Mile Marker 68: Ghost Town of Rhyolite Nevada

We were wandering around in the desert, near Death Valley & found a ghost town so we stopped, we explored, we researched and here we tell you what we found.

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References used in the podcast:
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/nv-rhyolite/

https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/nevada/rhyolite/

The Sacramento Bee February 23, 1923 page 10

Transcript

Key: Drifter, Male voice. Gypsie, Female voice

Uplifting rock/western tune plays for 15 seconds, music begins to taper down then:

(Drifter) Welcome to the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. I’m Drifter

(Gypsie) And I’m  Gypsie

(Drifter) Talking about Ghost towns,

(Gypsie) Graveyards,

(Drifter) Outlaws, Heroes

(Gypsie) And Ladies of the night.

Music tapers to an end

(Drifter) Howdy folks, Thanks for joining us for yet another adventure. Today we again wander west, stopping just before the valley of death to visit a town known for installment art, a gold rush and rattlesnake residents

(Gypsie) About 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas Nevada at the edge of Death Valley National Park sits a once thriving mining town. It only lasted for about 6 years before things started to close down, and folks started to move away. Within 18 years no one was left in the town. The name of this town was once called Bullfrog, today it is known as Rhyolite.(Drifter)  The town got its start in 1904 when gold was discovered by two men, Frank Harris who went by “Shorty” and Ernest L. Cross who went by “Ed”. Shorty was one of the most well known prospectors of Death Valley and he was also one of the best at drinking. 

(Gypsie) Shorty was traveling in the area with his five donkeys and months worth of supplies. He ran into Ed who had been waiting at the Keane Wonder Mine for his partner to come back. Ed told Shorty that he was running low on supplies and had no idea when his partner would make it back. He asked Shorty if he could come along with him and the two of them set off. They arrived at Buck Springs pass and set up camp. 

(Drifter) The following morning Ed was cooking breakfast and Shorty went off to find his donkeys that had wandered off in the night. While out searching for them he tripped on a rock, as he was getting up he noticed the rocks around him were full of gold. He yelled for Ed to come take a look and the two men rushed to get a sample. They headed about 70 miles north to Goldfield where they were told the sample was worth 3,000 dollars per ton. (Gypsie) (Just over $100K per ton today). 

(Gypsie) Shorty went to the local saloons and started telling everyone about his find. He spent an entire week doing nothing but drinking; he ended up selling out his find and a mule to a man named J.E. McGaliard for 1,000 dollars (Drifter) (Just over $33K today). (Gypsie) Ed on the other hand was the smart one in the group. He was working on lining up a sale of the mining rights. Ed and McGaliard partnered together to form the Original Bullfrog Mine. He later sold his shares for 125,000 dollars (Drifter) (over $4M today) (Gypsie) and moved to Escondido California where he and his wife lived on a large ranch. 

(Drifter) With the new discovery of gold, 100s of men rushed to the area to try and make some money. Several mining camps started to pop up in the area with names like Bullfrog, Jumpertown, Leadfield, Amargosa, and Gold Center. But the one town that did it right and survived the longest was Rhyolite. In 1905 4 men by the names of Frank Busch, Percy Stanley, C.H. Elliot, and A.G. Cushman joined together, they owned a claim in the area and felt they could do better at promoting a town rather than working the mines. They laid out 36 blocks. Initially lots were given away to miners to get the camp started but by February 1905 they were selling for 50 dollars per lot (Gypsie) (about $1700 today). (Drifter) They chose Rhyolite as the name of the town because of all the green rock in the area. 

(Gypsie) Soon all the smaller towns in the area became abandoned and everyone moved to Rhyolite. The first major issue the town faced was supplying water. There was no spring or river nearby and with roughly 2,000 people living in the area they needed to figure something out. Water was being shipped to the town in barrels with a cost of 2 to 5 dollars a barrel (Drifter) (between $68 to $170 per barrel today). (Gypsie) The water was then stored in large tanks above the city. The town soon had three major water companies. They built pipelines to bring water to the area. A 15 fee was charged to hook the water up (Drifter) (just over $500) (Gypsie) and they were billed 1 cent a gallon (Drifter) ($0.34). 

(Drifter) By Spring of 1905 the town had three stage lines bringing in supplies. They even had the first auto stage called The Tonopah and Goldfield Auto Company. The stage line brought mail in from Goldfield but the service was unreliable in the beginning. The first postmaster in town was an 18 year old woman named Anna B. Moore and her husband Joe was her assistant. The first post office was opened in a 10x12 foot tent on Golden Street.  By May the town received its first news issue from the Rhyolite Herald and it was published by Earle R. Clemens. 

(Gypsie) In 1906 the town folk got together and decided that a school was needed for the children. A wood building was quickly thrown together and they now had a location for the 90 kids in town to go to school. By May that same year there were almost 250 kids going to school. That's how quickly this town was growing. In September the school house was blown down by heavy winds and the kids had to go to school at the county hospital until a new building would be completed. The city set aside 420,000 dollars for a new school and in January 1909 a new concrete structure was completed. (Drifter) ($13.6M) 

(Gypsie) On December 14, 1906 the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad sent the first passenger train into Rhyolite. A large rail depot was built in the heart of the town and the building is still standing today. The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad arrived into town in 1906 as well but they passed through the outskirts of town. The trains would come into town loaded with passengers and supplies and head back out of town with ore to be processed. On June 18, 1907 a third rail line arrived into town called the Bullfrog and Goldfield. 

(Gypsie) By the end of 1906 Rhyolite was a fully functioning town with a newspaper, post office, several hotels and stores, an ice plant, several water companies, two electric plants, machine shop, a miners union hospital, a stock exchange and a board of trade. Even though the town was becoming more and more civilized, materials were still scarce to come by or very expensive.

In 1906 a saloon owner by the name of Tom Kelly had a great idea. He used some 50,000 beer, whisky, soda, and medicine bottles to build himself a house. It took him six months to complete but now 76 year old Tom had a place to live. It reminds me of the building we saw at Thunder Mountain. Which we talked about it in our very first episode! 

(Drifter) By the following year they had concrete sidewalks, telephone lines, some 400 streetlight poles, banks, a police force, a fire department, and an opera house. Bob Montgomery who owned the Montgomery Shoshone Mine had a mill built. It was able to handle 300 tons of ore a day. He boasted he could take 10,000 dollars a day in ore from the mine (Gypsie) (just over $300K). (Drifter) Around this time roughly 10,000 people were living in Rhyolite. 

(Gypsie) Crime was soon becoming an issue in this growing town. One of the first murders in town was on May 18, 1906. According to the Reno Gazette Journal on May 19, 1906 Steve O’Brien who was a miner in town shot and killed his wife. It states that(Drifter)  “O’Brien had been on bad terms with his family for some time and his wife was about to proceed to get a divorce. He entered the house today and after a few heated words shot his wife in the face. She was carried to a drug store, where she died.” (Gypsie) it continues on saying (Drifter) “deputy Sheriff McDonald and Justice of the Peace John Donnelly rushed to the scene. As O’Brien was attempting to make his escape, carrying a pistol in one hand a miner’s candle in the other, Deputy Sheriff McDonald arrived and in the melee O’Brien stabbed him just below the heart with the short end of the miner’s candlestick, just breaking the skin. When McDonald ordered O’Brien to drop the pistol and candlestick he refused and made an effort to shoot. McDonald anticipated him and shot him through the heart. O’Brien dropped dead in his tracks.” 

(Gypsie) Those that were arrested and sent to jail had to be transported to a jail in Bullfrog. The cost to store the men was 15 dollars a day plus a fee to get the men there (Drifter) (about $475). (Gypsie) The town soon began to see a need for a jail. In March 1907 the jail was built out of concrete with four steel cells in the back of the building. One man that did spend time in the new jail was Llewellyn Felker also known as Fred Skinner. (Drifter) Like most mining towns Rhyolite had a red light district. The girls were separated from the town and were not allowed to leave their area. On the morning of January 3, 1908 the police entered an adobe cabin where they found the body of 20 year old Mona Bell. she had been shot three times in the back with one bullet hitting her in the heart killing her instantly. 

(Gypsie) The police began an investigation and soon discovered that Mona had been shot and killed by her boyfriend of 8 months, Fred Skinner. Fred tried to say he killed her in self defense, that she was trying to shoot him because he told her he was going to leave her. Fred tried to say that Mona did not want him to go to Colorado to be with his wife and if she couldn’t have him no woman could. Several witnesses testified they had seen Fred beat her. Byron Demmings stated that when he was at the Mission Bar with Mona and Fred, the last night they were together, he witnessed Fred beating her. Demmings suggested Fred should not be so rough on her and Fred responded (Drifter) “Fuck her, shes used to that.” (Gypsie) He continued on saying that he had to beat her regularly as she was used to it. He also stated that the Fellow he got her from beat her every day. 

(Drifter) The undertaker, Otto Bacigalupi, got on the stand and talked about how her body was covered in bruises and cuts as well as a black eye. He also said that some of the bruises looked to be older as they were yellow. The doctor that examined Fred when he was arrested testified that the wounds he received looked to be wounds he made himself, and that he believed they did not come from Mona. Fred was looking at receiving the death sentence but instead, On March 8, 1908 he was sentenced to life in prison. 

(Gypsie) On an appeal in 1910 his sentence was reduced to 50 years. 13 years later On November 15, 1923 he was released on parole. But Fred was arrested again in October 1931 for violation of the prohibition laws in Las Vegas when he was caught bootlegging. He was sentenced to 1 year but it was soon found out that the name he gave them was a fake. He was looking at possibly having to go back to jail to finish out his 50 year sentence but the courts allowed him to go free on one condition, he had to leave the state and go live with his brother. 

(Drifter) While Rhyolite was continuing to build its city the rest of the nation was starting to crumble. The stock market prices were dropping and investors were pulling out. Several of the smaller mines began to close down but the real blow to the town came in late 1908. (Gypsie) I don’t know if Rhyolite was late at receiving the news of the nation or if they just believed they would be able to survive what was coming, but the town continued to grow and improve. (Drifter) In January 1908 the John S. Cook Bank was completed, and it was the finest bank in town. The building was three stories tall and the walls were made of poured concrete. Inside the bank was a marble staircase with mahogany accents. It was also built with modern conveniences like electric lights and indoor plumbing. In July the post office moved into the basement of the bank.

(Gypsie) In September 1907 the Las Vegas and Tonopah RailRoad began construction on a major depot. It was constructed of concrete blocks with a solid concrete foundation. The building is in the Mission Revival style. On the east side of the building was the gentleman waiting area and on the west side was the ladies waiting area. The ticket office was located in the center of the building. Construction was completed in June 1908 with a final cost of 130,000.00 dollars (Drifter) (Just over $4.2M). (Gypsie) But this was all too little too late for the town. 

(Drifter) With the completion of the rail depot they soon saw more people were leaving town than coming in. The following year the railroad started to see a decline and by 1919 the tracks were removed and taken elsewhere. By the end of 1909 the city's population was less than 1,000 folks. In 1910 the bank was closed down and John Cook had sold off all the building’s fixtures. Things were slowing down at the Montgomery Shoshone mill as well with roughly only $246,661 coming out of the mine (Gypsie) (just over $7.7M). (Drifter) On March 14, 1911 it was decided that the mine was to be closed down. It was one of the largest producing mines in town with a gross of 2 million (Gypsie) (almost $63M) (Drifter) and a net of about 1.5 million (Gypsie) (just over $47M). (Drifter) Two weeks after the mine closed down the Rhyolite Herald published its last issue. The post office closed in November of 1913 and the last train to leave town was in July of 1914. 

(Gypsie) The following year the town had a population of 20. With no rail road, no post office and hardly anyone living in the town the city shut the water and power down. The few people living in town tried to remain but by 1920 there were only 14 people living there. The Record Searchlight reported on the town on February 2, 1921 stating(Drifter)  “ Rhyolite, the once thriving center of the Bullfrog mining boom of fourteen years ago, has taken its place among the “ghost towns” of the west. A Mrs. Dyer, proprietor of the Rhyolite Hotel and her son are the only permanent residents. The height of its prosperity, Rhyolite claimed a population of between 7,000 and 8,000 and was the center of a thriving region. Several buildings and substantial homes were constructed. With the decline of the Montgomery-Shoshone and other mines controlled by the Schwab steel interests, the prosperity of Rhyolite disappeared and now the wolves howl where once there was life and activity.” 

(Gypsie) The last person in Rhyolite was J. D. Lorraine, an aged Frenchman who at the age of 92 passed away in 1923 leaving the town a complete ghost town. That same year the railroad station was auctioned off. Most of the smaller buildings had been removed to Beatty and other communities but the station was too big to move. (Drifter) In February Mrs. Foss won the auction for the large Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad station for a whopping 205 dollars (Gypsie) (Nearly $3600). (Drifter) She states (Gypsie) “the old station will be kept as a memorial to the gallant men who established Rhyolite at the very threshold of Death Valley.” 

(Drifter) With Rhyolite now an official ghost town, people would come to visit and see what was left of a once thriving town in Death Valley. (Gypsie) More people were coming to the town and it soon started to turn into a tourist attraction. Paramount Pictures discovered the bottle house and worked at restoring it. They added a new roof and got it ready to be used in a 1925 film. After they completed the filming the house was given to the Beatty Improvement Association to maintain it as a historical site. The house was eventually leased to Louis J. Murphy, he opened it up as a museum until he passed away in 1956. Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Thompson lived in the house and continued to run a museum and relic shop out of it. After the Thompson’s passed away their son Evan maintained it for a while until he moved out. 

(Drifter) Now the house is part of the National Park Services. You can still see the house and look through the windows but we could not find anything saying they allow anyone inside. The house is a treat to walk around and look at all the bottles. If you look closely you will see a large percentage of the bottles are champagne bottles. That was the town's drink of choice and they felt beer was too generic for such an upscale town. Next to the house someone has gone and built a small replica of what one of the streets in town looked like. All the buildings look to be made of cement, wood and pieces of colored glass. 

(Gypsie) Norman Westmoreland who also went by Wes Moreland, bought the depot in 1935 and according to the Reno Gazette Journal on September 20, 1937 (Drifter) “Moreland said more than 10,000 has been spent in converting the old depot into a modern entertainment spot.” (nearly $207K).  (Gypsie) On October 1, 1937 he opened it up as the Rhyolite Ghost Casino. On the main floor of the building was the drinking and gaming. Upstairs he offered a different kind of entertainment, girls! The activities with the girls would take place in the ticket agent’s quarters. Wes continued to operate the casino until he passed away on May 13, 1947. 

(Drifter) Wes’ sister Frederica Heisler inherited his property after he passed away. In 1953 she and her husband spent their retired years living in Rhyolite and running a museum out of the train station. As visitors would stop by to see what remained of the town they were happy to talk about things they remembered. Stories of Mona Bell would come up from time to time and Frederica soon found that people loved to hear about her. As it happens with story telling the tale tends to get more and more elaborate as it is repeated. Frederica one day placed a white cross with a wire fence around it and painted Mona’s name on it. She would tell visitors the story of Mona and then point them in the direction telling them that is where she was buried. 

(Gypsie) So what truly happened to Mona? Today if you visit Rhyolite and you look out the window of the prison you will see a white cross in the distance surrounded by a wire fence. The name on the cross reads Isabella Hankins AKA Mona Belle. Around the cross you will find mementos like whiskey bottles, beads, and high heels. But Mona Bell is not buried there. After Mona passed away the police went through her trunk and found a stack of letters and pictures. Inside the pile they found a letter from her mother Carrie Petermen. Mona had been carrying that letter with her as she moved from one mining camp to another. 

(Drifter) It was soon discovered that her real name was Sarah “Sadie” Isabella Peterman, and that she was married to Clinton Columbus Heskett. The two of them had eloped in Nebraska and then moved to Arrowhead Colorado. They hadn't even been married for a year before Fred convinced her to leave her husband. Fred, who was a married man, took Sadie to Nevada and talked her into becoming a working girl. He wanted her to make him money so that he did not have to work.  Meanwhile Clinton spent 1,500 dollars looking for the two of them but it was difficult to track them down.(Gypsie) (roughly $20K). (Drifter) Fred changed his last name to Davis and Sadie took on the name Mona bell. 

(Gypsie) When it was discovered that Mona was married the police contacted Clinton to inform him of the unfortunate news. He arrived in Rhyolite a few days after the murder and identified the body as Sadie. Clinton accompanied Sadies body back to Ballard Washington where her mother was living. Sadie’s body was laid to rest at the Crown Hill Cemetery in a plot purchased by her father Emery. I read one article that states the family did not place a headstone for her but I discovered that in the Crown Hill Cemetery there is a headstone for a Sadie Heskett the birth date is 1886 which is wrong she was actually born on October 2, 1887 and the death date is listed as 1907. I thought that Maybe the family wanted to keep her hidden and that is why the name on it says Sadie and it only has her married name, but it was Sadie’s niece that had it placed in 1980 so she may have gotten some of the information wrong. I also discovered that her parents aren’t even in the same cemetery as her which again leads me to believe they were trying to distance themselves from her. Her family had close ties to the Christian Science church and they possibly did not want this to taint their name. 

(Drifter) Just before you get into town off the road a bit you will find the Bullfrog Rhyolite cemetery. Many of the headstones have not survived the weather but there are still a few that remain. We  made sure to stop and pay our respect to those that lost their lives while living in the area or those that had a deeply rooted connection to the town that even after it was a ghost town they still wanted to be buried there. One of those people laid to rest in the cemetery is John Trumbull Overbury. He played a major role in the start of the town when he erected the Overbury Building. It was the first three story steam heated brick building in town.  (Gypsie) We could not find a marker for him, sadly it may have withered away. 

(Gypsie) Today if you visit Rhyolite you can see the remnants of the town in its glory days. Some of the walls of the cook bank building are still standing. The storefront of the Porter Brothers store is still standing but the side walls are falling in and there is no back wall to support it. Construction for the building began in 1906 when Hiram and Lyman Porter needed a bigger location. When the two of them arrived in town they set up shop in a tent in 1905. It took them 4 months to complete and was a final cost of 10,000 dollars (Drifter) (nearly $34K). (Gypsie) Their store was the largest employer in town aside from the mines. The store closed in 1910 when the town started to fail. 

(Drifter) Most of the walls are left of the school house as well as the foundation. The building was completed in 1909. It was a two story concrete brick schoolhouse. The first floor was divided into three classrooms and a large hallway connected them. The second floor had one classroom as well as an auditorium. The roof had galvanized spanish tile complete with a copula and bell. It was said the school was fireproof and could be evacuated in two minutes if there was a fire. The building was only used for a short while until 1911 when it closed down. Several families had moved away by then and the massive schoolhouse was never fully occupied with children. 

(Gypsie) A few of the walls are still standing on the old jail building with windows still in place and the jail cells still intact. The door to the cells is closed and locked, I wonder if someone still has the key! There are a few wood buildings still standing with one building stating it is the one of the old houses that belonged to a working girl. But that could also be an exaggerated story. 

(Drifter) Another popular spot to stop and visit while you are in town is the Goldwell Open Air Museum. The museum started in 1984 when sculptor Albert Szukalski had his creation “The Last Supper” placed there. The sculpture depicted Christ and his disciples, they almost look like they are ghosts. Over the years several artists have created various other sculptures that are on display. (Gypsie) You can see a ghost figure trying to ride a bicycle. A mosaic couch that is not comfortable at all to sit in. (Drifter) a metal statue of what looks to be a miner carrying a pick axe and a penguin following him. There is a metal statue of an origami crane.(Gypsie)  Someone has also gone out and laid rocks out in a spiral formation, which doesn’t look that awesome when you are standing next to it but when you step away you can see the spiral. There is even a statue of a lady that looks to be made out of blocks. She is painted pink with blond hair and square boobies! 

(Drifter) Though there are no shops in Rhyolite open to visit, the town is well worth the stop. (Gypsie) It was free for us to go inside and we spent several hours wandering around. You can park your car and go for hikes in the area or if you are in a hurry you can just quickly drive through and check things out. If you do go we suggest stopping and getting out to see the open air museum because you will find a lot of little fun things. We also suggest stopping at the cemetery, there are a few old wooden headstones left and they are always a treat for us to see them.  

(Drifter) Alrighty, there you have it folks, another of our stops as we wander aimlessly through the desert. 

(Drifter) Do you have a famous Gypsie Dad Joke for us?

(Drifter) Thank you all so much for joining us again and supporting the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. If you want to stay up to date with us we are most active on the Instagram (Gypsie) @rebelatlarge, (Drifter) we post photos of our adventures on our website (Gypsie) rebelatlarge.com where you’ll find links to our new merch store, Patreon if you want to help fuel the adventure, email if you want to get in touch with us as well as links to our other social deals.

(Drifter) We’ll talk to ya here in a couple of weeks, (Gypsie) Safe Travels, (Drifter) We’ll see ya down the road.

Begin 30 seconds of the same uplifting Rock/Western tune as the introduction.

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/nv-rhyolite/

https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/nevada/rhyolite/

The Sacramento Bee February 23, 1923 page 10