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There are over 422 known settlements and mining camps, and/or Ghost Town sites, strewn about the state of Nevada. I have included only some of the more popular ones in this web site for now. Further research and development will bring more information later on.
Rhyolite came into existence by the
discovery of gold by Ed Cross and Frank "Shorty" Harris in 1904.
The strike was known as the Bullfrog.
There were over 2000 claims covering everything in a
30 mile area from the Bullfrog district. The Bullfrog districts richest mine was the
Montgomery-Shoshone Mine, which produced nearly $1.4 million but it played out by
1908. Which was a loss to the owner, as he paid $5 million for it from Bob
Montgomery. Some reports say that Rhyolite boomed from 1905 to 1912, however, in a
book written in 1913, (The History of Nevada, Vol. I, pp.325) it is reported that
the boom ended in 1908. Shorty Harris didn't get rich from his partnership
discovery. In a moment of forgetfulness, due to a bit of over-indulgence,
parted with his interest in the initial discovery for a lump sum of $1000. He
died penniless in 1934.
The following Spring after the Bullfrog discovery one hundred wagons were
counted on the road to Rhyolite within 24 hours, all heading south, more than one to a
mile. Not to be outdone, one man piled his blankets, water, food and tools, about
100 pounds, on a wheelbarrow, and pushed it into Rhyolite - on scheduled time.
During the first few months Rhyolite merely consisted of no more than tents, canvas
lodging houses, tented saloons and stores. Fuel for heating and cooking was scarce.
Sagebrush and greasewood were used to fuel the few stoves in the camp. All
food was shipped in via teams, and water was shipped in from Beatty at a cost of $2 to $5
a barrel. Lumber was scarce, and the three suppliers had a hard time keeping up.
May 1905 brought the Rhyolite Herald, and a post office was established the following month.
| Rhyolite Herald | A story about the Rhyolite Bulletin | |
| July 1906 | By the Goldfield Tribune | |
| October 1907 | ||
| The Herald gets all the Nevada exchanges and keeps track of the news contained in their columns. After a careful resume of the different styles of the various news gatherers, we believe we are justified in making the statement that none are more conservative than the Herald. If we lacked faith in the district, the town or ourselves, we would quit it all and move back east where we could drift along in the same old route year after year . . . . One newspaper has already moved to the metropolis and the other has given warning that he is coming. Here's to Rhyolite and the Bullfrog district, "the coming greatest gold camp of the World". |  |
A little but lively paper, full of ginger and well selected information, is published in Rhyolite, Nev., under the name of the Rhyolite Daily Bulletin. It gives the news of the camp in tabloid form, and every page of the little paper contains something well worth reading. While the size is small, it's spirit is unlimited, and it is bound to grow into a bigger paper that will be as much a credit to the camp as it now is in its smaller but by no means unimportant form. |
The town citizens had an active social life including baseball
games, dances, basket socials, whist parties, tennis, a symphony, Sunday school
picnics, basketball games, Saturday night variety shows at the opera house and
pool tournaments. In 1906 Countess Morajeski opened the Alaska Glacier Ice Cream
Parlor to the delight of the local citizenry.
The Nevada-California Power Company developed 30,000 horse power at Bishop
Creek, CA and supplied Rhyolite it's power, along with Tonapah, Goldfield and other
neighboring towns.
The Las Vegas & Tonapah railroad made it's connection to Rhyolite in November 1906. The L. V. & T. came into Rhyolite December 14, 1906. The Tonapah & Tidewater railroad completed it's connection to Rhyolite in 1907.
1905
In may 1905 (above) the town of Rhyolite was merely a town of tents. Growing rapidly the town grew to near completion by January 1908 (below). The Las Vegas & Tonapah Railroad made it's way through, and the Station still stands today. The smoke from a stopped train can be seen in the photo below, on the left.
1908
Compare the two photos below from 1908 and 1998 to see the then and now.
1908
1998
The following is taken in part from a Rhyolite brochure-
The ruins of Rhyolite include Tom Kelly's bottle house, built by a 76 year old man from Australia in 1906, the skeletal remains of the $90,000 3 story Cook Bank, a $20,000 concrete school, a jail, Porter Brothers general store, train depot, and numerous other foundations and walls.
The Bottle House and the Las Vegas & Tonapah (L. V. & T.) Depot are intact because they remained occupied most of the time. The town was unique as a mining town because it was built of permanent materials, not just canvas and wood. This is the first clue that the town planners wanted it to be a lot more than just another temporary mining camp or boom town. Each ruin represents a different business and architectural style. As you look at them, try to imagine the dreams of the builders and the occupants that put their life savings into this venture.
The Bottle house was started in September 1905 and completed February 1906. It was finished before the railroads reached the town, so the cost of shipping by wagon was very high. Kelly built with what was available, bottles and mud. The last family to live there was the Thompson's, who took care of the house from 1953 until 1989. Without their presence the house would be just another lost ruin.
Click here to visit the official Rhyolite
Web Page
"The only Web page directly from the Rhyolite Ghost Town"
Photos of other ghost towns and camps in Nevada:
(some are separate websites)
| Aurora | Belmont Mill | Churchill | Genoa | Paradise |
| Austin | Berlin | Dayton | Goldfield | Rawhide |
| Beatty | Caliente | Eldorado | Johnnie | Tonapah |
| Belmont | Candelaria | Eureka | Manhatten | Unionville |
Questions or Comments?
