Tonopah Nevada, one more time

Here are a few photos from my weekend in Tonopah.


Proud home of the Tonopah Muckers


World weary lama
downtown Saturday afternoon "petting zoo"



Main Street, downtown Tonopah

"The Last Picture Show"
Th film was supposed to be about a desperate little town
in Texas but many of the scenes were filmed in Tonopah,
including the street scene used on the official poster for the film,
hanging in Tonopah's Convention Center.



One block off of Main

Thrift shop



Outhouse



Miner's house
located just north of the outhouse, also one block of Main St.


View of Mizpah Hotel on Main St.
as seen from cabin next door.



Polaroid of a guy drinking a beer
found in this shack. Yes, I left the photo there.
It's waiting for you.



Back side of heaven



Wild hot springs a few miles from town.
The water was too hot in the middle of the day
to do anything but soak our feet.


Local newspaper clippings 1907 - 1911
Tonopah museum

An incredibly different style of journalism.

1909


1911


1907



Old Tonopah graveyard

revisited again


Baby William's doll
Something moved the doll since my last visit in the spring



Unknown baby
the wind has rubbed the name away

tonopah nevada the last picture show graveyard miner's cabin old west

Tonopah, Queen of the Silver Camps

I just got back from a weekend conference in Tonopah (central Nevada). As usual, I spent most of my lunchbreak and late Saturday night photographing the place. In her day Tonopah was known as the Queen of the Silver Camps and it was here that the final chapter in the settlement of the American West was written. During the bonanza days, Tonopah had a population of 10,000 and sprawled over the hills. Now most of the place has fallen into the dust. Today Tonopah is a tribute to high hopes, hard times, bad winters and not so quiet desperation. Even the old, boarded up church on the hill had its time of reckoning and the moon herself lays low when she's in town as though even she dreads the undertow.




















In Tonopah, nothing and no one is taken for granted. In a place as lonely as this, the ghosts are not only tolerated, they are a welcome part of the town's citizenry.

There's a Bird Garden Buffet in Tonopahbut for some crazy reason it's not open to pigeons! Plonk would definitely not like Tonopah but it's is my kind of place, a wreck and a relic. Tonopah has good coffee, generally friendly neighbors and history. What more can one ask for?

Tonopah, Sunday morning

Tonopah, main street.

I'm back from Tonopah and am off again tomorrow to Seattle for a week. Here are a few images from the trip. I'm acquiring quite a collection, for what's it worth. I did get inside an abandoned house this time, one rumored to have once been a brothel with a tunnel under the town connecting it to the Mizpah Hotel. I have no idea if the story is true but after I heard it, I had to explore the place, a boarded up old mansion directly up the hill from the Mizpah. I'll post it and more photos when I have the time. Once again, adieu.

Lifetime in Tonopah

The watchers

Tonopah after dark.

Here's a link to the video walk-through of the abandoned brothel. It's too dark in some places but if you want a peek inside the mansion have at it.

Abandoned Tonopah brothel.

Tonopah Public Library

Tonopah is half ghost town located along highway 395 in Nevada, but as long as it has a gas station it will never die. I happen to really like Tonopah and am here for the weekend at a conference. Lucky me. It's got a fantastic museum, a wonderful old graveyard and creepy, decrepit buildings such as the abandoned Mizpah Hotel which is perpetually for sale; plus plenty of boarded-up miner shacks, not much bigger than the cots they once sheltered, to make even the dirt alleys ripe or rotten (according to your perspective) with history. Tonopah has had several boom and bust cycles but is just too mean to die. The surrounding playa is dotted with sun-bleached pyramid shaped piles of tailings left by crazed miners ransacking the desert for gold. It sprawls between several wind carved peaks but even they have been shaved down to nubs and there's a defunct mine pit right in the center of town. But I digress.

I just checked my website and found that none of the photos are loading! Fuck! It may be that the library's computers are too slow or their settings are super restricted, something along those lines, but other sites load just fine. If you have a second, I'd really appreciate it if you'd check a couple of links for me and let me know if you see the images. If you go to the Nevada Journal (and can see anything) check out the photo of Bill Bailey, Sheik of the Desert. I took that in the Tonopah Museum. From the looks of things, Bill Bailey was high up in the social hierarchy here perhaps only a tier or two down from Madame Taxscine, Tonopah's favorite Madame fondly referred to as the Little Desert Mother. She's in the Nevada Journal too. Here's those links: Ashabot - Nevada Journal
It's undoubtedly my fault but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I check my site from other computers whenever I get the chance and usually things are okay. But this is bad. I don't know crap about building a website. I just bang around in FrontPage and hope I get things right. If anyone has any tips, I'd really appreciate hearing from you. You can leave a comment here or email me directly at ... ashaATashabotDOTcom ... I'll pick it up when I can. I'd prefer hearing from you in email so I have a better chance of picking your brain, but then maybe you don't want your brain picked.

In happier news from the road, John called this morning just minutes before we left. He got home about 10 last night!!! I was ecstatic. I wish they'd all come home. NOW.

HIPPIES

Tonopah in the spring.


Here are a few more photos from my stay in Tonopah last weekend. I have to do this on the fly so will post more later, for the record. I realize that you are all wondering what's new in Tonopah, the town that is rotting in the sun, blowing away in the wind. I will tell you...

HIPPIES of Tonopah

The note in the window reads, "HIPPIE: I waited for 1 1/2 hrs to pick up my cigarettes. You can't make any money if your closed. Ken". Right. I bet Ken wanted to buy "cigarettes". Hippie never did show up but I pressed my camera to the glass and got photos of what's inside.










HIPPIES of Tonopah, town's newest boutique


01:51


I hope HIPPIES is open the next time we blow through town. I'd like to get a better peek inside plus I'd like to meet the guy but more likely he will already be out of business.

Tonopah in the morning

I'm leaving for Tonopah in the morning and will be gone until Sunday. For the last couple of years I've been attending meetings there but, after this trip, I rotate out of the service position I've been in and that's it. I'm done and I'm a bit sad about it.

I love to wander around photographing Tonopah's remains which the desert is quickly consuming, but otherwise there's not much else going on there besides the gas station, which must make about a million dollars a month, and the two prisons which will eventually be buried by the sand. Otherwise Tonopah belongs to the dead.







tonopah

Tonopah time out of time

Update: Sal at Views from the Hill has a brilliant idea for the Mizpah, (find someone to) buy it and turn it into a writers' collective/retreat (parentheses mine). Thanks Sal. Lovely plan. She kindly provided the link to the Realtor's PDF pitch on the place. $1.5m. A steal! Most places in the country, $1.5m will only get you a cheesy McMansion.

Sal:
Sounds perfect for a writers' retreat, doesn't it? Out in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. Two bars. (for those convivial evenings) Two restaurants. (soze you don't have to go far to find eats). No gaming license. (fewer distractions for you) Gutted and rebuilt in 1976.

56 rooms, including 6 parlor suites, all with private baths and thermostatically controlled heating and air conditioning. Fine Brussels carpeting was laid throughout, new stained glass windows were hand-crafted for the first floor and the finest of wall paper was hung on all of the walls. The exterior was given a face lift and park benches and iron lighting fixtures installed along the sidewalk. The old bowling alley and other buildings were also incorporated into the expansion.

On the National Registry of Historic Places. Resident ghosts! Wyatt Earp tended bar here! Dempsey worked as a bouncer!

Only in Nevada, babeeee! As our new state motto says, WIDE OPEN.

Here are a few photos from our recent camp trip. Tonight, Tonopah, yes again if you're keeping track. The town prefers being known as the Home of the Stealth or #1 Stargazing Destination in America.

I like the ruins.

Half the town, including Main St. is boarded up. The Mizpah hotel/casino, the grand old relic from Tonopah's glory days, has been closed and on the market for years.

Shop on Burro Avenue, behind Main.

I found the polaroid of this man in one of the dirt and stone shanties on Burro and have been watching its disintegration ever since. This trip it was outside on the ground but for all the years, weather and neglect he still stares proudly and stubbornly back at the world.

The watch was up here, two tiers above where I found the photo this time.

I slid the photo between a couple of stones in the front wall. The watch I left out, a proper resting place for each.

The whole town is built on tailings.

Miner's burrow on Burro Avenue. Home sweet home.

Another window on Burro.

Main St. from Burro Ave.

Tonopah night life.

I finally got around to peeking into the Mizpah. A few lights are always on at night. The hotel is for sale and I'm guessing that the owners don't want the place to look like a tomb. I wish someone would restore it. I would love to stay there for a while. It's a wreck but I'm a romantic. The town is quiet and even in autumn Tonopah's nights are warm.