NEVADA GHOST TOWNS

A Picture of Bust and Boom - Deflation Displayed

Picture of a 19th century city, 50 years in decline

Here is Virginia City. She peaked, arguably in the mid 1880s (rebuilt after a fire). Here is the main drag, C Street, circa 1935 - fity years later. Another great shot. All wood. Love that Wells Fargo sign. Would really like to know where the sign is now, would likely sell for 10-20k alone.

This picture shows deflationary effect after two generations. Those buildings (a couple are directly over mineshafts) traded for incredible sums of money in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1935 you could've had any of them for a song and dance.

There is still amazing amounts of silver in those shafts. When silver sustains a price above $50/oz the buildings will be worth $$$ once again. The Ag cannot be economically retrieved due to the water table (and the heat, believe it or not). Will take 50$ or so - maybe much more - to make it happen again...

Conversely, Rhyolite Nv did not age well

Here's the town a scant 25 years after giving up the ghost - just a shell. Brick walls barely standing (only portions of four of these walls remain today - per memory circa 2005).

Folks poured incredible sums of money; building Rhyolite in 1903-1906. One of the last great gold camps in the western US. Barrick actually built a couple more buildings on (steel and tin) on the other side of town on the old Lac Minerals ground - Bullfrog. ABX pulled up stakes in 2003 do believe. The Bullfrog pumped gold for a solid century, off and on. Will the miners return?

Rhyolite lacked the same gravitas that Virginia City retained...

Rhyolite in Full Bloom of Boom

Here’s the same view (see ghost town view below from same vantage point) of Rhyolite in her full glory and splendor, 1906 – Miner’s Union March through town. Just a couple months later the Governor of Nevada (Sparks), egged on by mining monopoly magnate Wingfield, would call in federal troops to break up this same union march in Goldfield, 60 miles or so north. That bust-up essentially broke the mining union’s back. And completely unnecessary, the ore was already playing out in Goldfield, Tonopah and Rhyolite – the Nevada silver and gold boom was at the end of a rope dangling over a precipice. The panic of 07 would decimate many towns and the state.