At about 4 Am March 13, I found myself stowing gear aboard a friends F150 and heading out to rendezvous with Black Rhino Expeditions. BRE leads forays into Death Valley for off road enthusiasts and our assignment was to document the trip with stills and video. The pandemic was well under way in the states, and this was just before the national parks were closed and the stay at home order given. One of our scheduled stops was Rhyolite, a long abandoned Nevada ghost town. Rhyolite was named for the volcanic rock mined in the area and founded in 1904 when gold was discovered there. It boomed with a population swelling to over 10,000 at one point. The financial panic of 1907 took a toll, and when the mines began to run out, the town went into a death spiral and by 1919 was abandoned.
The road to Rhyolite
Lagging behind the group I saw this scene just after cresting a hill and pulled over immediately. It looks empty and desolate, but trust me it’s not. In fact as you can imagine, people have the pedal to the metal on roads like this far in excess of the speed limit. With my back to the hill, I picked my moment and set up the shot quickly, and as I could hear approaching traffic behind me I fired off a couple of frames, and then ran for my life!
Cook Bank Building, built 1907.
A few crumbling relics from the gold rush era that gripped the area around the turn of the century remain. The Cook bank building above was the largest and most expensive in town. Reportedly costing $90,000 to construct, it featured marble floors imported from Italy, mahogany woodwork, running water, electricity, and telephones.
Train Depot
One of the few intact structures left, the old train station once serviced the Las Vegas and Tonopah railroad. Later in the 30’s it became a casino and bar before becoming a museum and souvenir shop into the 70’s.
Rhyolite Entrance
This is a stitched panorama showing the remains of the Porter Brothers store that sold mining supplies and dry goods on the left, and what is left of the school house on the right. I was blessed with spectacular skies and lighting conditions on this particular morning.
Modern day wagon train.
I’d like to thank Black Rhino Expeditions for all the photo ops and a great assignment. If exploring the back roads of Death Valley is of interest to you, I would recommend you get in touch with them. They will get you in to some fantastic back country and also make sure you make it back out!
all photographs ©2020 Martin King