The Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California

On our way to our camping spot near of Death Valley National Park, we drove through Death Valley Junction and past the Amargosa Opera House.

I thought it was interesting that
an Opera House is located
in such a desolate place

The Pacific Borax Company

built the former Corkill Hall

as a community center in 1927.

Corkill Hall was available for dances, movies, church services, funerals and town meetings.   After the Pacific Borax Company moved its railroad tracks, the town survived on tourism until the Depression.  The population of the town dropped so low that the Post Office 

closed in 1940.

Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at the Amargosa Opera House.  The Amargosa Hotel has a history of violence that some visitors have picked up on while staying as guests.

The Amargosa Hotel Clerk gives tours for a $5.00 donation per person to the not for profit that works to preserve the Opera House and Hotel.

In 1967, Marta Becket, ballerina
& artist, & her husband stopped
at Death Valley Junction to have
a flat tire fixed..





Marta wandered around Death Valley Junction and discovered Corkill Hall.  She had wanted to design her own costumes, choreograph dance and write shows.   With complete artistic control, Marta would transform this small space in this desolate, forgotten town into the center of artistic activity in this area.  She and her husband rented Corkill Hall for $45.00 per month, renamed it the Amargosa Opera House and got to work.

Marta's debut was on\

 February 10, 1968.

Twelve people were in

the audience.

Sometimes no one came to
Marta's performances.

Undeterred, Marta painted an
audience for her performances,
completing the artwork in 1972.

The blank faced conquistador

 originally had a face.

A frequent attendee promised Marta support for the Opera House.  She included him, as a conquistador, in her audience.  The man brought friends with him to performances and proudly showed off his painting on the wall.  After several years of leading Marta on, he confessed that he couldn't honor his promise.  The man later returned to the Opera House, with friends, for a performance and pointed to the conquistador on the wall, stating that he was included in Marta's artwork.  His guests laughed.  Marta had blanked out the conquistador's face.

Kings, queens, Native Americans,
gypsies and more grace the walls.








The 1930s era theater seats were donated.  Originally, the audience sat on folding chairs.

The audience in this corner

is absorbed in conversation.

The royal box is located
over the doors to the
Opera House.






More and more people attended Marta's performances.  She bought Death Valley Junction and created a not for profit organization to preserve the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.  Death Valley Junction was added to the National Registry of Historic Places as a historic district in 1980.

A cat rests on a pillow

in the corner.

Marta and her husband divorced in 1983.  In 2000, the documentary, Amargosa, detailed Marta's life, art and devotion to the Opera House.  Five to ten thousand tourists come to Death Valley Junction each year to see the Opera House and to attend performances.

Marta stopped dancing, on toe, in her early eighties.  Approaching ninety, Marta occasionally does a "sit down performance."  She sits on stage, describes her vision for art at the Opera House, tells stories behind the paintings on the walls.

Ghost Adventures filmed an episode at the Amargosa Opera House.