TRIP OF THE WEEK:
Beatty area provides lots to see for history buffs
Rhyolite, the area's most celebrated ghost town, is four miles from Beatty. Illustration by Mike Miller.
Ghost town buffs find fascinating remains of mining towns and camps that thrived a century ago around Beatty, located 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas on US 95. The sole survivor of the mining frenzy in the early 1900s that drew thousands of hopefuls seeking fortune on the desert, Beatty grew up as a supply center to area mines and ranches.
Beatty's life today depends on travelers using the highway between Las Vegas and Reno and scenic Highway 374 through Daylight Pass into nearby Death Valley National Park. Beatty serves travelers with gas stations, cafes, convenience stores, motels, RV parks, casinos, antiques stores, campgrounds, a hot springs resort and a Death Valley information center.
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A little of the flavor of bygone days remains along its quiet side streets where a scattering of homes and businesses date from that early mining era. Recently closed, the old Exchange Club sits upon the corner it first occupied in 1906, its customers no longer sipping cold drinks in the bar where a handsome carved wood back bar occupied place of pride.
Stop by the Beatty Museum and Historical Society at 417 Main St. for a visit to yesteryear. Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the museum occupies an old church and an adjacent building, having outgrown two earlier buildings since its creation in 1995. Manned by volunteers, the museum aims to preserve the colorful history of the Bullfrog Mining District that spawned so many old camps.
The museum houses an eclectic collection of artifacts, photos and documents, the product of donations by generous area residents and others interested in preserving part of the past. Visitors learn about the lives of early residents through items they used in daily life and at work. Another exhibit acquaints visitors with the plants and animals found in the Great Basin in general and specifically in the Oasis Valley surrounding Beatty, an environmental hot spot.
The museum also displays a sampling of fossils found in the Beatty mud mounds overlooking the town. These odd formations contain fossil remains of invertebrate animals that thrived 480 million years ago. For information, call the museum at (775) 553-2303 or visit their Web site at www.beattymuseum.com
If you have time to explore the region, visit some of the nearby ghost camps. On the approach to Beatty, watch for a road cutting north toward the hills nine miles south of Beatty. The road leads to the scant remains of Carrara, site of a marble quarry begun in 1904 that once had its own connection to the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
Concrete remains of a cement company sit near the highway about seven miles south 13 miles toward old Chloride City, a camp that commanded sweeping views over Death Valley. Silver first brought miners to the site in 1870. Renewed efforts and a new mill created the town in 1916, a minor boom gone bust in two years. A few ruins of weathered wood and foundations remain.
The area's most celebrated ghost town, old Rhyolite lies four miles from Beatty off the highway to Daylight Pass near the Bullfrog Hills. On the side road from the highway, note the oddity of concrete statues in the Goldwell Museum's outdoor art display.
Once Nevada's third largest city with 10,000 residents, Rhyolite boomed with discovery of gold in 1904. Miners swarmed the new Bullfrog Mining District, filing thousands of claims resulting in at least 50 working mines. Soon substantial commercial buildings lined Golden Street, the optimistically named main boulevard. Houses rose from the sagebrush on a grid of side streets. The raw desert town soon provided residents with sophisticated amenities and comforts.
The best years lasted until 1912. Rhyolite dwindled as people moved away and buildings were cannibalized or moved off intact. Today only ruins remain, except for the depot which once served three railroads and a famous little house built of thousands of liquor bottles. Visitors enjoy tracing Rhyolite's past, assisted by a knowledgeable caretaker-guide.
