Tonopah & Goldfield, Nevada

Our next stop was Tonopah, Nevada, to get there we needed to cross 7,000 ft Montgomery Pass in the White Mountains, but as a winter storm came through dropping snow and ice one night we stayed another couple of until it melted away.

Tonopah was once a gold mining town, and has a great mining museum.   We spent an afternoon looking around in fact there is so much to see there we had to return the next morning.   The remains of Silver Top Mine at Tonopah Mining Museum were really interesting.

In Shoshone Tonopah means Bush Water, ‘tono’ is bush for the greasewood bush and ‘pah’ means water and one evening we had the most gorgeous sunset from the RV park.

The historic Mizpah Hotel, which is also a casino and on the National Historic Register and one evening we enjoyed dinner there.

While we were in Tonopah we stopped to visit the Clown Motel which has also been on a ‘Most Haunted’ type programme.   While the owner was very pleasant, I’m not a lover of clowns and the reception area is full of all different sizes of clowns and decidedly creepy, a bit too much like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock film for me!

Not far away is Goldfield, a semi-ghost town, we parked by the old High School, a huge building which is in the process of restoration by the historical society.   The Visitor Centre was closed but we got a Goldfield Guide Book from the General Store and set out to explore.

Goldfield High School. 

Goldfield Courthouse

 At one time the mines in Goldfield produced millions of Dollars of gold and the town had a large population.   Now only small mines are operational, but one of Goldfield’s claims to fame is ghosts.   The privately owned Goldfield Hotel and the old High School have both featured on a programme similar to ‘Most Haunted’.    We peered through the windows and through one we could see the old reception desk and padded circular seats, through another a grand piano.

One of the tales we were told about the hotel was that an old cowboy who wasn’t very well came to Goldfield, when he visited the hotel he said that he heard the ghosts calling him to come and join them.   A few weeks later, his body dressed in his best cowboy gear was found on the steps of the hotel, he’d gone to join the ghosts.    As to how true this is, your guess is as good as mine.   I took photographs through the hotel window and was told that sometimes ‘odd’ things appeared in photographs; well the only odd things on mine were dusty marks!

The spooky Goldfield Hotel, it doesn’t look that bad in the daylight, but you won’t get me anywhere near it at night!

All the stone buildings in Goldfield appeared to be very well kept and the stone was remarkably clean, we asked if they’d been restored, were told that no both buildings and people were regularly sandblasted by the strong winds that blow through.

Have fun, we are!