Concluding my trip up to Nevada, I stayed in a small town called Tonopah, Nevada.
Tonopah is an old mining town that was settled and prospered from the late 1800's to the early 1920's. It's known for the turquoise deposits & silver mines in the mountains surrounding the town, however it's also know for The World Famous Clown Motel!
I only found out about the Clown Motel as I was leaving the town to go home. It was around 6am and was still incredibly creepy in daylight.
I was surprised to see how many people were actually staying there. Was there a clown convention in town? A serial killer meeting? Clowns from outer space?
If something horrific was going to occur in Tonopah, this is where it would most likely happen. Yet, a lot of people were staying there. Perhaps that's part of the attraction, you might be a victim!
I played it safe and stayed at the old Tonopah Station Casino & Motel down the road.
(source)https://www.tonopahstation.com/
Built in the 1980's the interior decor makes it feel like it was built 100 years ago.
It was full of interesting memorabilia like James the bear who definitely was not from around these parts.
There was even a replica of the Mona Lisa! Now I don't have to visit Paris.
The hotel had a very comfortable feel for me. Growing up my parents would take us to Lake Tahoe every year and we would always stay in the casinos. The patterned carpet, wallpaper, everything about this place was nostalgic for me.
For it's age and location, Tonopah Station was much nicer than I expected.
Their restaurant was actually pretty good too. It had good ratings on Google maps so I tried it out.
I eat burgers all over California and Japan and I have to say, this burger ranked pretty high in flavor. It was delicious! I would definitely recommend the bacon cheese burger if you are ever in town.
The saloon next to the restaurant was something out of a Western movie.
It was awesome, but I didn't have time for a drink. There were crystals to find in the morning. I had found some good minerals earlier in the day in Goldfield, but tomorrow I would head back to a mine near Candalaria that I had briefly stopped by in the earlier in the morning.
Driving into Tonopah, past The World Famous Clown Motel, you drive down main street, through the old town.
The Mizpah Hotel is the oldest hotel in Tonopah, established 1907.
There are several other old, historic buildings, but the Mizpah stands out.
There isn't much to do in Tonopah except off roading, gambling or take in the mines & hunt for rocks, which leads me to the mine I went to on my second day. First, a nice sunset from my room.
As I mentioned I headed out of town at 6am. It was about 108degrees during the day so I wanted to beat the heat while collecting.
The mine I was exploring was an old fluorite/quartz/tungsten/gold mine. While there were 2 adits, an opening tunnel into a mine, it didn't seem like the mine was very profitable. However, while the miners were looking for the gold & tungsten they passed by all the nice quartz and fluorite specimens. This is a great thing about visiting old mines, the miners had no use for mineral specimens, just the high dollar precious metals. So the mineral specimens were either tossed aside or left in place.
The main quartz vein running through the mountain varied from
a few feet wide to 10' wide in some spots.
Just beside the quartz vein was an adit, but I didn't go in because I could have sworn I heard some clown noises inside.
I did explore the quartz vein though.
At the top of the mountain the crystals were everywhere.
Some big ones made an appearance too.
I'm now home and I've been cleaning, preparing the various minerals. They will go through various acid baths, soap and water baths and finally a water gun bath. Probably only 10% of what I clean up will actually be valuable, but it's all fun.
Here are a few pieces that are almost ready.
Fluorite in muscovite & quartz.
Anyways, hope I informed you a bit about a town and it's surroundings that you will probably never visit. I however have a lot more hunting to do up there. I think I'll wait for it to cool down a lot before heading back up though.
Thanks for reading!
