made of metal, and a 20’ tall pixellated version of a nude woman made of pink and yellow cinder blocks. Another fiberglass ghost, the Ghostrider, stands next to his bicycle, ready to go for a ride. 

 

Rhyolite is not too far from Beatty, NV, and if you’re in the area, definitely worth a visit. Also, nearby is the eastern entrance of Titus Canyon, a one-way-only drive into Death Valley. 

 

Know Before You Go Rhyolite is 35 miles from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center on the way to Beatty, Nevada. A paved road heading north (left) from Hwy. 374 will take you to the heart of the the town. Access is by car; extremely hot in the summer; no facilities in Rhyolite, but there is a latrine-style bathroom.   

Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery 36.88235, -116.82914 

Tom Kelly's Bottle House 36.89739, -116.82909 

 

 

One of America’s most peculiar ghost towns, Rhyolite, Nevada is uniquely rich in one thing: bottle houses. Three of these structures made by embedding glass beverage bottles in various kinds of mortar can be found in this long-dead desert town. 

 

A marvel in its own right, the standout among these glass houses was built by a man named Tom Kelly. Like so many others, Kelly had been drawn to the West by the promise of gold. Around the year 1905, Kelly chose Nevada’s Bullfrog Hills as the site where he would finally put down his pan and build a home. In the mining camp of Rhyolite, where the only source of lumber was the ill-suited Joshua tree, Kelly saw construction potential at the bottom of his beer bottle. 

 

With an estimated 50 saloons operating in Rhyolite at the time, Kelly collected 50,000 bottles in less than six months, enough to build a three-room house, complete with a porch and quaint gingerbread trim. Inside, the walls were plastered like a real city home. To miners of the day, this was a castle. 

 

Already approaching 80 years old, Kelly declined to live in the home he’d built, and instead capitalized on the hubbub. Upon its completion in February of 1906, Kelly raffled off the bottle house for $5 per ticket. The house was won by the Bennet family, who lived inside until 1914. By 1920, the boomtown had gone bust, and a mere 20 residents remained in Rhyolite. In 1925, the bottle house got a facelift in the form of a new roof when Paramount Pictures used it for a movie set. It was converted into a museum of sorts after filming. From 1936 until 1954, Lewis Murphy was the Bottle House’s resident caretaker, providing tours for all interested visitors. After his departure, the bottle house’s final inhabitants were Tommy Thompson and his family, including eight children, who lived there until 1969 and added the miniature houses that can still be seen scattered across the lawn to this day.