Rhyolite | Nevada Ghost Town

Posted: 10.30.2024 | Updated: 11.13.2024

The Nevada desert is dotted with relics of a time long past. Dilapidated buildings and rusted antiquities speak to the legends of once-booming mining towns. Rhyolite, Nevada, once stood as a prolific establishment. The town was home to the families of some 1,000 prospectors looking to strike it rich in the gold deposits hidden within the nearby Bullfrog Hills. Before long, 1,000 turned to 8,000, and buildings popped up to accommodate the rapidly growing settlement.

The development, growth, and downfall of Rhyolite happened so suddenly. The kinetic energy of such intense growth was left to linger, feeding the ghosts of Rhyolite’s past. Remnants of the former gold rush town remain in various stages of decay today. Their shells serve as a reminder of what used to be, like ghosts left to wander the vast expanse of nothingness surrounding them.

Are the hollowed-out skeletons of Rhyolite’s former businesses the only mirages in the old mining town? Or is there something darker trapped in the emptiness of Nevada, longing for the company of others? Find out on a haunted walking ghost tour of Las Vegas with Vegas Ghosts!

Is Rhyolite Haunted?

There’s a heavy air that falls over the main roadway leading into Rhyolite. It once guided residents and passersby to the town’s bounty of restaurants, general stores, and other notable buildings. Listen closely, and you may catch a specter tied by greed or ambition to the prospect of still finding gold.

Rhyolite’s haunted history is bound to what walls remain, from the unique bottle house to the ruins of prosperous businesses. When ghost hunting in Vegas, Rhyolite is often a sought-after spot. To learn more about the haunted history of Las Vegas, book a ghost tour with Vegas Ghosts.

There’s Gold in the Bullfrog Hills

In 1916, Rhyolite saw the last of its population fade away into the distance. The town was left with nothing but memories of its short-lived heyday. Only eight years earlier did Shorty Harris and his accomplice Ed Cross stumble upon a peculiar green and yellow landscape in the middle of the Nevada desert, surrounded by nothing but sand and distant mountain ranges. The duo spurred the name “Bullfrog Hills,” feeling the color combination resembled that of a bullfrog.

At the time, they were prospecting nearby when they discovered quartz veins. Embedded in the veins were gold deposits, which were assumed to be abundant throughout the immediate area. As word got out of Harris and Cross’s find, prospectors who were trying their luck in California and throughout Nevada turned their attention to Bullfrog Hills. 

The Rise and Fall of Rhyolite

In no time, Rhyolite was a busy town with a red-light district, loads of shops, the three-story John Cook Bank Building, and a selection of restaurants, all powered by electricity. Two power plants ran electricity throughout the town. Specifically, the union hospital and machine shop kept workers healthy and efficient. For a mining town, the growth and resources available in Rhyolite were unparalleled, which made its sudden downfall so unexpected.

The continued success of the mining town hinged directly on the yields of the nearby gold deposits. Until a valuation completely changed the course of Rhyolite’s history. Around 1909, gold fever stalled in Bullfrog Hills when an assessment found that the mine was overvalued. By that time, Charles M. Schwab had purchased the mine, implemented improvements to the tunnels, and increased the number of workers keeping it operational. When the new valuation came through, though, even the resource-heavy Schwab found it difficult to stabilize production. 

Before long, workers abandoned Bullfrog Hills, leaving businesses to fold and follow prospectors to their next destination. Just as quickly as it had been built up, Rhyolite was a shadow of its former self. By 1916, the town had gone dark, its electricity cut off. Though any keen observer would say the mining town had been completely abandoned, there was at least one person unable to leave.  

The Ghosts of Rhyolite

Though gold was the primary mineral that drove miners to Bullfrog Hills, naturally-forming rhyolite was prominent in the region. The abundance of rhyolite, a conductive and absorbent rock, may have played a unique and unexpected role in preserving a very specific part of the energetic town. 

A sudden population boom led to more construction and explosive development. It seems the rhyolite was absorbing memories, storing them to be replayed as residuals throughout the years. Among those memories is that of Mona Belle, a forlorn apparition of Rhyolite’s past whose ardent love affair left her lifeless and her body drained of her life force.

Though Mona’s presence has been felt around Rhyolite, the cause of her death is more of a legend than a known reality. It’s believed she and her beau enjoyed a wilder kind of life. Mona took to prostitution in Rhyolite while her lover, Fred Skinner. Skinner, whom she left her husband for, got into gambling. Two conflicting ways of life: one brought in money while the other shuffled it out with each hand of cards. 

One night, the two butt heads over their finances. It was a passionate fight, the kind that tests the limits of one’s relationship. For Mona and Fred, it was their last interaction, as Fred drew a gun and fired, severing Miss Belle from her physical form. It’s said that recordings taken in Rhyolite have captured the chilling voice of Mona giving Fred one last message.

Her voice joins the many whispers caught in the desert winds that breeze through the old mining town. Residuals of those who helped build Rhyolite up only to watch it fall apart so soon after replay the town’s better years.

Haunted Las Vegas

 Some aspects of Rhyolite still appear to service former residents who may have returned after their passing. From the famous refurbished bottle house, made entirely of beer bottles, to the old railroad depot, it’s a ghost town in every sense. It is the remains of a former bustling settlement and home to a number of spirits feeding off the energy amassed by the abundant rhyolite.

To learn more about the most notable haunted hot spots in Las Vegas, book a ghost tour with Vegas Ghosts. You’ll also get an up-close look at the most haunted locations around Las Vegas by keeping up with our blog. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to dig even deeper into the spectral entities roaming Nevada.