The boom and bust town of Rhyolite, Nevada

 

Rhyolite leaped to life as a mining camp in 1905 after prospecting discovered gold. By 1908, the town had nearly 5,000 residents. After the richest ore was mined, the town quickly began to decline and was non-existent by 1920. The first photo is the old Porter Brother's Mercantile Store building. The second photo is the Cook Bank Building, one of the most photographed ruins in Nevada. The third photo is the Tom Kelly Bottle House, one of the few remaining examples of bottle house architecture in the U.S. When wood was scare, miners sometimes built houses with glass bottles. In this example, over 50,000 bottles were used in this house built in 1906.