Rhyolite, Nevada: What's Left of a Booming Mining Town

Quartz was found in this
area in 1904.

The quartz had gold in it.




Prospectors Shorty Harris and Ed Cross were the first to find gold here.  Over 2,000 claims were filed covering a thirty mile area.  Rhyolite was established in 1905 to provide space for housing and services for miners and their families.

Mercantile Building

Tom Kelly's Bottle House
built in 1906

The ruins of the Miners

Union Hall

The school was built
in 1907.

Rhyolite's population grew quickly.

HD & LD Porter Building

This store was built in 1906.

Las Vegas & Tonopah Depot
built in 1909

Cook Bank Building

built 1908.

In 1908 Rhyolite's population grew to 8,000.  The mines in the area began to fail.  People begin to leave Rhyolite in 1910.  The mines have failed.  The Post Office closed in 1919.  Rhyolite's population was estimated at 14 in 1920.