The Oasis Inn in Death Valley National Park lives up to its name. But there is so much more in the area. Come on, let’s go explore….
Check out The Goldwell Open Air Museum, established by four Belgian artists in 1984, just outside the boundaries of the park.
The artists created large scale outdoor sculptures which, in combination with the desert landscape, result in a truly unique visual experience.
The feeling this evokes, like the desert itself, is eerie.
This is one of the artist abodes. Check the museum out at: http://goldwellmuseum.org/
After we explore the remarkable museum and it’s ghostly sculptures by ourselves for as long as we want (there is no one here to bother us), we mosey on down the road to Rhyolite, Nevada, a gold mining ghost town that boomed and busted between 1904 to 1920.
At it’s peak in 1908, Rhyolite had a population of 8,000. By 1920, when the gold had petered out, the population stood at 14.
The post office, the bank, the store, the school, all were abandoned.
Can you imagine living in a desert that reached the hottest temperature on earth with no AC?
One home, built in 1905, was constructed almost entirely of 50,000 beer bottles. It is one of the most well preserved buildings in the ghost town.
You can see the bottle details in this section of wall. You could sing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,” in this house, and actually be counting! For more on this unusual home see : http://www.nbmog.org/bottlehouse.html
Cheers to you from the fun to explore and always mysterious Mojave ~
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Happy New Year Cindy.❤ A unique museum experience.
Happy & Healthy New Year to you!
Wow, I feel like I stumbled upon a marvelous mystery!
That is exactly how I felt!
Great pics Cindy!
Merci beaucoup Gary~
The open-air museum is really cool! It’s mind-boggling that within 12 years Rhyolite’s population went from 8,000 to 14. I can’t imagine how anyone could live in this environment without AC. Oh, and the bottle house is really interesting, gonna visit the link you provided. Thanks Cindy!!
Us humans are tougher than we realize, something you already know Stephanae. Cheers to you my friend ♡♡♡
Yes, we are a resilient lot aren’t we?🤗
We are <3
Wow! Sooooo fascinating.
Everyday, something new, thankfully!
Cindy, thank you for these beautiful photographs.
You are a kind friend Charles, thank you!
The open air museum is amazing, and I love the bottle house! Thanks for the link to know more about it. Cheers to you, Cindy!
Happy you enjoyed & cheers to you Halim!
That’s the spirit, my friend! Boo-tiful shots as always!Ψ(｀▽´)Ψƪ(`▿▿▿▿´ƪ)ψ`ー´)ﾉ(ц｀ω´ц*)♡♡♡
Grazie ♡♡♡
Cool place. Thanks for sharing, Cindy.
Thanks more for your appreciation <3
The four human sized scare crows 😁
Soooo amazing again!!! Wonder, how you always find this places and get this pictures. You are really a wonder-photograph! Top!
You are very kind. I love my blogging friends <3
This leaves me to wow! 🙂
Awww, makes me happy, thank you Prakash!
Welcome.. 🙂
<3
I’ll guess the beer bottle house stays at a constant livable temp. I read somewhere in an arid country that they are using plastic bottles in a similar application. Here’s one link:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/12/10/plastic-bottle-homes.
🙂 Cheers, Jules
Amazing! Air is a great insulator. Thanks for the link and the info. <3
Air and sand 🙂 Though I remember reading that one place might not have filled the plastic bottle up with anything before applying a type of plaster.
It makes me feel hopeful to remember how smart people can be.
amazing shots cindy!
Thanks & happy you enjoyed them!
Your photos brought back some great memories from my childhood as I spent a lot of time in the Mojave. Thanks!
Reminds me of some the ghost towns in Montana and Wyoming, Cuz. Spooky, but no museums😱. Thanks for the beautiful pics. 👻
These ghost towns of the American west are simply mind boggling. I have found others sometimes, not on purpose, it is like walking into someone’s home without permission. Sometimes their stuff is still there, like paintings on a wall.
I know , you feel like you’re trespassing
(｡♥‿♥｡)
The beer bottle house is amazing. I’m surprised by how well designed it appears to be.
Yes, so was I, and the guy who built it, named Kelley, ran a town pub, and built two other bottles houses. It seems there are excellent insulation. Quite a prescient person.
I love Szukalski’s ghosts! They tend to pop up in the most unexpected places, like looking down from the roof of a not too tall appartment building in the city… 😉 Or, like in your case, in the middle of nowhere… 😀
No idea who the others are… do you have their names?
Hugo Heyrman, Fred Bervoets, Dre Peters and David Spicer. Sofie Siegmann made the mosaic sofa. Check out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwell_Open_Air_Museum
I think the original four were all from Belgium but I am not certain.
Hugo Heyrmann, Fred Bervoets, Dre Peeters are from Belgium… David Spicer ? Found a bunch of them, among others a rugby player… 🙂 The only one that might (doubtfully) fit in could be the jewel maker among them… ? He seems to be from your side of the ocean. Sofie Siegmann is from Albany, CA… To have a bit of background… 😉
That sounds right because I heard there were four founders from Belgium. You might want to contact the museum website for more info. My husband met the guy who we think inherited the museum at the site. I was too busy taking photos!
Hi Cindy. Happy New Year! This was fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing your trip to the desert. Beautiful photos and wow I love that art! ♥.
I am so pleased you enjoyed Niki and Happy New Year to you my friend ♡´･ᴗ･`♡
Thank you. =) ♥.
♡´･ᴗ･`♡
I felt like I was there exploring with you. Thanks I needed that adventure
It was much more fun with you along ♡´･ᴗ･`♡
❤❤
Now this (these) would make the drive almost insignificant. I think I’ve past my chance, but I really do enjoy the experiences you share. Broadens my mid-western perspective.
Ah, thank you for your kindness. My parents and grandparents are from Chicago (and very proud of it) and my husband and family from Iowa City (and very proud of it), Knoke Iowa too…Knoke is not a big town, laughing… The midwest is wonderful and I love to broaden my perspective when I visit your part of the world. But, I hear you about the distance…..if you do undertake a long drive to a place I post about, please talk to me before you go so I can try to make it worth your effort.
Our son lives in Los Angeles. I’m going to send him a link to your site. We’re way past safe driving age, whether in the big city or in the desert, but maybe we could convince him to take us to some of these places…. Thanks for your nice note!
Oh I hope he does! ♡´･ᴗ･`♡
I love how you captured a culture within a culture. So many stories here.
I love that you are sensitive to the layers. Thank you.
Thank you, Cindy for taking us there! A very interesting place to explore.
I haven’t seen your posts on Reader lately🤔
Yes, the same happens to me. I think the reader limits how many posts you can view, blogs you can see. It would be nice if they informed us of the limitations in the interest of transparency.
Beautiful works of art. My fave is the house made of beer bottles. It’s surprisingly exquisite.
It is isn’t it, and I learned from a fellow blogger that the bottles provide great insulation.
Wow, Maybe building house out of beer bottles would be a way to house the homeless!!!
Fun and fascinating post. You bring me the world of nature and interesting art. Thanks.
I hear the bottles make wonderful insulation from both heat and cold. We definitely need to do more to house the homeless. Using recycled materials to build energy efficient homes sounds like a very good idea.
“Ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall…” I will have that song in my head all day. The house is amazing. I’m headed over to click on the link. And the couch must provide a beautiful view against the stark landscape. Fabulous, Cindy!!
Creative people, like you Jennie, are a blessing in our world ♡´･ᴗ･`♡
We spent 2 days in this area and missed this. We’ll have to go back again. Lots to see!
Oh Good! I look forward to your impressions.
Very cool!
Grazie mille!
This is really fascinating! Thank you for sharing your experience, I feel like I have been there too. I love that house made of glass bottles, it makes me want to make a house of bottles myself. 🙂
I think it helped a lot that the guy who built that house was the town bar owner. It would be hard to drink enough bottles to build your house!!!
Yes, it must be what they did instead of recycling. On the website you linked to it said the town funeral director made a house out of embalming bottles. What a great idea. It makes me want to build a house out of bottles. 🙂
Might be worth investigating this for my blog. Considering the Belgian connection,
I hope you do, and write about it too!
In the 80s I had to go to Death Valley a couple times a year for work. There is a small Native American tribe that has its HQ in the park. Unfortunately, because of the high hotel rates higher than my per diem, I usually had to go in the summer. Hence, I never took the time to explore the area much more than driving through. 118 degrees was just to much for sight seeing. 🙂
How interesting that must have been and yes, they are The Timbasha, a small group of Shoshone located at Furnace Creek. We visited them several times to eat their wonderful fry bread and I got leads from them to find the wild donkeys.
They have battled with the National Park Service to have some of their ancestral lands returned to them and finally succeeded in getting 7,000 acres in 2000. Here is what Wiki says:
“Despite their federal tribal recognition and diminutive 1982 reservation, the Timbisha still faced difficulty and conflict with the Death Valley National Park’s National Park Service in regaining more of their ancestral lands within the Park. After much tribal effort, federal politics, and mutual compromise, the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000 finally returned 7,500 acres (30 km2) of ancestral homelands to the Timbisha Shoshone tribe.[3] Currently the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe consists of around 300 members, usually 50 of whom live at the Death Valley Indian Community at Furnace Creek within Death Valley National Park. Many members spend the summers at Lone Pine in the Owens Valley to the west.”
Hey. Great info. So glad they finally acquired land. When I worked in the grant program that provided funds to the tribe, it had the small settlement in the park. The tribal chairwoman was a determined leader.
They won, but the park service fought them for decades and should be ashamed of itself.
I did not know any of this existed. I have Nevada on my radar as a place to visit, and these sites are definitely included on the list. Thank you pointing them out.
Happy you are interested, and if you do go, please post about your impressions. Cheers to you & take care დ