Rhyolite
These pictures were taken in January 1998 in Rhyolite,
Nevada, near Death Valley National Park. Rhyolite was a gold
town founded in 1905 or so and from there grew at a fast
rate until it reached a peak in 1907 of about 3500
residents. Some estimates, however, have put the the peak
population as high as 6000 to 8000.
Rhyolite went bust soon thereafter for a variety of
reasons. By the time of the 1910 census, only 675 official
residents remained. By 1920, there were only 14 individuals
living in Rhyolite.
Walking through Rhyolite today is an exercise in
imagination, as very little of this once thriving town
remains. A few hollow shells of some stone and cement
buildings along with some hand-painted street signs stand as
the last vestiges of this ghost town.
|