Death Valley Scenic Byway
Rhyolite Ghost Town, CA

The Banner Camp

Rhyolite was founded 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 hill "was just full of free gold... it was the original bullfrog rock... this banner is a crackerjack! The district is going to be the banner camp of Nevada..."

The Early Days

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, 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.

Rhyolite's Glory Days

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, machine shops, and even a miner's union hospital.

Rhyolite Today

Today you can find several remnants of Rhyolite's glory days. Some of the walls of the 3 story bank building are still standing, as is part of the old jail. The train depot (privately owned) is one of the few complete buildings left in the town, as is the Bottle House. The Bottle House was restored by Paramount Pictures in January of 1925. Rhyolite is on a mixture of federal and private land.