death valley road trip 2010

Although the Twenty Mule Teams, prospectors with their burros, and lost pioneers represent the extent of human history in Death Valley to most people, it actually started long before and continues today. Native people have been here since at least the end of the last Ice Age. Towns and mining camps have come and gone. Mining companies have moved from harvesting the mineral wealth to developing the valley for tourism. Most recently, Death Valley has become a cherished National Park, visited by humans from around the globe.

Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located in the Bullfrog Hills, about 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern edge of Death Valley. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding hills. During an ensuing gold rush, thousands of gold-seekers, developers, miners, and service providers flocked to the Bullfrog Mining District. Many settled in Rhyolite, which lay in a sheltered desert basin near the region's biggest producer, the Montgomery Shoshone Mine.
Industrialist Charles M. Schwab bought the Montgomery Shoshone Mine in 1906 and invested heavily in infrastructure including piped water, electric lines, and railroad transportation that served the town as well as the mine. By 1907, Rhyolite had electric lights, water mains, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school, an opera house, and a stock exchange. Published estimates of the town's peak population vary widely, but scholarly sources generally place it in a range between 3,500 and 5,000 in 1907–08.
Rhyolite declined almost as rapidly as it rose. After the richest ore was exhausted, production fell. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the financial panic of 1907 made it more difficult to raise development capital. In 1908, investors in the Montgomery Shoshone Mine, concerned that it was overvalued, ordered an independent study. When the study's findings proved unfavorable, the company's stock value crashed, further restricting funding. By the end of 1910, the mine was operating at a loss, and it closed in 1911. By this time, many out-of-work miners had moved elsewhere, and Rhyolite's population dropped well below 1,000. By 1920, it was close to zero.

In April 1996 Nevada State Highway 375 was officially named the Extraterrestrial Highway for the many UFO sightings along this lonely stretch of road. The highway is close to the mysterious Area 51, a super-secret Air Force test facility, and in the 1980's and 1990's there have been many sightings of unidentified objects near the base. Even today visitors and locals alike often see strange lights in the night-sky while driving down the highway.
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Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base.

The base's primary purpose is to support development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.

Rachel is located on the world's only Extraterrestrial Highway
Population: Humans 98, Aliens ??

The only remaining local businesses in Rachel is the Little A'Le'Inn Restaurant and Bar