Bullfrog Mining District, Nevada

The Bullfrog mining district was a boom for Nevada and helped turn around a three-decade-long depression in the state.

In 1900, Nevada was entering its third decade of depression. The incomparable Comstock Lode, which had stimulated the migration of 60,000 people into Nevada Territory, had financed a major portion of the northern effort during the Civil War,  made Nevada into a state, and spawned numerous smaller mining booms between 1805 and the 1870s, had died out by 1880. Since then, no new strikes of importance had been found, the state’s population had fallen to 40,000, and the economy was suffering the effects of 20 years of decline. Some cynics even suggested that Nevada should revert to territorial status. Such was the fate of a state whose entire economy was built around a mining frontier’s boom and bust cycle.

Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery, by Kathy Alexander.

In 1900, however, the cycle was reversed. Silver was discovered at Tonopah that year, and massive high-grade gold deposits were located at Goldfield two years later. The great boom days returned to Nevada, and prospectors, spurred by dreams of untold riches, once again blanketed the mountains and deserts. No more discoveries were made which rivaled the riches of Tonopah and Goldfield. Numerous smaller camps were established, which bloomed briefly on the desert, dreaming of becoming another Virginia City. Rhyolite, the metropolis of the Bullfrog District, was one of these camps.

Gold was first discovered in the Bullfrog District on August 9, 1904. The initial finds were high-grade surface ore assayed at $700 per ton — just the kind of stuff to start a boom. Shorty Harris, one of the discoverers, later described the reaction of Goldfield when he and his partner, Ed Cross, brought in their samples:

“I’ve seen many gold rushes in my time that were hummers, but nothing like that stampede. Men were leaving town in a steady stream with buckboards, buggies, wagons, and burros. It looked like the whole population of Goldfield was trying to move at once. Timekeepers and clerks, waiters and cooks — they all got the fever and milled around wild-eyed, trying to find a way to the new strike.

A lot of fellows loaded their stuff on two-wheeled carts — grub, tools, and cooking utensils, and away they went across the desert, two or three pulling the cart and everything in it rattling. Men even hiked the seventy-five miles pushing wheelbarrows.

When Ed and I got back to our claim a week later, more than a thousand men were camped around it, and more were coming every day. A few had tents, but most of them were in open camps.

That was the start of Bullfrog, and from then, things moved so fast that it made us old-timers dizzy.”

All that’s left of the Rhyolite school, Kathy Alexander.

Although Shorty Harris was guilty of much romanticizing in his later interviews, events did indeed move fast. Towns sprang up overnight in competing locations. Amargosa (later called Original) was laid out on September 30, 1904, and had sold 35 lots within three weeks. Beatty, to the southeast, was located on October 20th, and the towns of Bullfrog and Rhyolite were started by competing townsite companies in November — all within a few miles of each other.

Amargosa (Original) reported 1,000 lots sold before the town was two months old, some for as high as $200 each. By November, the town boasted three stores, four saloons, two feed lots, restaurants, boarding houses, lodging houses, a post office, and 35-40 other tent buildings. Prices, of course, were in proportion to the boom atmosphere and the costs of freighting 70 miles from Goldfield. Lumber for building was scarce and sold for $100 per 1,000 board feet, while hay for prospectors’ burros and teamsters’ mules went for $100 a ton.

The boom continued through the spring of 1905. Thirty teams a day left Goldfield for the Bullfrog District in January, and one traveler counted 52 outfits arriving in the district during one day in March. Confusion reigned supreme, especially for prospectors who left town for a few days in March to find upon their return that the entire town of Amargosa (Original) had picked up and moved a few miles south to the town of Bullfrog. Mining claims changed hands furiously, for the ground near a publicized claim was worth $500 to $2,000, even if a pick had yet to strike the earth. By May, Rhyolite counted 20 saloons, a sure sign of wealth.

By late spring, the dust had settled a little, at least to the point where one could leave home overnight and expect the town to be in the same location when returning. Rhyolite and Bullfrog, located only ¾ of a mile apart, had become established as the leading towns of the district, with Beatty, four miles to the east, running a poor third and Gold Center barely surviving.

Four daily stages connected the district with the outside world; post offices were running at BeattyBullfrog, and Rhyolite, and lots in Rhyolite which sold for $100 in February, were selling for $4,400. Wheel and faro games were going on 24 hours a day. “It reminds one of the old times,” remarked one prospector. In addition, Rhyolite, Bullfrog, and Beatty each had a bank, and each had a weekly newspaper. The Bullfrog Miner printed its first issue on March 31st, the Beatty Bullfrog Miner on April 8th, and the Rhyolite Herald on May 5th.

The boom kept pace through June. By that time, some 3,000 people were estimated to be in the district, the telephone line was completed to Bullfrog and Rhyolite, and a telegraph office had opened. Over 300 messages were sent over the wires on the first day of operation, mostly to Goldfield brokers and stock dealers. By August 1905, both Bullfrog and Rhyolite had their own piped-in water systems, Rhyolite had yet another bank, and the two towns had a population of 2,500, with another 700 at Beatty and 40 in the tent city of Gold Center. The Rhyolite Herald listed 85 incorporated companies working in the district.

The Montgomery Shoshone Mine & Mill complex near Rhyolite, Nevada, California Panorama Co., 1907. Montgomery Mountain is in the background, and a spur line of the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad is in the foreground.

The pandemonium subsided somewhat in 1906, as the rush phase of the boom slowly turned into a more controlled phase of development. By that time, 165 mining companies were reported working in the district, and all had hopes of developing another mother lode with just a few more feet of digging. Rhyolite gradually won the battle with Bullfrog and by spring had emerged as the metropolis of the southern desert, when Bullfrog’s store, saloons, and the newspaper moved up the hill to Rhyolite. Soon, three railroads announced plans to construct lines into the district.

Then, the first hint of disaster struck with the earthquake and fire in San Francisco, California. Feverish developments slowed momentarily as miners, owners, and promoters waited to see what effect the destruction of the west coast’s financial center would have upon their fortunes.

However, the boom spirit was still too prevalent for the effect to be prolonged, and with the promise of financial aid from mining promoter Charles Schwab, the bustle returned. By the end of 1906, Rhyolite seemed assured of its self-proclaimed title of Queen of the Desert when the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad completed its tracks into town. With the advent of cheaper rail freight rates, the camp was certain to add to its monthly payroll of $100,000 and continue its development.

The year 1907 was another good one. Fifty freight cars per day were arriving over the Las Vegas & Tonopah in February. The town had grown to a population of 3,300, and lots at the heart of town were selling for as much as $10,000. A school census was taken, which showed 250 children of school age, so a wooden schoolhouse was built. A concrete and steel jail was also built. The Rhyolite Stock Exchange was incorporated and opened on March 25 to ease the effects of feverish stock trading on the overworked telegraph wires to Goldfield and San Francisco. In June, the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad came into town, opening rail connections with the north. In September, electric power was brought into Rhyolite over the poles of the Nevada-California Power Company. The power was hooked into the already-wired homes, stores, and offices of Rhyolite and into the machinery of the big Montgomery-Shoshone mill, which soon began operations. Another newspaper, the Rhyolite Daily Bulletin, appeared to compete with the district’s three weekly papers. Production figures for the district went over $100,000 for the first time during the month of September, and the arrival of the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad the next month augured even more prosperity.

Even the Panic of 1907, which some would call a depression, did little to dampen the spirits of Bullfroggers. Newspapers noted, almost with wonder, that the panic seemed to affect the Bullfrog District much less than other mining camps in Nevada and California. The local banks were forced to issue script for a few months due to the cash shortage. he local merchants gladly accepted it — even advertised for it — and the panic was put down to the manipulations of greedy eastern financiers. Despite the panic, property values continued to go up, and the year-end tax rolls reflected the prosperity of the young town, which was assessed taxes on almost two million dollars worth of real and personal property.

1908 also opened with a bang, with the big Montgomery-Shoshone mill treating 200 tons of ore per day and promising more mills to open soon, thus increasing the district’s production and prosperity. The grand three-story, $60,000 John S. Cook Bank Building was completed in Rhyolite in January to house all this money. By February, all the banks were back on a cash basis. They reported that they had needed only half the amount of script printed for use during the Panic. Production soared as new mills and mines went into operation, reaching an estimated $170,850 in April. By September, the Bullfrog District ranked as the third largest producer in Nevada, trailing only Goldfield and Tonopah. The Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad finished its magnificent passenger station in June, which immediately became one of the showcases of the southern Nevada region.

Bullfrog Nevada Ruins

Ruins in Bullfrog, Nevada by Kathy Alexander.

Construction continued, as the three-story concrete and stone Overbury building was completed in December for $50,000. Now at its height, Rhyolite fairly bustled with activity. The newspapers enthusiastically claimed a population of 12,000, although a more probable estimate would be 8,000. By this time, the town boasted an opera house, a new $20,000 concrete and steel, a two-story school building, hotels, ladies’ clubs, and a swimming pool. The large concrete and stone buildings that dominated the main streets were flanked by hundreds of wooden stores, offices, and residences, although a few late arrivals still lived in tents on the outskirts of town. The Western Federation of Miners’ local union, with its healthy membership, union hall, and hospital, threatened to surpass the local union at Tonopah.

Rhyolite even had a manufacturing base of two foundries and machine shops. The Porter Brothers, leading merchants, had built their original tent store into an imposing building complete with freight elevators and stock worth $100,000.

Dance halls and brothels, ever a sign of prosperity in a mining camp, spilled over from their assigned districts on several occasions, drawing the town council’s attention. By the end of the year, the Rhyolite Herald estimated the total production for 1908 as close to $1,000,000.

In the meantime, the Rhyolite and Bullfrog boom had much the same effect on the surrounding Death Valley area as Goldfield and Tonopah had on the entire state. Spurred by the Bullfrog boom and dreams of wealth, prospectors swarmed out of Rhyolite into the hills and deserts of southeastern Nevada and southwestern California. Backed by flush Rhyolite merchants and promoters, these men examined the countryside as it has never been examined before or since. The results seemed almost too good to be true for a while, for strikes and mining camps blossomed out of the wilderness everywhere. On the east side of Death Valley, the entire South Bullfrog District grew up around the Keane Wonder Mine, while farther to the south arose the boom camps of Lee, Echo, Schwab, Greenwater, Gold Valley, and Ibex in California. Farther to the west, across the Death Valley sink, prospectors out of Rhyolite found and established the mines and camps of Emigrant Springs, Skidoo, Harrisburg, and Ubehebe, California. All these camps looked upon Rhyolite as the metropolis of the desert, and Rhyolite merchants, teamsters, and outfitters, located at the railhead, profited immensely from being situated at the distribution center for the region.

As usual, however, the gold fever which swept the country contained more fever than gold. Some of the smaller camps died almost as soon as they were born, leaving little more than a ripple on the surface of time. Some, like Greenwater, California, spent all their energy on booming, and nothing was left to be seen when the dust had settled. Most lasted a year or two or even three. But, except for Skidoo and the Keane Wonder Mine in California, all the smaller camps died before Rhyolite, indicating the larger town’s eminent fate.

Montgomery-Shoshone Mine near Rhyolite, Nevada.

Montgomery-Shoshone Mine near Rhyolite, Nevada.

On the surface, Rhyolite seemed as robust as ever in early 1909, and the town’s citizens even started a movement to split the county in two, making Rhyolite the county seat of the southern portion. Such ambitions, however, were hopeless, for the cracks were already appearing in the facade. Although the boom spirit had carried the Bullfrog District through the San Francisco disaster and the Panic of 1907 without appearing to harm the camp, underlying problems were beginning to surface. Investor confidence was weakened by the financial difficulties, a fatal blow to any mining camp. Two of the three Rhyolite banks had closed by the end of 1909, and shady dealings involving two of the district’s most promising mines further shook investor confidence. The Montgomery-Shoshone mill continued to mill its low-grade ore throughout 1909, but there is nothing romantic about low-grade ore. To the north, a brief new boom at Pioneer seemed to arrest the process of decline for a short time, but a disastrous fire roared through that camp before it was even built, and it never recovered.

Businesses began to decline and close. The Rhyolite Daily Bulletin was the first newspaper to go, printing its last issue in May of 1909, and the Bullfrog Miner followed suit in September. But, the December tax rolls told the real story. When the time came to ante up for county taxes, owners of 156 properties — or 28% of the total tax base — elected to quietly leave town and let their properties be confiscated by the county treasurer rather than spending more money in a losing cause. As the Mining World summed up, “Mining operations in the Bullfrog District were rather dull last year.”

Rhyolite plodded through 1910, struggling to keep alive and hoping that some prospector would make the strike that would bring back the days of prosperity. Their hopes were doomed, however, and when tax time rolled around again. That year, 168 taxable properties, equally 44% of the tax base, were left to the care of the county treasurer as their owners had departed. The First National Bank closed its doors that year, the last bank to leave Rhyolite.

The trend accelerated in 1911, when the Montgomery-Shoshone, the only mine to make any significant production in the district, finally shut down in May. The 1911 tax rolls again showed owners of 118 properties (43%) leaving town rather than pay taxes, and the Mining World sounded the death knoll. “The Bullfrog District is almost deserted, save by a few lessees, who at intervals make a small production… After demonstrating that ore averaging $6 a ton could be profitably milled, the Montgomery-Shoshone has closed down, having exhausted its pay ore.”

The Bullfrog District, too, was exhausted. Companies with money left in their treasuries held on to properties, hoping for a comeback. Several dozen intrepid souls stayed in Rhyolite, scraping out an existence by leasing mines and extracting occasional small shipments of ore. The great days, however, were definitely gone forever. The Rhyolite Herald finally gave up and closed in June 1912, and the town slowly died.

Periodic efforts were made to reorganize and rework the mines on a small scale, which kept Rhyolite from becoming a complete ghost town for several years, but none were successful. In 1914, the Las Vegas & Tonopah discontinued service to the town, above the protests of the few remaining citizens. In 1916, the Nevada-California Power Company cut off electricity to Rhyolite and began to salvage its poles and wire. The Inyo Register described the once-thriving town in December 1916:

“Rhyolite, once a camp claiming several thousand population, is practically a deserted village ... the movable buildings have been moved away from time to time, and the process is still going on. At present, it is contributing to the upbuilding of the camp of Carrara… ” By 1920, although a few companies and individuals still held on to their Rhyolite properties, hoping against hope for a revival, the camp was completely deserted.”

Rhyolite Depot

Rhyolite Depot, which became a Casino at one point, by Kathy Alexander.

Afterward, much of Rhyolite was slowly dismantled to serve the needs of new boom camps. Although small-scale efforts were made to revive the camp from time to time — including one during the fall of 1978 — the good days were gone. Today, the crumbling remains of its once imposing structures, together with its picturesque location, make it one of the most popular ghost towns in the American West. Ironically, Beatty, four miles to the west, which played little sister to Rhyolite throughout the boom years, was saved from decline by the construction of Nevada Highway 95, and today it continues to survive on the trade of tourists, military personnel, and truckers traveling between Las Vegas and Reno.

All was not in vain, however. The Bullfrog District produced $1,687,792 worth of ore in the four short years between 1907 and 1910, doing its part, along with the other small camps and the bonanzas of Goldfield and Tonopah, in pulling Nevada out of its two-decade slump.

Hundreds of mines and dozens of mining camps played a part in the Bullfrog District. Several significant remnants can be found at some locations, while others have reverted back to their natural desert landscape.

The Bullfrog Mining District includes the vicinity of Beatty west of US Highway 95 and the region near the old towns of Rhyolite and Pioneer. It adjoins the Fluorine District on the west. The district covers all of the Bullfrog Hills and includes properties in the adjacent part of the Grapevine Mountains.

One of the first rules of the mining game is to get in on the “ground floor” to make money. If possible, an experienced prospector will hurry to the scene of the latest strike, locate ground as close as possible to it, and form a company with a similar-sounding name. Between 1905 and 1910, this game was played to perfection by various and sundry miners and promoters in the Bullfrog District, as 90 companies were incorporated with the magic word “Bullfrog” somewhere on their letterheads. A few of these companies were in the vicinity of the Original Bullfrog, and most, but not all, were within the boundaries of the Bullfrog District. All hoped to lure stockholders’ funds by advertising their proximity to the big strike.

Rhyolite and the Bullfrog Hills, 1909

Rhyolite and the Bullfrog Hills, 1909

Several of these miscellaneous Bullfrog companies bought property in the district without ever planning to sink a pick in the ground. Never doing any more than locating a claim, they incorporate a company and sold stock to gullible investors. Some of these included the Bullfrog Winner Mining Company, the Bullfrog Western Mining Company, the United Bullfrog Mining Company, the Bullfrog Plutos Mining, and Milling Company, the Bullfrog Gold Note Mining Company, and the Bullfrog Jumper Company, and dozens of others.

However, others really were interested in mining, and these soon surrounded the Original Bullfrog on all sides. These companies, all of which were located and incorporated soon after the beginning of the Bullfrog rush, sank shafts as close as possible to the Original Bullfrog claims, hoping to find the same rich ore. Of the seven companies surrounding the Original Bullfrog ground, six were utter failures, and one — the Bullfrog West Extension — got lucky, for the unpredictable Original Bullfrog ledge penetrated its property. Although this seems like a high failure rate, it was about the norm for the risky mining business. The Bullfrog West Extension was the earliest of the mines that sprung up around the Original Bullfrog, thus emphasizing another mining truism: the “firstest gets the mostest.”

Towns, Camps, and Mines of the Bullfrog District, and what remains:

Amargosa, Nevada – See Original – nothing remains

Beatty, Nevada – Nye County, Nevada – Not a ghost town, but a vital part of Death Valley mining days.

Big Bullfrog Mining Company – South of the Original Bullfrog Mine near Rhyolite, Nevada.  Nothing remains

Bullfrog Mining Camp – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – Very little – icehouse and jail

Bullfrog Apex Mining and Milling Company – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – None

Bullfrog Extension Mining Company – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – None

Bullfrog Fraction– Near Rhyolite, Nevada – None

Bullfrog Red Mountain /Rhyolite-Bullfrog – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – none

Bullfrog West Extension Mine – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – Unknown, probably none.

Currie Well, Nevada – North of Rhyolite, Nevada – Debris, low stone wall, ruins of a small beehive furnace.

Gold Bar Mining Camp, Nevada – Near Rhyolite, Nevada – Mining remains, large mill foundations

Gold Bar Mine, Nevada

Gold Center, Nevada– Near Tonopah, Nevada – Foundations of a stamp mill and brewery.

Happy Hooligan Mine

Homestake-King Mine

Lucky Jack Mine

Mayflower Mine

Mexican Camp, Nevada– 13 miles west of Rhyolite, Nevada – none

Montgomery-Shoshone Mine & Mills – Near Rhyolite, Nevada

National Bank Mine

Original Bullfrog Extension

Original Mining Camp, Nevada– Near Rhyolite, Nevada – none

Original Bullfrog Mine

Phinney Mine

Pioneer Mining Camp, Nevada – Near Rhyolite, Nevada, there are some mining remains.

Pioneer Mine, Nevada – Numerous buildings and ruins.

Rhyolite, Nevada–  many remains

Senator Stewart Mine

Shoshone Polaris Mine

Strozzi Ranch, Nevada – 16 miles northwest of Rhyolite, Nevada – Old cabin, shacks, fencing, fruit trees.

Tramps Mine

© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2022

Source: Death Valley Historic Resource Study

Also See:

Death Valley Ghost Towns (includes index)

Nevada Death Valley Ghost Towns

Rhyolite, Nevada – Little More Than a Memory

Swindle at the Gold Bar Mine

Rhyolite and Bullfrog Photo Gallery