Ghost town of Rhyolite.

You can see here how close we were to the air force base and the test site - the gray area... we were just barely west of Beatty when the drone refused to take pictures and kept warning Bill he was in an extremely restricted area. 

We visited Rhyolite three different times. First time was in the afternoon the day we got to Beatty. Kind of just drove around and looked at things. No idea what this was - a woman's grave maybe. All kinds of different things inside the fencing. 

 Lots of high heeled shoes on the fence.

 Looking up on the side of one of the hills, an old mine shaft. Gold was found in the area in 1904. 

 In 1905 the town was established. 1906-07 problems with funding for Nevada mines was jeopardized. 

 In 1908 the population was around 8,000. 

By 1910 people were leaving the town and gold production dropped. 

By 1920 population of town was 14. We came back later in the day as the sun was going down. This was once a bank. 

This was Tom Kelly's bottle house. Built in 1906. He built the three room bottle house to raffle it off. The house served as a home to the winning family for many years. It was built with 51,000 beer bottles and adobe mud. It took him about a year and a half to build the three room, L-shaped building with gingerbread trim. He spent about $2,500 on the building with most the money for wood and fixtures. Some of the bottles were medicine bottles but most were Busch beer bottles donated from the 50 bars in town.

It has been maintained and has a new roof. When the sun is on it it kind of glows green.

 At one time there were three different railroads coming into the town. An old caboose car.

Looking inside it.

It is across the street from the Las Vegas and Tonopah Depot. It was built in 1909. It is in the process of being maintained and restored. The other railroads were the Tonopah Tidewater Railroad and the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad.

The depot it is surrounded by fencing. 

The rest of these pictures were taken in the morning. We got up early and headed out before the heat. This is what is left of the Cook Bank building. 

 A couple of old cabins. Some furniture left inside them. 

This was the second school built in Rhyolite it was built in 1909. By the time the building was competed most of the students had already left town. 

 Porter Brother's Store ruins, built in 1906

Same building from the back.

Another view of the Cook Bank Building.  

 The Overbury building. Built in 1907. Cost $45,000 to build. It was a bank and other businesses. It had the luxuries of electric lights and indoor plumbing. 

Looking towards what is left of the Overbury Building. See the vault in the center. 

Of course I had to look in it.  

The ceiling of the vault - it is metal.  

There's gold in them there hills. And actually there still is. 

 Looking out towards the front of building and street.  

 A life story on one of the interior walls. Nick and Corianna from 10/15 to 5/18. Notice 10/24/16. I wonder if they got married and if they live in Beatty. 

Just another view of ruins.

 More walls.

 A couple pictures Bill was able to take with the drone. He kept looking over his shoulder for a humvee coming towards him. 

 We wondered if he was being tracked...

After leaving the town we went out to the old cemetery and then to the museum in town. Another blog. 
Sorry it is so long. 
We had a change of plans first thing this morning and ruled out going to California when I looked up the gasoline prices!!! So we headed about 90 miles north in Nevada and are stopped for two nights at the Tonopah Casino RV park - in Tonopah. The lot has been paved since we were here last, so now nice and level. Full hook ups and wifi. $23.42 a night. Later today we'll roam around Tonopah and tomorrow morning we will go back to the almost ghost town of Goldfield.