Rhyolite, Nevada

On August 4, 1904, Frank "Shorty" Harrison and Earnest L. Cross discovered gold that launched a gold rush. They called their site the Bullfrog claim a few miles south of the future town. Neither ever agreed which of them found the gold speckled green rock first and no one was there to witness it. Most give credit to Shorty since he had been prospecting for some time and always seemed to arrive too late for the big find. Cross later sold his share of the claim in 1906 for $25,000, bought a ranch near San Diego, and lived there until he died in 1958. At any rate, they took their samples to nearby Goldfield. It was assessed at $665 a ton.

Hundreds of men began flooding in to Rhyolite, named for the ore that most of the gold was being found in. Small towns popped up all around in support of the mining, including Orion, Bullfrog, Amargosa, Bonanza, and Gold Center. A.G. Cushman, Percy Stanley, C.H. Elliot, and Frank J. Busch began promoting the town. Rhyolite was staked in November 1904 and platted on January 15, 1905. Lots were offered for sale on February 15. H.D. and L. D. Porter led a 18-mule team with stock from their store at Randsburg. They had hauled it across Death Valley in March and April of 1905 to set up shop in Rhyolite. In February lots had been selling for $50. When the Porters arrived, they paid $1,200 for their lot. They built a story and a half stone building for $10,000 and became the district's leading merchants.

By may of 1905, Rhyolite was a bustling tent city and mining town. It had 1,500 people. Unlike other mining towns made of wood and canvas that died up or burned up, Rhyolite was built to last. It was built of concrete and stone. It was built to be the metropolis of southern Nevada. On May 5, 1905, the first issue of Rhyolite Herald was published by Earle R. Clemens.

The town was served by Concord stage from Goldfield, 75 miles north, and Las Vegas, 125 miles south. Cars came from Tonopah and Goldfield. Rhyolite and Bullfrog competed constantly for the latest and greatest. Each had a newspaper, bank, and post office, but Bullfrog was ahead with a $65,000 water system, the biggest building (the $18,000 3-story Bullfrog Hotel), a new county jail.

By 1907, Rhyolite had three railroads providing service to the town. The first Bullfrog & Goldfield passenger train came to town on June 18, 1907. The Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad reached town on December 14, 1906. Borax Smith's Tonopah & Tidewater was the third railroad into town. This led to an even bigger boom. A 3-story $50,000 office building of stone was built. A 3 story $60,000 bank building of reinforced concrete was built a block away. The LV&T depot was built of cut stone hauled from Las Vegas. In January 1907, 400 electric poles were erected. In May, the population had grown to 3,000.

Even a red light district was booming. A protest went to the board of Trade, the town's only local government at the time. They didn't like the presence of the prostitutes. It was decided that Amargosa St., between Broad way and Colorado would be the extreme north and south boundary, and the alley between Main and Amargosa would be the western boundary. The prostitutes couldn't cross these lines but could go as far east as they wanted. Prostitues could not go into saloons outside of the prescribed limits.

Mail service was always haphazard. The Kitchen stages brought mail from Goldfield. A wooden box in Len McGarry's general store was the outgoing mail. The stage company was paid by a collection taken up once a month, never amounting to less than $200. The first post office was opened on June 17, 1905 in a 10 x 12 tent in Golden Street. Mrs. Anna B. Moore just 18 and married, was the first postmaster. Her husband Joe was the assistant. The post office soon outgrew the tent and was reestablished in a frame building on Broadway. In July 1908, it moved to the 30 x 70 basement of the John S. Cook Bank Building, finsihed in January. M.J. Moore was appointed postmaster when his wife retired on June 10, 1907. He had a private 10 x 12 office, as large as the entire original tent post office.

The school system was established at the first town meeting. A school district organized that fall but no money was available. The town raised its own funds to build its first school. The schoolhouse was later blown down in September 1906 by a heavy wind. In May 1906, there 250 children between ages 6 and 12. A second school was started in the county hospital building. $420,000 was approved that fall for a new school. This new concrete structure was opened in January 1909.

A jail was also needed real bad. In October 1905, the first killing in Wandell's saloon occurred. In May 18, 1906 Steve O'Brien stabbed his wife with a miner's candlestick. When the deputy and judge showed up, he stabbed the judge. The deputy sheriff shot and killed O'Brien. On October 26, 1906, Tom J. Malone and Jack Maher fought over some money and Maher shot Malone down in the street. He died the next night at the hospital. Maher was let go on a plea of self defense. Until its own was built, Rholite lawmen hauled the bad guys to Bullfrog. This cost them $15 a day to rent the horse rig. In March 1907, the jail was built out of concrete with four steel cells.

At its height in 1908, Rholite had a post office, opera house, hospital, restaurants, hotels, a two story school that was never used to even half capacity, three story bank, eight doctors, two dentists, three newspapers, two churches, and 31 saloons. It had running water, phone lines, and electricty. They had social clubs, fraternal organizations, and political parties, and business groups. Whist parties, dances at the opera, basket and home socials, church going, and Sunday school picnics were the norm. The Sells Floto Circus even came to town on May 15, 1907, the highlight of that year.

Bob Montgomery owned the biggest claim in Rhyolite. This mine, the Montgomery-Shoshone Mine, was later bought out by Charles M. Schwab, Pittsburgh steel magnate, and his associates in the spring of 1906. The mine was named for Montgomery and young Indian Johnny. The mine was incorporated and Montgomery owned three-fourths of it. Schwab later bought all his stock at more than $2 million. Montgomery then reinvested $900,000 in the mine. Schwab also bought all Montgmery's interests including town, hotel, and water rights. He reorganized the company, loaned it half a million to build a mill, and began selling stock at $15 a share for a total value of $7.5 million. Later the stock went to $22 a share. The mine closed in 1911. It had grossed almost $2 million and netted about $1.5 million. It was in det about $200,000, mostly because of the mill. Two week s after the mine shut down, the final issue of the herald was published and Clemens left for the coast.

One of the town celebrities was Walter Scott, who scattered coins for Rhyolite children. He was known as Death Valley Scotty. Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Monument is named for him. Another famous resident was William H. Stewart, 28 year senator from Nevada. In 1905 he built a ten room home and a law office in Bullfrog.

The 1906 earthquake that killed San Francisco made investors skittish, and investors in the shaky mining business started to pull out. In 1907, a stock scare on the east coast added to the panic and Rhyolite began to die. By 1908 the gold started panning out. In 1909, gold was discovered at Pioneer Mine, a few miles away. Within months half the population had moved to Pioneer. 1910 census had 675 people. By 1915 it had 20 people.

Soon the greasewood started overgrowing it. But it didn't totally disappear because of its bottle house and the impressive railroad station. The bottle house was built by Tom Kelly in February 1906 using supposedly 50,000 bottles. It was restored and reroofed by Paramount Pictures in 1925 for a movie setting, then given to the Beatty Improvement Association for maintenance as a historical relic. It was leased to Louis J.Murphy and maintained as a museum by him and Mrs. Bessie Stratton Moffat until he died in 1956. Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Thompson also lived in it, maintaining a museum and relic shop.

In 1936, N.C. Westmoreland rescued the depot and converted it into a casino and museum. His sister H.H. Heisler maintained it later as a museum and curio shop. Paramount Pictures showed up again and used the deteriorating Cook Bank as a mexican ruin, and further damaged it in the process.

In 1996, the town celebrated its fifth annual Rhyolite Resurrection Festival.

Last updated: 4/5/98