Circa 1905 – Three photographs showing Nevada mining boomtowns
Nevada: Circa 1905. Unbound.
One photograph is captioned “Beatty, Nevada. / Year 1905.” It measures 4¾” x 3½”. Glue residue on the reverse. The second photograph, 5½” x 3¼”, is captioned on the reverse, “Outside Beatty / Rube Ryan’s Mine & / Hollywood Dry Store”. The third photograph is captioned “Belmont, Nevada / Bel-HM-1” on the reverse. It measures 7” x 5”.
Beatty, Nevada was named for a Civil War veteran who established a ranch along the Amargosa River. It boomed in 1904 after gold was discovered in the nearby Bullfrog Hills west of town. Initially, wagons hauled freight between the Bullfrog region and the railroad located at Las Vegas. Over 15,000 horses were used for hauling until the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad began regular service in 1906. The Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad reached Belmont, the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad in 1907.
The photograph of Rube Ryan’s Mine and Hollywood Store is included in Robert Palazzo’s Ghost Towns of Death Valley, which notes it was close to Rhyolite and Bullfrog mining activities. The image is captioned (on the reverse) similarly to the one in Palazzo’s book , however, it is described as a “day store” rather than a “dry store.”
Belmont, Nevada was founded following the discovery of silver in 1865. The town grew rapidly during the following boom, and Belmont became the Nye County seat in 1867 with a population said to approach 15,000 although that figure is highly unlikely. It supported four stores, two saloons, five restaurants, a livery stable, blacksmith shop, bank, school, telegraph office, post office and two newspapers. Although some of the mines began to close in 1887, Belmont remained the county seat until 1905 when government offices relocated to Tonopah.
. Very good. Item #010176Today Belmont is a ghost town, however Beatty remains as a small unincorporated community with a population of about 2,000 and bills itself as the Gateway to Death Valley with lodging and stores to desert tourism.
.Price: $250.00