Nevada. The Battle Born State. August 9, 1904.
One hundred and twenty miles northwest of present day Las Vegas.
Euphoric cries of joy spring from legendary old time prospector Frank “Shorty” Harris’ lips!
“Ed, we’ve got the world by the tail, or else we’re coppered!” he hollers at his befuddled partner Ed Cross.
Moments before, the 5-foot-4 Shorty Harris was walking after his burros that had wandered off that morning in search of breakfast. Harris took his pick axe to a ledge of rock with a few copper stains on it… on a hunch… and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Gold! Not small flakes. Big chunks of yellow metal. To the prospectors, it seemed like the entire mountain was made out of gold.
The yellow material, mixed with the green hue of the rock reminded the men of the back of a bullfrog… and so the Bullfrog Mine was born. In fact, the Bullfrog mining district, the Bullfrog Hills, Bullfrog Mountain and the town of Bullfrog all took their name from the Bullfrog mine.
Bullfrog proved to be so popular that most of the other 200-plus mining companies included Bullfrog in their names.
I’m sure that wasn’t confusing at all.
It’s amazing how fast good news travels.
The two suddenly rich prospectors couldn’t help but brag about their find once they got back to the closest town, the appropriately named Goldfield, Nevada. One of the first men told was Harris and Cross’ friend and fellow miner Bob Montgomery.
Montgomery quickly got his gear together and along with prospector Shoshone Jonny, of the local Shoshone indigenous tribe, set out to stake their claim, which would turnout to be the largest and most successful mine in the area.
Less than two weeks later more than a thousand men were camped near Harris and Cross’ claim, with more coming in each day. Settlements rose from the ground overnight, the largest of which was Rhyolite, named after the igneous rock that can be found in the area.
It was, for a time, a gateway to Death Valley, as well as a fast track for vast riches.
By February of 1905, the Montgomery Shoshone Mine produced ore valued as high as $16,000… in present day dollars that’s over $400,000 per ton.
In June 1905, the town which started with just two men 10-months before, now boasted an official population of 2,500.
The desert town soon hosted 50 saloons, 35 gambling tables, 19 lodges, 16 restaurants, barbers, a public bath house, a weekly newspaper, daily stage coach service to Goldfield 60 miles away… and of course make-shift shacks for prostitution.
In February 1906 the Montgomery Shoshone Mine was sold to famed industrialist Charles M. Schwab for somewhere between $2-6M dollars in present day funds.
Schwab poured a ton of cash into his investment. He opened a huge mill to process the ore, hired scores of new workers, opened new tunnels, had water piped in, and ran in electricity from over 100 miles away.
He also made a deal to have a railroad spur line service the town, which began on Dec. 14, 1906… 16 months after gold was first discovered.
Boom town populations were hard to keep track of, with people always in and out of town overnight, but by 1907 Rhyolite held between 4 and 5-thousand people. Some estimated a peak population of 6-to-8-thousand residents in the area.
This was no sweltering hot, dusty, unruly place in the desert.
In 1907 Rhyolite had concrete sidewalks, electric lights and water mains, telephones and telegraphs, police and fire departments, a hospital, a two-story eight room school for up to 250 children, a train station and railway depot, three banks, a stock exchange, a public swimming pool, two churches and… believe it or not… an opera house.
Can you imagine? Men, dusty and dirty from a long days work, shuffling in to hear the latest Operatic offerings from Europe?
Families enjoying beans and bacon while drinking champagne.
The town even had a marvelous three story building which rose above the skyline. The John S. Cook and Co. Bank building had luxurious Italian Marble stairs, imported stained-glass windows. Opening in 1908, the building cost more than $90,000 to build, or just over $2.5M today.
Miner Tom Kelly built a bottle house in February 1906 from 50,000 discarded beer and liquor bottles. That house, as ridiculous as it sounds, still stands today.
It’s better to burn out than to fade away, Neil Young once noted. It seems, even before his time, Rhyolite took this advice to heart.
At 5:12am on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake levels San Francisco. 3,000 dead. Fires lasting for days. 80% of the town was destroyed.
This interrupted rail service and diverted money away from investments like Rhyolite and into the devastated city.
The following year the Panic of 1907 caused even further financial harm when investment money from back East slowed to a trickle.
But the final nails in the coffin were the mines themselves, which began to fail. After producing nearly $25M in today’s dollars in the first three years, the mines began to shut down one by one.
Unemployed miners packed up and moved away in scores. the 1910 census reported only 675 residents. By March 1910, all three banks were closed.
The last train left Rhyolite Station in July 1914 and the electricity and its lines were removed in 1916.
The 1920 census reported a population of 14. A 1922 motor tour by the Los Angeles Times found only one remaining resident, a 92-year-old man who died in 1924.
In the end Rhyolite burned out in less than 5 years. From Italian marble stairs and opera houses to stone ruins and dirt tracks.
The old prospector Shorty Harris must have spun a few good stories from this old ghost town and busted gateway. Having prospected from Leadville Colorado to Tombstone Arizona, all over Nevada and Death Valley, the rise and fall of Rhyolite must have been bittersweet for the old miner, as he often fondly called it the best strike he ever made.
Frank “Shorty” Harris says that he sold his share of the Bullfrog Mine for $25,000 while Ed Cross sold out for $125,000. But some report that he actually gambled away his claim for $1,000 and a mule. Harris was a known tall tale spinner, so we may never truly know.
He spent the rest of his life spinning mining tales and prospecting in the hills, dying in 1934 at the age of 77 in Big Pine, California.
Harris is buried in a simple grave next to his friend and fellow pioneering prospector Jim Dayton. Of the many people in attendance for Harris’ funeral was Bob Montgomery, who hadn’t been back to the valley in nearly 30 years.
The epitaph on Shorty’s grave reads: “Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector.”
I love ghost towns and old boomtowns because they often fit a lot of history into a short amount of time. They also make for great day trips and fun stories to share with friends.
I hope you have enjoyed this bit of history and invite you back to enjoy more episodes. I’m Jeremy Long, the Full Metal Traveler.
