Rhyolite
View of the former John S. Cook & Co. Bank building in Rhyolite. In 1904, Frank ‘Shorty’ Harris and Eddie Cross struck a rich gold vein on the edge of Death Valley. In a whiskey-fuelled haze, one of them revealed the location of the find, and within a few weeks, the town of Rhyolite sprang up from a makeshift camp. After three years, over 10,000 people were living there. Solid concrete buildings such as the Cook Bank Building were erected.
When the ore deposits were exhausted a few years later, the exodus began. People packed up all their belongings and took their houses with them, as timber was scarce and expensive. By 1911, Rhyolite was largely deserted. Today, only the concrete skeletons of the bank and the schoolhouse remain in the desert landscape of Nevada.


























