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During the town's heyday, the
view from the grand Las Vegas-Tonopah Railroad Depot in Rhyolite,
Nevada, swept across a mining town of 10,000.
Costing $130,000 to build, the elegant mission style building
made a fitting partner for the opera house, the stock exchange,
and the numerous hotels that had blossomed since Rhyolite's 1904
gold strike. However, by the time the depot opened in 1908, the
town was already dying, as mining economics hit hard times. Overall Rhyolite is one of the West's most picturesque ghost towns,
backed by the distant Funeral Mountains in Death Valley. The site
makes for a rewarding walk: You'll see a jail, a schoolhouse, a
general store, the three-story Cook Bank (Nevada's most photographed
building). |
There is also the famous Bottle House, built in
1906 of beer, whiskey, soda, and medicine bottles because lumber was scarce
(caretakers give free tours in winter). The rest is wind, mine scarred
hills, sagebrush, and jackrabbits.
The depot has transfer to private ownership to the BLM, a move applauded
by the town's supporters, Friends of Rhyolite. They hope the depot will
be restored to serve as a visitor center. Rhyolite is about 120 miles
north of Las Vegas on U.S. 95.
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There are many reports of an eerie presence
of "something" lurking near the deserted bank building.
However the reports are vague and often differ depending on the
person telling the story.
There are also a few tales of the bottle
house being haunted but all of them seem to be unsubstantiated.
Left: The Cook building in 1908. |
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We began our investigation
at the Cook Bank Building around 7:30pm. We located several interesting
EM fields located near the back of the vault, but they seemed to
be originating from the ceiling of the vault itself. Hitman climbed
up a make shift ladder to check out the area above the vault. No
explanation could be found for the EM fields in the vault. The fields
averaged around 5 to 6 milligauss. However, we didn't capture anything
of a suspected paranormal origin on film.
After investigating the Cook building we
began to move around the many ruins of the town site, hoping to
pick up on any scary EM fields that might alert us to any possible
paranormal activity.
During the next two hours, we located several
suspect EM fields, most with a EM reading of 4 to 7 milligauss,
scattered along the main street. |
All of the activity present was captured during
daylight hours or close to dusk. The site itself was "closed"
after dark so one could imagine the possibility of what may be photographed
after dark. Our photographs yielded nothing of interest (in a paranormal
sense) although the EM fields were very interesting. There is a possibility
that the mineral rich soil may amplify the existing natural magnetic fields
that we registered on our meters.
Photographs
Click on thumbnail to view
the larger image
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