Rhyolite, Nevada

Ghost town with a flair.

Empty hulks of the three story bank, the general store, and smaller buildings remain. Also there is a great looking train station, as well as some other well-preserved ghost town ruins.

Besides the ghost town itself, there are a number of weird and bizarre works of art strewn around desert landscape. Part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum, several artists have installed permanent sculptures starting in 1984. Probably the most interesting is the 12 life-sized disciples patterned after “The Last Supper”, built in 1984 by the Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. They consist of empty flowing robes (made of fiberglass), so they appear to be ghosts. There is also a 20’ tall model of a miner and his Penguin made of metal, and a 20’ tall pixellated version of a nude woman made of pink and yellow cinder blocks. Another fiberglass ghost, the Ghostrider, stands next to his bicycle, ready to go for a ride.