It seems this bank is no longer FDIC insured.
Either the wind or a very destructive bank heist took most of the walls and the roof down. It looks like there’s still an old safe lying among the rubble.
You also consider checking out the only wall (still standing) at the very front of the building.
Tempus fugit (Time flees).
But you feel a lot better getting some miles between yourself and that old graveyard. The desert feels indifferent, if not completely inhospitable. Seeing so many dead in one small spot, all dying in such short time and over some mysterious “plague” that even today is unknown in origin…. It was just too vivid of a reminder that you really are only visiting this place.
Even these stoic buildings of stone and wood built upon the backs of salty, driven old-timers… are all in total ruin a few generations later.
There isn’t much left to check out here in Luning, Nevada. But while you’re here, right? There’s a few old buildings to take a look closer at: the bank, the hotel, and what looks like an old cabin.
You walk around inside the cemetery for a few dozen paces, trying hard not to actually step on the graves. There’s just so many… and all are packed about as close together as they can be without basically being right on top of each other.
A lot of the gravestones are in various states of disrepair and a few (like this one) are really strange… this is a lone plank of wood with a couple of screws sticking out of it marking the remains with one conclusive, five-letter word: GREEK …and that’s all it says.
It must mean something to someone, but not you. This place is starting to feel really weird, almost noisy.
You beat a hasty retreat, considering the setting sun and all-too-vivid thoughts of ghosts.
It’s kind of hard not noticing this insanely packed little graveyard on your way into Tonopah. There’s several hundred graves, and it looks like they were filled in only ten years.
There’s a metal placard that says some fourteen miners fell victim to the Tonopah-Belmont Mine fire of February 23, 1911. The others all appear to be Tonopah’s pioneer residents who fell victim to a mysterious 1902 “Tonopah Plague”. The placard goes on to say that no one ever could figure out where this plague came from or what it really was, just that it killed most of the town off.
The sun’s going down. You can check out a grave up close or just continue on past the graveyard.
This gas pump is so old it gives a price in only “cents per gallon”.
Seems to reflect the overall situation in Gold Point pretty well… it’s pretty much an open-air museum too. There are a few houses around the area that don’t look abandoned, but also quite a lot of “No Trespassing” signs and fences, too. The Post Office looks like it’s in good shape.
You try to open the door, but it’s apparently locked. So you try knocking… and you hear that same bizarre shuffling inside.
No one ever opens or answers. Whatever that sound was, it doesn’t seem eager to help. That same unsettling feeling… Nothing like that was ever mentioned in the Disney films, you think almost out loud.
You notice the sun is starting to go down; maybe you should just leave the area completely and head towards Tonopah?
Or you can brave the evening here in Gold Point and wait for someone to appear. After all… someone has to live in this town, right?
Okay wow, what happened here?
This truck has a face on it that you somehow recognize… or maybe you’re just quick to anthropomorphize Disney characters onto real vehicles. Either way, this old wreck of a truck has seen some serious action in it’s time. It looks like there’s another interesting truck nearby or you can head over to the Post Office.
As you approach what you think must be Gold Point, you notice a bunch of old trucks lined up as if on display. Laying on the ground next to this one, you notice a homemade sign that still barely reads “WE SHADOW FORTH…” whatever that means. You can’t help but notice that the truck appears to have an almost cartoonish face to it.
There’s another vaguely familiar truck-face nearby… or you can just Git-R-Done and head over to what looks like the town’s Post Office.
You head out of Rhyolite and quickly lose sight of any other buildings. For a few hours it’s just you and the wind, sand and asphalt. Even though you don’t see anything like smoke in the air, a strong burnt-wood smell lingers around what looks like the abandoned husk of some gas station.
A strange silhouette catches your eye… is that a person leaning against the building?
As you close in, you realize the silhouette that caught your eye is just some poster thrown up on the wall. It’s apparently not that old, either… but damned if you can reason what it’s supposed to mean.
It’s still too early to make camp, so you decide to keep heading toward Gold Point Gold Point.
These shorts have seen some wild times, it looks like.
Somebody decided the base of Icara makes a decent altar. Business cards, bottle caps, a busted watch, and now apparently a well-worn pair of daisy dukes- all left behind like the statue’s some kind of confessional.
You’ve got nothing on you worth leaving. Not that you’d leave a business card out here anyway.
Might be worth checking on those ghosts Icara pointed you toward, or you could just get moving before the heat gets any worse.
The Porter Brother’s old general store looks to have had large glass windows so that you could see everything they had for sale.
It was well known that there were saloons all around, so the general store sold “All Things Good But Whiskey”.
It’s not selling anything these days except nostalgia and silence.
From here, you can head back to the open air art gallery or head out of town on the dirt road.