Abandoned Towns
Rhyolite's stone miner's cabin with a rusted metal roof, and the shell of the Cook Bank in the distance below bare hills

Gold mining town

Rhyolite

Rhyolite went from a tent camp to a town of concrete banks, three railroads and a stock exchange in three years, then emptied almost as fast. Its ruins sit about 4 miles west of Beatty, on a mix of federal and private land, beside an outdoor sculpture museum.

36°54′14″N 116°49′45″W · ≈3,820 ft

Photo: Terrisa Meeks from Las Vegas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Open · day use

The Bureau of Land Management's Rhyolite Historic Area is day use only, no camping. Some of the town, including the train depot, is privately owned. The neighboring Goldwell Open Air Museum is open 24 hours; its visitor center keeps approximate hours, Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and usually closes by 2 p.m. in summer. Checked October 19, 2026.

Overview

Three years of boom

Rhyolite in January 1908
Rhyolite in January 1908 · Photo: photographer unknown; Rhyolite, Nevada, U.S.A.; Jan. 1908, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

On August 9, 1904, Shorty Harris and Ed Cross found gold in the Bullfrog Hills, at the edge of what is now Death Valley National Park. Rhyolite was founded early the next year and had 2,500 people by June. Charles M. Schwab bought the district's biggest mine, the Montgomery Shoshone, in 1906 and paid for piped water, an electric line from the Sierra and a rail connection.

By 1907 three railroads served the town, a stock exchange had opened, and estimates put the population at 3,500 to 5,000. Then the money stopped. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the Panic of 1907 cut investment, and a 1908 engineering report hurt the mine's stock. The banks closed by 1910, the Montgomery Shoshone closed in 1911, and the census of 1920 found 14 people.

The concrete and stone buildings outlasted the town. The Cook Bank, the school and Tom Kelly's bottle house still stand at the historic townsite the Bureau of Land Management looks after, and the privately owned train depot is one of the few complete buildings left. The Goldwell Open Air Museum, on private land just south of the ruins, shows outdoor sculptures, among them works by the Belgian artist Albert Szukalski.

Video

Rhyolite in 30 seconds

A gold boom town near Death Valley: Rhyolite in 1908, the Cook Bank ruins, Tom Kelly's bottle house and the Goldwell Open Air Museum next door.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Terrisa Meeks from Las Vegas (CC BY 2.0), photographer unknown; Rhyolite, Nevada, U.S.A.; Jan. 1908 (public domain), Tahoenathan (CC BY-SA 3.0), Finetooth (CC BY-SA 3.0), Marc Cooper from Woodland Hills, California (CC0). Original music; narration by Google Gemini text-to-speech, with captions.

Timeline

From tent camp to ruins

The Cook Bank building in 1908
The Cook Bank building in 1908 · Photo: Mark Holloway from Beatty, Nevada, USA, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. Shorty Harris and Ed Cross find gold in the Bullfrog Hills. Their Bullfrog mine names the district.
  2. Rhyolite is founded. The first post office opens in a tent on May 19, and by June the camp has 2,500 people.
  3. Tom Kelly builds his bottle house from about 50,000 bottles. Charles M. Schwab buys the Montgomery Shoshone, the district's biggest mine.
  4. The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad begins regular service. The Bullfrog Goldfield follows about six months later.
  5. The Rhyolite Mining Stock Exchange opens. By December the Tonopah and Tidewater also serves the town.
  6. Rhyolite peaks at an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 people. The Cook Bank building is finished in 1908 at a cost of more than $90,000.
  7. The 1906 earthquake, the Panic of 1907 and a damaging 1908 engineering report dry up investment. All three banks close by March 1910.
  8. The Montgomery Shoshone closes.
  9. The post office closes in November 1913, the last train leaves in July 1914, and the power is cut in 1916.
  10. The census counts 14 people.
  11. An open-pit gold mine on Ladd Mountain, last run by Barrick Gold, produces about 690,000 ounces.
  12. Lightning burns the Rhyolite Mercantile.

What's left

What you'll see

The ruins of the Cook Bank on Golden Street
The ruins of the Cook Bank on Golden Street · Photo: Tahoenathan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Tom Kelly's bottle house
Tom Kelly's bottle house · Photo: Finetooth, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The three-story shell of the Cook Bank on Golden Street is the best-known ruin. Up the hill, the mission-style Las Vegas and Tonopah depot has been repaired and preserved. It is privately owned and its windows are boarded, so see it from outside. The bottle house, built in 1906 from about 50,000 bottles, stands at the south end of town. You'll also find the two-story school, a stone miner's cabin and, slightly south of town, the Rhyolite-Bullfrog cemetery. The Rhyolite Mercantile burned after a lightning strike in 2014.

The 1908 USGS sheet in the next section shows Rhyolite at its peak, with railroad lines running into town and the rival camps of Bullfrog, Gold Center and Beatty close by.

  • Cook Bank building (1908)
  • Las Vegas & Tonopah depot (private)
  • Bottle house (1906)
  • School building
  • Miner's cabin
  • Cemetery
  • Goldwell Open Air Museum sculptures
USGS topographic map of the Rhyolite townsite in the Bullfrog Hills
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite between Bonanza Mountain and Ladd Mountain.
Aerial view of Rhyolite's street grid and scattered ruins
Aerial imagery, same area. The faint grid of streets laid out in 1905.

Next door

The Goldwell Open Air Museum

Albert Szukalski's Ghost Rider
Albert Szukalski's Ghost Rider · Photo: Marc Cooper from Woodland Hills, California, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Just south of the townsite, on private land, the museum shows seven large outdoor sculptures by a group of artists led by the late Albert Szukalski of Belgium. His first pieces, made in 1984, are ghostly plaster figures: The Last Supper, and Ghost Rider, a shrouded figure about to mount a bicycle. The museum is open around the clock, and personal photography is allowed at any time. Commercial photography and filming need the owners' permission.

Historic maps

Rhyolite on USGS maps, 1908–1987

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Rhyolite, 1908
Furnace Creek sheet, 1908, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to Rhyolite from Beatty

Take it with you

Day trip itinerary

The essentials, the sample day with boxes to tick, what to photograph and the coordinates, on two printable pages. Handy where there's no signal.

Download the PDF (586 KB)

Rhyolite is 15 minutes from Beatty and fills a morning: the ghost town and the Goldwell sculptures next door. It sits just off NV 374, the road from Beatty into Death Valley National Park.

A sample day

  1. Leave Beatty on NV 374 and turn up Rhyolite Road, about 15 minutes.
  2. Walk the Goldwell sculptures first, while the visitor center is open.
  3. Walk up Golden Street to the Cook Bank and the school.
  4. See the depot from outside, then the bottle house and the miner's cabin.
  5. Picnic at the townsite, then head back to Beatty or on into Death Valley.

Coming from Las Vegas? It's about 2 hours 25 minutes on US 95. Leave by 7:30 a.m. to be there by 10.

What to photograph and film

  • The Cook Bank. The best-known ruin. Shoot the shell from Golden Street, with the Bullfrog Hills behind.
  • The bottle house. Side light brings out the bottle ends in the walls.
  • Ghost Rider. The museum is open around the clock, so you can shoot Szukalski's figure at dusk or after dark.
  • The depot. Privately owned, so shoot the mission-style front from outside.
  • Drones. Neither the BLM page nor the Goldwell site addresses them. Goldwell is private, so ask there first.

Map & directions

Getting there

Beatty is 6 miles away. Take NV 374, the road to Death Valley, west out of town and turn right on Rhyolite Road. From Las Vegas it's about two and a half hours north on US 95 to Beatty. Paved all the way.

USGS topographic map between Beatty and Rhyolite with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From central Beatty5.9 miabout 13 min
  1. Head west on Main Street, which becomes Death Valley Road, NV 374.4.1 mi
  2. Turn right onto Rhyolite Road and follow it up to the townsite.1.8 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Paved to the townsite. Day use only; the BLM doesn't allow camping.
  • Summers are hot. Bring water and shade; the BLM lists picnicking but no other services.
  • Keep off the unstable walls of the ruins.
  • Death Valley National Park is just down NV 374 if you want to continue.

Photos

Rhyolite in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Rhyolite?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Rhyolite

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Nevada index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Rhyolite": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time), the first post office in a tent, the jail and store buildings.
  2. Wikipedia, "Rhyolite, Nevada", retrieved October 2026: discovery, founding, Schwab, railroads, stock exchange, population, decline, closures, buildings, depot repairs and boarded windows (April 2026 photo), cemetery, Ladd Mountain mine, Mercantile fire, BLM and Goldwell.
  3. National Park Service, "Rhyolite Ghost Town" (updated November 2021): paved road into town, federal and private land, privately owned depot.
  4. BLM, "Rhyolite Historic Area": location, day use only, no camping, picnicking, contact, as of October 2026.
  5. BLM blog (November 1, 2024): the guided walk of the townsite on October 26, 2024.
  6. Goldwell Open Air Museum, official site, with its "Plan Your Visit" and "Walking Tours" pages: hours, summer closing, visitor center, donations, monthly tours, brochure, seven sculptures, private property, photography rules, as of October 19, 2026.
  7. Wikipedia, "Goldwell Open Air Museum", retrieved October 2026: Szukalski's 1984 The Last Supper and Ghost Rider.
  8. Coordinates: Wikipedia (from USGS GNIS). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits