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Mon, Apr 15: Drive to Rachel

Drove to Rachel via 93, stopping at a wetlands:

and then the Extra Terrestrial Highway.  Lonely roads.

Stopped for lunch in Rachel – the restaurant had lots of tempting Extraterrestrial souvenirs and related pictures and posters.  It was an interesting stop.

Paul bought a sweatshirt here because Tonopah was going to be in the thirties and forties, and we were not prepared, since Nevada is a desert, right?  But some of Nevada is high desert at 6,000 feet or higher, so it gets cold.  And we timed it perfectly, as we were in Tonopah Tuesday and Wednesday, the two coldest days for at least two weeks before or after.

Mon Apr 15: Drive to Tonopah

Drove to Tonopah:

Checked into the Mizpah hotel, built in 1905.  Very nice, very good food, but they had our reservation only for one night, even though over the phone we were assured that we had three nights in the room.  They could not send us a confirmation, something wrong with the reservation system, but now we know why – they were trying to double book the room.  Apparently there was a big gathering in town for the solar facility, and all rooms in the town were booked for Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  We made reservations in Goldfield for the last two nights, about 30 minutes away.  Goldfield had one restaurant, open for breakfast and lunch.  Tonopah and Manhattan were the only other towns around with restaurants, although as we found out later, not Manhattan.

Tonopah:

From Tonopah:

Tue, Apr 16: Belmont

Drove to the ghost town of Belmont.  It has 9 residents. 

They do have some tourist shops, but none were open.  This area’s tourist season is June, July, and August.

We walked around in the freezing temperature – there was a light snow the entire time we were there.  It is over 7,000 feet elevation.

A gentleman who lived next to where we parked was working outside, and we struck up a conversation.  This led to a tour of the old courthouse along with a history of the town.  The courthouse was built in 1876.  It was very interesting.  Charles Manson and his followers stayed in the abandoned courthouse for a while (his name is carved into a doorway).  Since the courthouse was abandoned and unlocked for a decade or two, lots of people stayed there, the furnishings were taken and general damage done.  The town residents are trying to restore the courthouse, and have gotten back some of the furnishings. 

The church in Belmont is a replica of the original church that was built in 1847 and moved to Manhattan in 1906.

The remains of a smoke stack are just out of town, in West Belmont.  As the story was told, the lady who lived nearby was the aunt of the head of the armed services committee in Congress.  One day during WW II, Chuck Yeager, who was training at Tonopah with a fighter group, decided to target practice on the abandoned smoke stack.  The aunt raised hell with her nephew, and it all came down to Chuck, who was told never to do that again.  Supposedly you can still see the damage from the bullets.

From West Belmont:

We stopped at the cemetery on the way out of town: