Rhyolite is a ghost town located in Nye County, approximately 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Founded in 1905 as a mining camp after gold was discovered in Bullfrog Hills, Rhyolite declined nearly as quickly as it rose, and by 1920 the town was well on its way to becoming the ghost town it is today. During its heyday, local Tom Kelly constructed a bottle house that became the talk of the town. Since then, two other bottle houses—and a number of smaller ones—sprang up in Rhyolite. They still stand today.

Welcome to Rhyolite!
Ken Lund/Flickr
The most famous of Rhyolite's three bottle houses was built and belonged to Tom Kelly.
Travel Nevada/Flickr
Kelly came to Rhyolite in 1905 and decided to build a house. Since the only available lumber at the time was from the Joshua tree, Kelly decided to use bottles.
Travel Nevada/Flickr
Kelly collected 51,000 bottles from the 50 saloons in the area in fewer than six months to build his three-bedroom house complete with porch and trim. The bottles were secured with adobe mud.
Robert Pernett/Flickr
The interior looked like a regular home with plaster walls.
geoff dude/Flickr
Since Kelly was nearly 80 years old, he chose to raffle his talked-about bottle house for $5 per ticket. The house was won by the Bennet family who resided in the home until 1914.
Wayne Hsieh/Flickr

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In 1925, the house received a face lift with a new roof for two movies Paramount Pictures was shooting. Both "The Airmail" and "Wanderers of the Wasteland" were shot in Rhyolite and featured the bottle house.
Ken Lund/Flickr
Another view of the famed Kelly bottle house.
Miss Shari/Flickr
A closeup of how the bottles were used in this amazing construction.
dotpolka/Flickr
An even better bottle house closeup.
Dustin Gaffke/Flickr
The bottle house's final tenants were Tommy Thompson and his eight children who lived there until 1969. They are responsible for the variety of small bottle houses scattered across the property.
Ken Lund/Flickr
Some of the miniature houses and other objects like this well.
Lisa Brettschneider/Flickr
And more!
Vintage Lulu/Flickr

Have you visited Rhyolite and seen Tom Kelly’s famous bottle house and others? Please share your thoughts and experiences below.

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