A House Built from 30,000 Beer Bottles Still Stands in This Mojave Desert Ghost Town

Rhyolite Ghost Town (Beatty, Nevada)

A hundred years ago, Rhyolite was the picture of Gold Rush glory. Three train lines, electric lights, and 8,000 dreamers filled these Nevada streets. Today, its empty buildings stand guard over the Mojave Desert. This is the story of a town that lived fast and died young, along with its famous bottle house.

Rhyolite Ghost Town

Rhyolite began in early 1905 after prospectors Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ernest “Ed” Cross discovered gold in Nevada’s Bullfrog Hills in 1904.

Located near present-day Death Valley National Park, this settlement was officially mapped out on January 25, 1905, with eager miners claiming over 2,000 spots of land.

The town got its name from rhyolite, a pinkish-gray volcanic rock formed from cooling magma. This light-colored stone created the unique landscape where gold was found. By 1907-1908, Rhyolite grew to become the third largest settlement in southern Nevada.

Unlike many temporary mining camps, Rhyolite built substantial buildings and services, showing faith in its future.

The Discovery That Sparked A Gold Rush

In August 1904, Frank “Shorty” Harris and Ernest “Ed” Cross struck it rich while searching the barren Bullfrog Hills. They found quartz rock filled with visible gold veins, with samples worth an amazing $700 per ton—a fortune in 1904.

Harris later described finding rock that was “green, almost like turquoise, spotted with big chunks of yellow metal.” The green-speckled rock reminded him of a bullfrog’s back, giving their mining claim its name.

News spread fast through established mining towns like Goldfield and Tonopah. Miners, merchants, and opportunity seekers rushed to the Bullfrog District.

By June 1905, just ten months after the initial find, Rhyolite’s population had exploded to 2,500 residents with 50 saloons running day and night to serve the growing crowd.

Charles Schwab Invests In The Boomtown

The Montgomery Shoshone Mine, named after prospector Bob Montgomery, became the district’s richest claim. Montgomery boasted he could take out $10,000 worth of gold daily from his mine.

This bold claim caught the eye of steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab, who had made his fortune as president of U.S. Steel Corporation. Seeing potential, Schwab bought the Montgomery Shoshone Mine in February 1906, paying between $2-6 million—equal to roughly $60-180 million today.

Schwab spent freely developing the mine and surrounding town. He hired the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad to build a rail line straight to the mine, making it easier to ship ore.

His most impressive project was building a power line stretching 100 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to bring electricity to both the mine and town—an amazing feat for that time.

A City Rises In The Desert

By 1907, Rhyolite changed from a tent settlement into a proper city with electric lights, water pipes, telephone lines, and cement sidewalks. These modern features were rare for a remote desert town.

The thriving economy supported several newspapers, a hospital, school, opera house, and even a stock exchange where mining shares were bought and sold. The business district had banks, hotels, stores, and professional offices.

Four daily stagecoaches linked Rhyolite to Goldfield, 60 miles north. For those willing to pay more, car services carried passengers between Rhyolite, Goldfield, and Las Vegas in Pope-Toledos and White Steamers—luxury cars of that era.

The boom town’s importance grew when it received the seventh largest post office in Nevada by 1907, handling mail for thousands of residents and businesses.

The Bottle House Built From 50,000 Bottles

Among Rhyolite’s most creative buildings was Tom Kelly’s remarkable Bottle House. In 1906, the 76-year-old Australian miner faced a common desert problem—scarce building materials.

Kelly came up with a clever solution by collecting over 50,000 empty bottles from Rhyolite’s many saloons. He paid local children 10 cents for each wheelbarrow full they gathered, amassing his building supplies over six months.

The bottles weren’t just for show. When set in mud mortar, they created excellent insulation, keeping the inside about 20 degrees cooler in summer and 15 degrees warmer during winter nights—vital in the harsh desert climate.

Most walls featured Adolphus Busch beer bottles marked with “AB” (not for Anheuser-Busch but for Adolphus Busch, who married into the Anheuser family). Kelly also used medicine bottles and mineral water containers, making colorful patterns in the walls.

The Impressive Cook Bank Building

The three-story John S. Cook & Co. Bank towered over Rhyolite from its corner spot at Golden and Broadway streets. Work began during the height of prosperity in 1907 and finished in 1908, costing $90,000—equal to about $2.7 million today.

This grand structure showed Rhyolite’s big dreams. Inside were Italian marble floors, stained-glass windows from overseas, fine mahogany woodwork, electric lights, running water, telephones, and indoor plumbing—luxuries rarely seen in western mining towns.

Two separate vaults protected the town’s wealth, with the main banking business on the first floor. The basement held the Post Office, while upper floors had offices where mining stocks and claims were traded.

As luck would have it, the building was finished just as Rhyolite began its decline. The Cook Bank closed in 1910, becoming the last major business to leave the failing town.

The Spanish-Style Railroad Depot

On December 14, 1906, at exactly 7 p.m., the first Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad train pulled into Rhyolite carrying about 100 passengers. This arrival marked a key moment, connecting the isolated mining camp to the nation’s transport network.

The railroad’s building speed showed the gold rush’s urgency. Work crews laid one mile of track daily, eventually speeding up to two miles per day in their race to reach the booming mining district.

By 1907, the Las Vegas & Tonopah line alone delivered 50 freight cars of supplies and equipment into Rhyolite each day, requiring a large depot to handle this volume. The Spanish Mission-style depot, designed to fill an entire city block on Golden Street, cost about $130,000.

The impressive building included separate waiting rooms for men and women (following customs of that time), a baggage room, central ticket office, and upstairs living space for the ticket agent.

The Financial Panic That Triggered Decline

Rhyolite’s fortunes began to shift in 1906 when the devastating San Francisco earthquake disrupted rail service and banking connections. This natural disaster made raising money for mining projects increasingly difficult.

The money troubles worsened during the 1907 nationwide financial crisis known as the “Bankers’ Panic.” This economic downturn, caused by failed speculation and banking system problems, badly hurt mining investments across the West.

Engineering & Mining Journal reported in 1909 that the Montgomery Shoshone processed 17,789 tons of ore from January to June 1908, yielding just $112,231—a disappointing return making little profit despite high operating costs.

As reality replaced optimism, investors ordered an outside assessment of the mine. When results came back negative, Montgomery Shoshone stock crashed dramatically. Shares once worth $23 dropped to 75 cents, eventually falling to just 4 cents before being removed from stock exchanges completely.

The Swift Abandonment Of A Boomtown

After losing money throughout 1910, the Montgomery Shoshone Mine shut down for good in March 1911. Without its economic engine, Rhyolite’s population plunged as miners left to find work elsewhere.

The town quickly fell apart. The post office—once the district’s communication hub—closed in November 1913. The last train pulled out of Rhyolite Station in July 1914, cutting vital transportation links.

By late 1914, only 25 residents remained in the once-bustling city. Many buildings stood empty, with merchants and professionals having moved to more prosperous communities. The 1920 census counted just 14 people still living in Rhyolite.

Two years later, a Los Angeles Times reporter visiting the ghost town found only one resident—a 92-year-old man who died in 1924, marking the end of Rhyolite’s permanent population.

Hollywood Discovers The Ghost Town

In 1925, Paramount Pictures saw Rhyolite’s potential for movies and restored Tom Kelly’s Bottle House for filming “The Air Mail” and “Wanderers of the Wasteland,” based on Zane Grey’s novel.

The film crew rebuilt a rear wall that had been removed for interior shooting and made general repairs. After finishing these films, Paramount handed the restored Bottle House to the Beatty Improvement Association to maintain as a historic landmark, ensuring its preservation.

From 1936 to 1954, Louis Murphy and Bessie Moffat worked as caretakers, running the Bottle House as a museum with a small gift shop for the growing number of tourists visiting Death Valley.

Rhyolite’s haunting ruins kept attracting filmmakers over the decades. Movies including “The Reward” (1964), “Cherry 2000” (1988), “Six-String Samurai” (1998), and “The Island” (2004) used its weathered structures as dramatic backdrops, bringing this forgotten town to screens worldwide.

The Goldwell Open Air Museum

In 1984, Belgian artist Albert Szukalski changed Rhyolite’s surroundings by creating “The Last Supper,” a haunting sculpture display near the abandoned railroad depot.

Szukalski chose this spot partly because the Mojave Desert looked similar to the Middle Eastern landscapes where biblical events happened. The artwork features ghostly life-sized figures made by draping plaster-soaked burlap over live models until the material hardened.

The arrangement copies Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of Jesus and his disciples at their final meal. Originally expected to last only two years in the harsh desert environment, the sculptures have survived for decades, becoming internationally recognized art.

After Szukalski’s death in 2000, the Goldwell Open Air Museum was officially organized as a nonprofit on 7.8 acres near Rhyolite’s southern entrance. Other artists added works, including “Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada,” a pink cinder block sculpture, and “Tribute to Shorty Harris,” honoring one of the town’s founders.

Visiting Rhyolite Ghost Town

Rhyolite sits about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near the California-Nevada border. Take US-95 north to Beatty, Nevada, then follow signs west on Daylight Pass Road for about 4 miles to reach the ghost town.

The site is open daily from sunrise to sunset and admission is free. You can explore the concrete ruins of the old bank building, the train depot, and the famous Bottle House on your own.

Read More from This Brand:

• A Vintage Wild West Saloon Still Serves Drinks in This Nevada Mining Town That Never Quite Died
• The Wild West Trading Post That Became the Birthplace of Nevada’s First Town in 1851
• This “Battle Born” Boomtown Funded The Union, Inspired Mark Twain, and Gave America’s Its 36th State