April 20 & 22, 2023
Blog Post 6 ended with sunsets from our campsite in the Bureau of Land Management Pahrump Valley campground. Pahrump Valley is a desert environment, although it is situated at a higher elevation. Pahrump Valley is outside of the city of Pahrump Nevada, right across the California border.
Blog post 7 begins with sunrises in Pahrump Valley.
6:43 a.m.
Why would anyone want to venture into a place with a name as foreboding as Death Valley?
One reason – mining. Not only mining for gold and silver, in Death Valley, they were looking for Colemanite and Uluxite, otherwise known as borax.
During our time spent in Death Valley National Park (DVNP), we explored mining sites as indicated in the areas near the green dots on the map.
Harmony Borax Works
A few non-working borax mine sites are in DVNP. According to the storyboard at the site of Harmony Borax Works in DVNP, borax was originally found in a recrystallized form on the salt flats (refer to Blog post 6), However, mining borax was more profitable.
This product helps get my house and clothes clean. I discovered its uses after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005. Experts recommended residents use borax instead of bleach to remove mold growing in homes and businesses. Thankfully, our home was spared.
However, I became interested in borax. During a trip to the grocery store, I read the label, and discovered all its’ uses.
In 1882 W.T. Colman built the Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley, which was in operation until 1889. He commissioned the superintendent, J.W.T. Perry to design wagons and find the route to transport the borax to the railroad. Chinese workmen gathered the ore, and the Twenty Mule Team transported the borax for 165 miles.
The Chinese workmen lived in tents on the site of the mine. Other workers lived at the Furnace Creek Ranch.
Twenty Mule Team Wagons hauled borax out of Death Valley. The mule teams pulled loads up to 36 tons of borax and 1200 gallons of water.
This quote is on one of the storyboards at Harmony Borax Works in DVNP:
“For more than a century, the Twenty Mule Team has been the symbol of the borax industry – on product labels, in history books, and on television. The status is well-earned; mule teams helped solve the most difficult task that faced Death Valley borax operators-getting the product to market.”
According to the storyboard, the train, including the mules, was 100 feet long. Twice as long as our camper and van combined.
More Mining Sites
On April 22, 2023, we took the whole day to explore two areas on opposite ends of DVNP, the Charcoal Kilns and Rhyolite, Nevada.
What was the purpose of the Charcoal Kilns?
George Hearst, father of newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, owned the Modock Consolidated Mining Company. The operations used smelters to extract silver and lead. The kilns produced charcoal for the smelter. Workers put pinon pine wood into the kilns, burning the wood into charcoal. The process took six to eight days, and five days to cool. Then workers loaded the charcoal into wagons and drove twenty miles to the mining company.
Pinon pines grow 5,000 – 7,000 feet in the dry and rocky soil. The seeds are an important food for wildlife and a traditional food for Native Americans.
The operations lasted only three years, and the location is remote, this is why these kilns are the best-preserved in the west.
You can still smell the creosote in the walls.
Rhyolite Historical District – We wanted to see the sights of a well-preserved ghost-town, Rhyolite, Nevada.
We drove out of DVNP, back over the border to Rhyolite, Nevada, a true goldrush boom town.
Rhyolite’s short history:
1904 – Ed Cross and Frank Harris discovered gold ore and the gold rush began in the Bullfrog District.
1905 – Rhyolite became the largest city in southern Nevada with a population between 5,000 to 8,000.
1907 – The economy began to collapse.
1910 – The Charles Schwab Montgomery Shoshone Mine closed.
1916 – Only 14 residents remained in Rhyolite.
Golden Street in Rhyolite, Nevada
This is all that is left of the Miners Union Hall in Rhyolite. The original building burned down in 1909 and was rebuilt with a stone foundation. When the mine closed, the citizens deconstructed and rebuilt the building as the town hall in the town of Beatty, four miles away. Beatty, NV is still an active town.
This is what is left of the second schoolhouse. The first schoolhouse was built in February 1906 and housed 26 students. Later that month the student population increased to 46. By October there were 74 students. One year later, the number increased to 225 more children. It is said that the teacher had a nervous breakdown due to so many children packed into the small schoolhouse.
This new schoolhouse was built three blocks away and completed in 1909. According to the story board in front of the remains, the building was said to be fireproof and could be evacuated in two minutes. Unfortunately, it closed in 1911 due to families leaving as a consequence of the mine closure.
In 1905, John Cook and his brother opened the Rhyolite branch of the John Cook and Company Bank, which was one of four banks in the city. Notably, this was the finest building having a marble staircase, mahogany accents, and modern conveniences. It is one of the most photographed buildings in Nevada. Unfortunately, the bank was closed less than two years later due to the financial crisis of 1907. Since the bank closed, the building has appeared in many movies.
Only a few stones remain of what was the Overbury building, the first general purpose building in Rhyolite. Some businesses housed in the Overbury building were a stockbroker firm, attorneys office, a bank, and a dentist.
It was the largest stone building and had modern amenities such as a fire suppression system and private bathrooms. Originally, it was supposed to have two stories. However, when John Overbury found out that John Cook was building a three storied bank building, John Overbury could not be outdone and added another story to his building. By 1910, the Overbury building was abandoned.
In 1905, brothers Hiram and Lyman Porter bought property on Main Street and sold goods out of a canvas tent. In 1906, they bought another piece of property on Golden Street and began construction of their department store. It was the Christmas shopping destination for the people of Rhyolite and was the largest employer besides the mine. Again, economic downturn took its’ toll and did not spare the popular store. It closed in 1910. For the next nine years, Hiram continued to live in Rhyolite as the town’s postmaster until the post office closed.
Miners lived in homes similar to this one. Because there was not much wood in the area, the houses used lumber as a boxed frame that supported the walls of stone and ‘rammed earth’ – adobe.
Life in Rhyolite was mostly peaceful, and the town didn’t have much need to jail individuals. Even so, the citizens felt the need to have a jail since it was expensive to transport prisoners to the next town that had a jail. The Rhyolite jail was built in 1907.
Only three walls are standing, but bars remain on the windows. Still, not it’s not enough to hold in a prisoner, now.
Red-Light District
Of course, every gold rush town had a red-light district. The women who worked in Rhyolite’s Red-Light District were barred from living or doing any business in other parts of the town besides this district. According to the storyboard in this part of the town, some of the other Rhyolite residents considered these women as charitable and kind, but victims of ‘easy money and bad fortune’.
The most famous was Mona Bell. She was a kind woman. Her second husband led her astray and killed her. Due to her profession, Mona’s grave is in her family’s cemetery plot in Nebraska instead of Rhyolite. Nevertheless, years later, Mrs. Herschel Heisler erected a false grave to remember Mona Bell’s contribution to Rhyolite’s history.
Train Depot
Three railroad companies serviced Rhyolite. By the time the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad completed the Rhyolite Train Depot in June 1908, the city was declining, and residents were leaving. The railroad lost money every year after that and dismantled the tracks in 1919.
Despite dismantling the tracks, the railroad company left the depot standing. Tourism in the 1920’s popularized it again for a short time. In 1935, Wes Moreland purchased the depot and turned it into a casino. World War II shortened the casino’s operations, and it closed. Then in the 1960’s, Mrs. Heisler inherited the depot from Moreland, her brother. She ran a gift shop and museum in it for a few years. Currently, a group of interested citizens from the nearby area is working on funds to restore the depot.
Tom Kelly’s Bottle House
On the outskirts of Rhyolite is Tom Kelly’s Bottle House, which is one of the last remaining examples of a bottle house.
Tom Kelly built the house in 1906 but didn’t live in it. He auctioned it off and the Bennet family won the bid and lived in it until 1914.
Glass bottles were a good choice.
Builders combined the bottles with adobe mortar.
Glass is an effective insulator being cool in the summer, holds heat in the winter, and lets in light.
Goldwell Museum
Across the street from the Bottle House, we saw sculptures and an art museum that was open. Volunteers run the Goldwell Museum, and it is free to walk around the grounds and inside the building. The building has gifts and art for sale.
Speaking with the man running the museum, he explained that an Australian artist, A. Szukalski, was inspired to sculpt the Last Supper of Jesus in the desert. Rhyolite is where he ended up in 1984.
He added other sculptures on the grounds.
Other artists added their sculptures and artwork to the museum.
Leaving for the day
As we were leaving this last sightseeing part of our journey, another wildlife friend bid us ‘goodbye’ and ‘come back soon’.
More scenes in Pahrump Valley and on the Way to DVNP
Even though driving back and forth to DVNP from our campsite in Pahrump Valley took over an hour both ways, it was a beautiful drive. Partway, Death Valley Junction features the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.
Originally, the Pacific Coast Borax Company built the Corkill Hall in 1924. It was the social center for Death Valley Junction until 1948 when the town started to decline and was abandoned.
In 1967, Marta Becket discovered the Corkill Hall, and transformed it into the Amargosa Opera House.
Visitors can still stay at the hotel. Tours of the opera house are available twice a day at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. We weren’t there during those times, so we didn’t tour. Another time, I would like to stay in the hotel and tour the opera house. (Hope the hotel is haunted!)
Blooming desert
Flowers do bloom in the desert. 2023 was exceptional due to the high rainfall creating a ‘super-bloom’ year. We stopped along the roadside to photograph meadows of wildflowers.
And there were beautiful flowers in our Pahrump Valley campground.
The Joshua tree bloomed.
And do did the Yucca….
Oh, by the way….
Let us introduce our neighbors in the Pahrump Valley campsite:
Goodbye Death Valley. We hope to visit you again someday. Maybe during a different season, but not the summer!