Tag Archives: town

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite Ghost Casino

February 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The “Rhyollite Ghost Casino” was originally the railroad station in what is now the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada.

This building in the ghost town of Rhyolite was originally a (very expensive) railway station that was abandoned when the town itself was abandoned after the nearby mines ran out of profitable ore in the early 1900s. According to several sources I have read, the building was then turned into a bar and casino, and many years later was for a time a curio shop and museum. Today it is boarded up and behind cyclone fences – more off-limits than almost any other structure in the ghost town.

I would live to get beyond the fencing and photograph this building more closely. It looks, in some ways, surprisingly modern for something that was constructing in the middle of nowhere about a century ago, and there are a number of interesting elements in the architecture. (I have photographed some of them, and eventually I’ll perhaps post a few.) The green sign on the front of the building appears to be a repurposed sign from the railroad station days. Underneath the fading “Rhyolite Ghost Casino” lettering, barely readable in this photograph, is and older sign declaring in larger print, “Rhyolite.” A walk around the structure reveals other interesting details, including one area that looks like it might have been a booth for a fortune-teller.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite Ghost Town, Amargosa Valley and Mountains

February 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

While there can be some moments of beautiful and colorful sunrise light at the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada – and I was there for it – this early morning light from a short time later probably gives a more true sense of what the place tends to look like during the winter months. (Even here, the high, thin clouds soften the scene a bit – it is often quite cloudless.)

From what I understand, Rhyolite sprang up in the very early 1900s after gold was discovered nearby. During the short life of the town, measured in no more than decades, it was reportedly the second largest city in southern Nevada. It featured banks (two of which are seen in this photograph), a railroad station (abandoned but still present and located behind my camera position), newspapers, an impressive school house, and thousands of residents. It was all largely abandoned in the first half of the 1900s and most of the buildings are gone, though traces of them and the old roads they lined can still be found here and there. A few large buildings in the center of the town still more or less stand, in varying states of decay. The building on the right was the Cook Bank. Another bank was located where the white walls are a bit further in the distance. The town school house is the furthest building. The whole town overlooked the Amargosa Valley, where the current boundary of Death Valley National Park lies. Beyond that, an inside the park, are the Amargosa Range and in the far distance the ridge of the Panamint Range and the summit of 11,000+’ Telescope Peak.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Cook Bank Ruins, Rhyolite

January 21, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The ruins of the Cook Bank in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada, with barren desert hills under a pre-sunrise sky.

This was the closest to the winter solstice that I’ve visited Rhyolite, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by several things. First, the sun came up not only later, but also a bit further south along the horizon – and the light that would usually strike these ruins at sunrise was blocked for a while by a large hill that sits next to the town. Second, it was cold! Third, no one else was there at sunrise! This is a bit unusual since in the Death Valley high season (which arrives a bit later in the year), Rhyolite can be a pretty popular place… for a ghost town… in the middle of the desert… in Nevada. :-)

Because I have photographed here several times before and for the reasons mentioned above, I took a bit of a different approach to photographing the place this time. The winter light, some high clouds, and the different point along the horizon of the sun rise meant that the light was quite different from what I’ve occasionally had to work with in the past. At first I was a bit disappointed to realize that the direct dawn light was not going to strike the old Cook Bank and other nearby buildings. But when some clouds to the east obscured the direct light and high, thin overhead clouds begin to pick up color and fill in the shadows, I saw that other interesting lighting was going to make up for it. At the moment that I made this photograph, those clouds to the east (right) of my position beautifully softened what might otherwise have been some stark and harsh light on the pinnacles beyond the town. They also created an unusual and beautiful quality of light for a few moments – a reddish-pink quality from the light reflected from the clouds but with a few soft quality.

I decided to shoot from a distance with a long lens so as to control the position of the ruins against the background hills, and the longer focal length makes these hills more prominent than they would be if I shot the building with a shorter focal length from a closer position. This also allowed me to more carefully eliminate some distracting elements that invariably appear at old sites like this. (The first times I visited, access to most of the ruins was quite unimpeded. Now fences have been erected around some of them. Part of me regrets the loss of access, but the greater part of me understands that this will allow these buildings to be around longer so that more people will get to see them. I stayed behind the fences.) If you look around on the web a bit, you can find some wonderful old photographs of this town when it was a bustling place with thousands of residents, and when the Cook Bank was a very impressive and modern-for-the-time building.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Pre-Dawn Sky, Amargosa Range

January 14, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sky above the Amargosa Range in pre-dawn light, Death Valley National Park.

I usually cannot resist the opportunity to photograph the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada when I’m in Death Valley. I especially like shooting there in the morning. I usually arrive before dawn since the pre-dawn light can create some wonderful effects on the ruins of the town’s buildings, especially if a few thin clouds and the right atmospheric conditions create some interesting light colors. So on this year’s early January trip I devoted one early morning to this subject.

As per my plan, I arrived at Rhyolite a few minutes before the good light started – it was very cold and no one else was there. In fact, I had the place to myself for the first half hour or so of my photography. I never know exactly what to expect when it comes to the dawn light. If things work out just right, and especially a bit later in the year, thin pre-dawn clouds will light up and color the light on the old town. That didn’t happen on this morning. First, I discovered that in the heart of winter, when the sun comes up a bit further south, a mountain right next to the town blocks the first light and it doesn’t strike the best ruins (such as the school and Cook Bank) until a bit later. In addition, on this morning clouds above the horizon blocked the light just a bit more than I would have liked. However… to the west and over the Amargosa Range things were rapidly becoming a lot more investing. This range was open to the light from the pre-dawn sky in the east, and high thin clouds began to pick up that colorful light that I had hoped might appear over the town. I put a long lens on the camera, moved to a position where I could get a fairly unobstructed view to the west, and made a series of exposures of this simple composition that allowed me to include a large section of the colorful sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: town

Rhyolite Ghost Casino

Rhyolite Ghost Town, Amargosa Valley and Mountains

Pre-Dawn Sky, Amargosa Range

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.