Rhyolite

The ghost town of Rhyolite is a must see if you are in the Death Valley National Park. Actually, Rhyolite, is outside of the park. It is on the road to Beatty, Nevada.

Rhyolite refers to a quartz mineral rock. Gold was discovered in the mountains above the town. Soon a town sprung up with a bank, retail stores, rail station, and a school. There were homes in Rhyolite, too. Only one house remains. It the famous bottle house. That's right! The house is made entirely out of glass bottles. I visited Rhyolite 30 years ago. Since then I had seen it in several Hollywood moves. Most recently, the Cooke Bank building ruins was seen in the movie, The Island. The old general store was also in the movie.

Rhyolite began to go into decline in the 1920's when the gold mine was closed. It was not closed because the gold was mine out. Actually, they still active mine gold at the mines around Rhyolite.

It was a very eerie place. Sandi refused to get out of the car. She was scared! We were glad when we got out of Rhyolite and found lodging in Beatty.