Tom Kelly's Bottle House

Tom Kelly's Bottle House is an historical treasure of Americana folk art.  I applaud the cooperative efforts of the Bureau of Land Management, the Rhyolite Preservation Society, the Central Nevada Museum and the Beatty Museum for restoring the house in 2005.

It is located in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada.  This is one of the most interesting ghost towns I have ever visited.  Two prospectors found gold here in 1904, creating a gold rush of unfathomable dimensions.  Only two years later, there were 10,000 people living here and one of them was Tom Kelly.  He owned one of the 53 saloons that were built in town to quench a very thirsty crowd.  So what do you do with all those empty booze bottles?  You build a house!

He never actually lived in it.  He raffled the house off, charging $5.00 a ticket--a hefty sum for that day.  It's unclear who won the house because by 1920, the population of Rhyolite was only 14!  The mining operations had dried up and everyone moved on, including Mr. Kelly.

Paramount Pictures repaired the house in 1925 while filming the silent movie, The Airmail, starring Douglas Fairbanks.  There have been a few squatters living here throughout the years so the place has never been abandoned for long.  One of these folks added the mosaic sculpture garden.  ( Hmmm.  I wonder if I could apply as caretaker when I'm ready to finally settle down?!)