Rhyolite Nevada - Little More than a Memory

NEVADA LEGENDS

Rhyolite - Little More Than a Memory

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Rhyolite, Nevada Postcard, January 18, 1909

Rhyolite began when Frank "Shorty" Harris and Earnest L. Cross discovered gold on August 4, 1904. Calling their claim the Bullfrog, it was located few miles south of where Rhyolite would soon sprout up. When they took their samples to nearby Goldfield it was assessed at $665/ton. Shorty described it as “... the quartz was just full of free gold... it was the original bullfrog rock... this banner is a crackerjack” Word spread quickly and the gold rush was on.

Hundreds of men began flooding the area and several mining camps popped up called Orion, Bullfrog, Amargosa, Jumpertown, Bonanza and Gold Center. Shorty Harris would say of the area, “The district is going to be the banner camp of Nevada. I say so once and I’ll say it again.”

Soon, several men by the names of A.G. Cushman, Percy Stanley, C.H. Elliot, and Frank J. Busch began promoting the town site of Rhyolite, named for the silica-rich ore that most of the gold was being found in. By November, the town was staked and lots were offered for sale for $50 each in February, 1905. One of the first buildings constructed was the two-story Southern Hotel. Water was a rare commodity in the area and was carted in at a cost of $2 to $5 a barrel.

Just months later in April, H.D. and L.D. Porter crossed Death Valley bringing along supplies from their store at Randsburg. By that time the rush to Rhyolite was so great that the Porters had to pay $1,200 for their lot. Constructing a story and a half stone building, they quickly became the district’s leading merchants.

In no time at all, there were over 2000 claims covering a 30 mile area surrounding the Bullfrog district. The most promising was the Montgomery Shoshone mine, which prompted everyone to move to the Rhyolite town site. The town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere, including saloons, restaurants and boarding houses.

Along with the gold miners, several sharp business men also moved into town -- making money from the real estate boom and selling speculative stock shares in Rhyolite ventures coast-to-coast. In the end they would all be worthless.

By the spring of 1905, there were three stage lines bringing supplies to Rhyolite. The first auto stage -- The Tonopah and Goldfield Auto Company also became active in 1905. By May, Rhyolite boasted some 1,500 people and several buildings of concrete and stone. In the same month the first issue of Rhyolite Herald was published by Earle R. Clemens and the first post office was opened in a ten-by-twelve foot tent on Golden Street. Though a stage line brought mail from Goldfield, the service was irregular in the beginning. The first postmaster was a woman named Anna B. Moore who was just 18, her husband Joe was her assistant. By June, Rhyolite had an efficient water system, so residents no longer had to pay for the high cost of water to be carted into town.

All that's left of the Rhyolite school today,

April, 2005, Kathy Weiser.

Like many mining camps, Rhyolite was sometimes prone to violence, with its rugged men and abundant liquor flowing from its many saloons. Though Rhyolite never had a reputation such as many mining camps of the Old West days of the late 1800s, the settlement suffered its first killing in October 1905 over a dispute in Wandell's Saloon.

When Rhyolite held its first town meeting it was decided that a school needed to be established, which was completed in 1906 with an enrollment of approximately 90 children. By May, there were nearly 250 children in the school. Hastily built, the schoolhouse was blown down in September 1906 by a heavy wind and school was then held in the county hospital building. In the fall of 1906, $420,000 was approved by the city for a new school; however, the new concrete structure wouldn’t be opened until January 1909.

Continued Next Page

Porter General Store Today, April, 2005, Kathy Weiser

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

The crumbling remains of the Cook Bank in Rhyolite,

Nevada speak to more prosperous times. April, 2005,

Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

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