"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime"-MARK TWAIN

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Rhyolite Ghost Town

 

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Located just out the East side of Death Valley and near Beatty, NV lies what remains of Rhyolite.  A town which came into being in 1905 when gold was discovered nearby.  By 1907 the town had water mains, concrete sidewalks, electric lights, telephones, railroad depot, newspapers, a school, and everything else a modern city of the time had.  The famous Charles Schwab was one of the biggest investors in the town. There were three banks; one three stories tall, which had Italian marble staircases and stained glass windows.

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Just hanging on after a hundred years.

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Another bank building.

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Old vault.

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General Merchandise.

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Old depot.

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Tom Kelly’s bottle house is still there. It has been restored and is now behind a protective fence.  Over 50,000 beer and liquor bottles were used to build it beginning in 1906.

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Probably one of the first recycling projects in the country.

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By 1910, or so the town was on the skids.  The gold was gone, and so were most of the people.  By 1916 everything had closed down including the post office and train depot.  Many of the buildings were moved to the town of Beatty, NV; and others were dismantled for the materials and hauled to other mining camps.  It is hard to imagine an entire town go from boom to bust, and mostly disappear, in just a few years.  Rhyolite proves that it can happen.

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Just another great find on a Blue Highway….jc

7 comments:

  1. Oh, I especially love the last pic...feel like I'm right there! And the bottle recycling....nice!

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  2. Another terrific "Find".....loved the photo's...does tell a story about the old west...You and Wanda are having way TO much FUN.....its not fair!!!...Horst

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  3. I think that is your most fascinating blue highway find yet!

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Thanks for looking, and comments are welcome.