Rhyolite and Vegas

After we crossed into Nevada, we were just a few miles from the ghost town of Rhyolite. After gold was discovered by the nearby Bullfrog Mountain, the town quickly sprung up in 1905. But by 1916, it was all but dead.

But at its peak, Rhyolite boasted a population of about 7,000 people. And it also featured "concrete sidewalks, electric lights, water mains, telephone and telegraph lines, daily and weekly newspapers, a monthly magazine, police and fire departments, a hospital, school, train station and railway depot, at least three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a public swimming pool and two formal church buildings."



This was the former school building, which was built in 1909 and had room for 250 students. The school would close in 1911 after most families moved away after the gold mines began to decline.





Nearby was the ruins of the old Porter Brothers' Store, which was built in 1906. According to the sign in front of the building, "it was the go-to destination for Christmas shopping. This was due in part to its amazing displays that rivaled those of the department stores in major cities. In fact, the store was the largest employer of people in Rhyolite aside from the mines. Unfortunately, even the popular store was not immune to the downturn that would decimate Ryholite's businesses; it closed in 1910."



One of the most prominent buildings in Ryholite was the Cook Bank Building, which was built in 1908. The three-story building cost more that $90,000 to build (which would be about $2.9 million in today's dollars) and featured marble staircases and mahogany accents. But it was shortlived, the bank closed in 1910.



The best preserved building in Rhyolite is the train station, which was built in 1908 for the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad. But the station opened right at the time that the town began to decline, and within months of its completion the station saw more people leaving than it saw arriving.



The railroad ceased operations in 1919, but the station got new life in the 1930s when it was used as a casino and brothel for a few years. In the 1960s, it opened as a museum and gift shop. It was empty on our visit, surrounded by a tall fence that made it hard to take pictures.





We followed the dusty dirt road to more remnants of Rhyolite's past. Here is what is called the "Miner's Cabin," although no one is sure what it was once used for. It was built around 1906, and due to its proximity to the railroad tracks and the old red-light district, it could have been used as a brothel or as offices for the railroad.



Nearby were the ruins of the former jail, built in 1907. Shame that it's been marred by so much graffiti.



From here was a good view looking back at the old bank building, and the tall mountains that surround it.



And the old train station...



Next to Rhyolite is the Goldwell Open Air Museum, an outdoor sculpture park and artist's workspace. The most prominent sculpture here is The Last Supper, which features life-size replicas of the figures from da Vinci's Last Supper. It was created in 1984 by Albert Szukalski, who draped plaster-soaked burlap over live models in order to create the ghostly figures.



The same technique was used to create this piece, called Ghost Rider.



And another large sculpture there was Lady Desert The Venus of Nevada by Dr. Hugo Heyrman, made out of cinderblocks.



The sculpture collection was a good choice, I guess, to help us get acclimated back into the strange landscape of Las Vegas. We gassed up the car in the nearby town of Beatty and drove off.

The drive back to Las Vegas is strange. There are lost of empty stretches of desert (and as they said in Casino: "A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes"). Then you see some random army bases in the distance. Was it Area 51? Perhaps, the alien-themed gas stations certainly suggest it might be. We could never tell for certain, since Area 51 doesn't show up on Google Maps for some reason. But then all of a sudden you hit city, and Las Vegas looms ahead of you.

We checked into our hotel, which was in the old downtown section of the city by the Freemont Street Experience. And it is an experience. And after days of quiet solitude in Death Valley, it was a culture shock. It was loud, crowded and busy.







We walked around until we saw someone dancing on the street as a "naked Trump" waving a sign saying "Make America Sexy Again." That, and the fact that we had an early flight home the next day, meant that it was time to head back to the hotel for the night. There are some things that happen in Vegas that need to stay in Vegas.

Sphere And Loathing In Las Vegas

Last weekend I woke up before dawn and drove to the airport. It was early enough that there wasn't anyone else in line at the Southwest desk when I checked-in my luggage, and only about 10 people in line at security. I was there to catch one of the first flights out, which went to St. Louis. From there I got a connecting flight that dropped me into Sin City itself, Las Vegas.

I was there for a concert, which was a gift from my kind and thoughtful brother. So after landing in Vegas, I found my luggage and got a ride to the hotel to meet up with him and my Brother-In-Law. We had a few hours to spare before the concert started, so we walked along the Strip. Which was crazy, and crowded. Las Vegas was full of people that weekend. There were several concerts going on, along with a NFL game. There was also the 2023 National Finals Rodeo, which explained why I saw lots of people in fancy cowboy boots and hats at the airport.

We walked by the Paris Las Vegas casino and hotel, which has a half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.



From there we walked over to the Venetian Casino, which has recreations of various landmarks from Venice (like the Rialto Bridge, Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Campanile). This was the view from one of the exterior walkways, as late afternoon sunlight streamed through the columns.





After that we walked back to our hotel for a bit, as sunset hit the city and dusk settled in. This was the view from our hotel, which included the High Roller ferris wheel.



We went back out and got dinner before the concert, and went by the Venetian Hotel again.



And now it was finally time for the concert. The show was at the Sphere, the brand-new concert venue that cost over $2 billion and contains the world's largest LED screen. The interior of the Sphere is like one giant TV screen, and it really is amazing to see in person. U2 was chosen to be the first band to play in the Sphere, and they used their residency here to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their album Achtung Baby. I've been a fan of U2 ever since I saw them in concert in 1997 in Memphis, so I was excited for the show. It definitely lived up to the hype.



The videos on the 160,000-square-foot screen were mind-blowing, yet always worked well with the songs. It wasn't overpowering or over-stimulating, so it seemed like the designers who developed all of the visuals seemed to know what they were doing.





It was one of the best concerts I've ever attended. And it made it worth waking up at 4:00 AM and flying across the country. But the concert wasn't the only purpose for the trip. The next day would be a drive over to California for a visit to a nearby National Park. More on that soon...

Viva Las Vegas

My wife and I just returned from a much-needed little vacation out West. Many thanks to her parents who were kind enough to watch the kids while we flew out to Las Vegas, and then drove out to Utah for a few days. It was our first big trip since Covid, and it did feel a little strange to fly on a plane or even be around crowds of people again.

We landed in Las Vegas at night, and went to our hotel (the Golden Nugget, which isn't on the Strip but is in downtown Vegas). We went out to walk around and find dinner and it was honestly a bit of a culture shock. We haven't gone out all that much in the last few years (thanks to the combination of the pandemic and also a new baby), so it was jarring to be out in a crowd of people partying. But the hotel was right on the Fremont Street Experience, a five-block entertainment district with a massive light board that covers the buildings and street below.



Fremont Street is actually the oldest street in Las Vegas, dating back to the city's founding in 1905. It was the first street in the city to be paved and the first to get a traffic light. It was also the home to many of the Vegas' first big casinos. The neon signs for those casinos gave the street the nickname the "Glitter Gulch."



One of the most famous old neon signs along Fremont Street is "Vegas Vic," a 40-foot tall neon cowboy that would wave and greet visitors to the Pioneer Hotel and Casino. The hotel is closed, and has been replaced with a souvenir shop. But Vic still stands, even if not all of the neon was working.



The next morning we got up and drove out of Vegas, heading towards Zion National Park. It would be vastly different (and much quieter) way to spend the next few days.