The Opera House

Somewhere in the Nevada desert, in the middle of nowhere, is the surreal vision of an opera house. When i arrived, i wasn't really sure where i was, but had come unexpectedly to an offset 4 way intersection, obviously designed in modern times to force me to stop after hours of freedom. Pulling over to check my map, i decided i might as well take a look at the strange place outside. It appeared to be a ghost town of modern times, one from less than 100 years ago, and it appeared to have possibly been abandoned more than once.



Next to the road was a small neighborhood half hidden in tall bushes. Peering into some of the windows it was hard to tell if the homes were truly abandoned or if someone was currently living in them. Some clothes hung to dry inside one, cloths that didn't look old. I wondered if maybe passersby sometimes "camped" in the structures. Near one building i found an old dusty truck. The window was rolled down but there was almost no dust on the inside of the truck. The truck didn't even look like it would run. Very confusing.

At the end of the group of homes were two distinctly different, larger homes. One was an old wooden house in ruins but the other was a two story adobe structure with a car parked in front of it. The adobe house actually had a cool design to it, with tall narrow windows in the front. Although it was just after sunset, i could still make out something like half open royal blue curtains on the inside of the tall windows, which definitely gave off the impression that the building had an occupant inside. That made me wonder if i might be trespassing. I had no idea what kind of person would live in such a place, so i kind of avoided being in direct view of those tall windows.


At the back of the building, she found a hole in a door, where she could see inside..."Peering through the tiny hole, I had the distinct feeling that i was looking at the other half of myself. The building seemed to be saying...Take me...do something with me...I offer you life"

From the houses i was led to other abandoned structures, including a much larger building that looked like an old hotel. While i was walking all around this place there were no sounds whatsoever except for a occasional driver on the nearby highway, so it seemed almost eerie in the twilight, that at the back of the hotel there was a single room with an air conditioner running. That settled it for me. The front of the building finally revealed where i was, although things didn't seem any less strange in knowing.

House No. 1

I had wandered, at dusk, onto the Lost Highway, and the hotel was the actual Lost Highway Hotel, featured in the David Lynch movie of the same name. After being there, it is now a no brainer to me that Lynch would use it in a movie. It also was featured years earlier in the movie The Hitcher. According to some info i read, Rutger Hauer stayed an extra week after shooting to go rock hounding in the nearby mountains.

House No. 2

House No. 3

The town and hotel were originally built by The Pacific Coast Borax Company as their headquarters in 1925. They named the town Death Valley Junction, and it functioned for many years as a headquarters and employee barracks, but was pretty much a ghost town by the 1960's. During that decade a young woman, Marta Becket, and her husband arrived on the scene. Marta, a traveling dancer, was strangely drawn to the place. After finding the abandoned theater she decided right then and there that she wanted to stay for good and use the playhouse for her own shows. The couple rented the structure and renamed it the Amargosa Opera House. Amargosa was the original name for the area; it means bitter water in Payute.


House No. 4, the Big House

The couple soon began to put on shows three times a week unfailingly for many years, regardless of who showed up. During a wet spell when few, if any, people were attending the shows, Marta decided to paint her own audience on the walls of the theater so she could feel like she was performing for an audience even when no one came. It took a couple of years for her to create her fantasy audience, and i have to admit she did a good job.


The site was originally on a railroad. It looks like they have recycled some railroad ties to make this fence.

These events all happened many years ago, and to me the place seemed to be pretty much out of business, except for two black SUV's parked in front of that one room with the air conditioner running. At the time that seemed like some kind shady place to do very shady business, but weeks later, after i returned from my trip and got down to looking at pictures, i found a website for the hotel, describing the whole story. It was an old-skool website, so i still had my doubts about things but before writing this blog i looked it up again. The website has been completely changed. Apparently, Ms. Becket is still there today, the sole resident of Death Valley Junction, and i must have been looking directly at her house while i ignorantly wandered around.



Incredibly, Marta Becket is still putting on shows in her eighties. For more information about the opera house or to see "normal" pictures of the hotel you can go to the sight below, which is where the earlier picture caption i used about the door comes from:

Amargosa Opera House

An article with more detailed information than i can provide is here.