Our 377 Mile Day...

We had planned to camp along our return route but by the time all was said and done, everyone wanted to push through and just get home. But what a finale (hence this very long post).

Death Valley became a place of legend for people traveling westward, for its extremes and its potential as a place to strike it rich. The modern history of the park is still visible when you visit today due to its status as a protected landscape. There are over 18,000 mining features, including structures such as the aerial tramway towers and terminals at the Keane Wonder Mine. These impressive pieces of our past inspire us to imagine one of many similar stories that took place across not only Death Valley, but much of the west.

Claims were staked in December of 1903, and by 1907, the Keane Wonder Mine was in full operation. The ore buckets you can still observe along the mile-long aerial tramway would have transported 70 tons of gold ore a day during peak production. The extreme environmental conditions that are present in the park today were a factor in the lives of the workers at the mine. Summer temperatures that limit our daytime activities caused equipment to overheat. Reduced spring output made water less abundant and limited production.

By 1912, the value of the Keane Wonder Mine ebbed with a lack of raw material to continue mining profitably, and by 1942 the last attempt to continue operations came to a close. The preserved structures at Keane Wonder inspire us to imagine the miners who walked these same trails in search of a different value in the landscape.

Whenever I'm in a place like this I think of all the hopes that were crushed and those hardy souls who really tried. History is so amazing and inspiring.

Another place full of hardy souls was the neighboring town of Rhyolite, NV.

This ghost town's origins were brought about by Shorty Harris and E. L. Cross, who were prospecting in the area in 1904. They found quartz all over a hill, and as Shorty describes it “... the quartz was just full of free gold... it was the original bullfrog rock... this banner is a crackerjack”! He declared, “The district is going to be the banner camp of Nevada. I say so once and I’ll say it again.” At that time there was only one other person in the whole area: Old Man Beatty who lived in a ranch with his family five miles away. Soon the rush was on and several camps were set up including Bullfrog, the Amargosa and a settlement between them called Jumpertown. A townsite was laid out nearby and given the name Rhyolite from the silica-rich volcanic rock in the area.

There were over 2000 claims covering everything in a 30 mile area from the Bullfrog district. The most promising was the Montgomery Shoshone mine, which prompted everyone to move to the Rhyolite townsite. 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.

In April 1907 electricity came to Rhyolite, and by August of that year a mill had been constructed to handle 300 tons of ore a day at the Montgomery Shoshone mine. It consisted of a crusher, 3 giant rollers, over a dozen cyanide tanks and a reduction furnace. The Montgomery Shoshone mine had become nationally known because Bob Montgomery once boasted he could take $10,000 a day in ore from the mine. It was later owned by Charles Schwab, who purchased it in 1906 for a reported 2 to 6 million dollars.

The financial panic of 1907 took its toll on Rhyolite and was seen as the beginning of the end for the town. In the next few years mines started closing and banks failed. Newspapers went out of business, and by 1910 the production at the mill had slowed to $246,661 and there were only 611 residents in the town. On March 14, 1911 the directors voted to close down the Montgomery Shoshone mine and mill. In 1916 the light and power were finally turned off in the town. What a story!

The Cook Bank is the most iconic building in Rhyolite and is one of the most photographed ruins in Nevada. John Cook and his brother started the John S. Cook & Company Bank in Goldfield, Nevada in January 1905. Later that same year, they opened a new branch in Rhyolite. The bank's first location was in a rented building on Main Street. After buying this lot on Golden Street, construction of the Cook Bank Building began in the spring of 1907.

One of four banks in Rhyolite, the Cook Bank Building was by far the finest. Built of poured concrete, the building was three stories tall and had a basement that housed the Post Office. The interior was finished with marble staircases and mahogany accents. It also boasted modern conveniences such as electric lights and indoor plumbing.

Despite its opulence, the Cook Bank was open less than two years. In the summer and fall of 1907, a financial crisis, often referred to as the Knickerbocker Crisis, caused banks across the country to go bankrupt. By 1910, the Cook Bank was closed, and John Cook had sold off all the building's fixtures.

In keeping with its prominence as a mining center, Rhyolite was serviced by three railroads: the Las Vegas & Tonopah, the Tonopah & Tidewater, and the Bullfrog-Goldfield. It was a big deal for a young mining town to be serviced by one railroad, but three railroads were almost unheard of in the history of Nevada. With three railroads, it seemed that Rhyolite was destined to be the largest mining camp in the state and the first few boom years made this prediction look inevitable.

In September 1907, the Las Vegas & Tonopah began building the depot that we delighted in exploring. It is constructed of concrete block with a solid concrete foundation in the Mission Revival style. There was a gentlemen's waiting area on the east end and a ladies' waiting room on the west end. A separate baggage room was located east of the men's waiting area. The ticket office was located in the center of the building, and the ticket agent's quarters were located upstairs.

The Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Depot was completed in June 1908, around the same time that Rhyolite began its slow decline. Within months of its completion, more people were leaving Rhyolite through the depot than were arriving. The railroad turned a small profit in 1908 but lost money every following year until it was finally dismantled in 1919. The tracks were salvaged, but the depot was left to stand as one of the few remaining buildings from the Rhyolite boom, primarily because it could not be moved elsewhere.

In the 1920s, Rhyolite enjoyed a small revival through tourism. Wes Moreland bought the depot in 1935 and, beginning in 1937, operated it as the Rhyolite Ghost Casino. The drinking and gaming were conducted downstairs, while a different type of hospitality, reportedly staffed by "working women," was conducted upstairs in the old ticket agent's quarters.

In very faded paint, this door reads, "Madam Rosa Tells All". Oh boy, I bet she had a lot to tell. Wild.

Like the town before it, the casino had a relatively short life. The onset of World War II, and the associated war effort, including fuel rationing, completely drained the area's economy. By the 1960s, the lower floor was operated as a museum and gift shop for tourists.

I am always intrigued by unique architecture. This, the Tom Kelly Bottle House, is one of the few remaining examples of bottle house architecture in the United States.

In Nevada, where wood is scarce and expensive, miners often built their houses with whatever was cheap and readily available. In many cases, glass bottles fit the bill. The bottles would be used like bricks and mortared in with adobe.

Bottle houses are great in hot climates because they are cool in the summer, hold heat in the winter, and allow for natural light. This bottle house was built in 1906 by Tom Kelly, an Australian-born stonemason turned gold miner, using over 50,000 bottles. Kelly paid local children 10 cents for a wheelbarrow full of bottles - about $3 in 2021. The building cost about $2,500, with most of the money going for wood trim and fixtures.

The bottle house's unique location and appearance made it a sought-after filming location. In 1924, Paramount Pictures used it in the film Wanderers in the Wasteland, based off a Zane Grey novel. Later that same year, the house was also used in the film The Air Mail. During that time, one of the film crews tore down the rear wall so filming could take place inside the building. After wrapping up, the production company rebuilt the wall and did basic stabilization and restoration work on the exterior. Crazy that it's still here over 100 years later for us to ogle.

To finish our visit properly, we headed to the Bullfrog-Ryholite Cemetery. Here between 1904 and 1912, 146 pioneers lie. I'm surprised there are so few as the town boasted a population of 10,000 at its peak.

The most interesting tale of his demise was found with James C. Clayton. Born in 1866, his life ended in his 38th year.

"James Clayton, one of the original locators of the Amethyst mine and a heavy stockholder in the Polaris, and John Sullivan, a bartender, were shot and almost instantly killed in a pistol duel at Rhyolite, in the Bullfrog mining district last night. The two men quarreled over the alleged short-changing of Clayton by Sullivan and as they were sworn enemies guns flashed into view at once.

Clayton fired the first shot from a small caliber revolver and then jumped behind the bar and picked up a 45 caliber Colt and fired again. Reeling from a fatal wound Sullivan drew his revolver and with one shot sent a ball through Clayton's lungs killing him instantly. Both men fell to the floor while the crowd that was in the saloon fled to the open to escape the fusillade of shots." Yikes... like something out of the movies.

Our last stop was probably our most funkiest... The International Car Forest of the Last Church ("Preserving the last Church inside us all").

Part of the Goldfield scene since 2011, the International Car Forest was created by longtime resident Mark Rippie, whose vision was to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest car forest. Joined by artists Chad Sort and Zak Sargent, the three set to work, burying the noses of more than 40 cars, vans, trucks, and buses. There are other such 'farms' but Goldfield’s International Car Forest of the Last Church is, in fact, the largest in the country.