RHYOLITE NEVADA GHOST TOWN

Be the only tourist in a town where the last resident left in the 1920s. Updated 30 Jan 2023.

What is Rhyolite?

The word can mean two things. The first one is a rock. It comes from a volcano. But not all volcanoes spew rhyolite – most do not. Most volcanoes spew lava which consists of melted rock. There have been only three rhyolite eruptions since 1900. One each in Papua New Guinea, Alaska, the USA and Chile. Rhyolite lava is very viscous and flows much slower than lava from a normal volcano eruption.

Rhyolite is usually pink, buff or grey. The difference between it and other rocks is that it has very high silica content and is made up of grains so small that they cannot be seen individually without the aid of a powerful microscope.

Uses

Rhyolite can be used to create decorative walls in hotels, houses or other buildings. It is also used as a paving stone for roads or sidewalks or just as a fill for construction and road building. It can also be used to make jewellery or decorative countertops or as an abrasive in various kinds of polish.

The second meaning of the word is the name of a town in Nevada. It is close to Death Valley, which is across the border in California. As the name implies, rhyolite deposited by an ancient volcano is common in the area. However, the settlers came here to mine for gold, not rhyolite.

Cook Bank above and how it looked in 1908 (left)

The town was founded in 1905. By 1907, it had concrete sidewalks, police and fire departments, a train station, three banks, two churches, electric lights, running water, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school and even an opera house and a public swimming pool. The population was about 4,000.