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: