DEATH VALLEY GHOST TOWNS: RHYOLITE AND GREENWATER

In this clip from "The Last Great American Gold Rush" you'll hear about the now Ghost Towns of Rhyolite and Greenwater. They are truly two of Death Valley's most fascinating ghost towns. Rhyolite was a result of the last great gold rush on the American Frontier and was one of the last of the gold rush towns to be built. It was the result of the Bullfrog Gold discovery of 1904 by prospectors Shorty Harris and Ed Cross. But Rhyolite grew because of Bob Montgomery and his Montgomery Shoshone mine. When Eastern investors from places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became involved the boom grew way out of proportion to the riches in the ground. From 1905-1910 Rhyolite was the queen city of the western frontier. It truly was to be the Chicago of the West. It was a wild west town with shootings, brothels and stagecoaches. The Las Vegas and Tonopah railroad came to the newly built depot and other trains like the Tonopah & Tidewater and Bullfrog Goldfield also found their way to Rhyolite. Just north of Death Valley and on the Nevada and California border the town of Rhyolite was founded largely by the Busch Brothers. Now if the gold in Rhyolite vanished too quickly the town of Greenwater truly holds the record for the shortest lifespan of a mining town that made the most money. When a little bit of copper was found promoter George Graham Rice managed to con thousands of investors out of millions of dollars. It was the largest stock mining swindle in history. Greenwater, California lasted only 6 months, sold 30 million dollars worth of stock and had only 5 thousand dollars worth of copper in the ground. So much for the American Dream, now American Ghost Towns!

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Gold Creek Films
Written, Produced and Directed by Ted Faye
US Borax