Rhyolite, the most famous ghost town in the Death Valley area, was created in 1905 after two prospectors, Frank "Shorty" Harris and Ernest "Ed" Cross came across the area after failing to strike it rich in the Funeral Mountains (in the center distance). While looking for their burros, the prospectors came across a rich vein of gold: "The rock was green, almost like turquoise, spotted with big chunks of yellow metal, and looked a lot like the back of a frog."
The two quickly told Montillus Beatty, and news reached Ernest Montgomery, who rushed over to what is now the ghost town of Bullfrog. After a few failed attempts, and with the help of a Shoshone named Hungry Johnny and a prospector named Al James, Montgomery struck a rich vein with gold assayed at $16000 a ton. With that, the Bullfrog Hills Gold Rush was on. In a month, the town of Rhyolite sprang up, centered around the Montgomery Shoshone Mine, with a population of 1200. Half a year later, it was at 2500. Montgomery sold his mine to industrialist Charles Schwab in 1906, and the latter quickly set up water piping, electricity, and a railroad spur. By 1907, the population peaked at 4000, with thousands more in surrounding communities, and boasted concrete sidewalks, electricity, water mains, telephone and telegraph lines, newspapers, magazines, police and fire departments, a hospital, a school, a train station and railway depot, three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a public swimming pool and two church buildings. The 1908 John S. Cook and Co. Bank (center), built of Italian marble at a cost of $90000, dominated the town. The stock market hummed away, shares of the 74 mines in the area quickly growing from 6000 to 750000.
Things came to a head in 1908 when an independent evaluation found that the shares of the mines were grossly overvalued, leading to a massive crash. Though many mines were still profitable, the town quickly began to decline. The 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907 soon lead to even greater devaluations and more people left. By 1910, the population was less than 700, by 1922, there was 1 individual who died in 1924. Now protected under the BLM, Rhyolite is now a popular tourist stop on the way to Death Valley.
Beatty, Nevada
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