Beatty, Nevada: A Visitor’s Guide to amenities, attractions and history
from The Complete Nevada Traveler
Guide to
Beatty
Beatty today is important as a gateway to Death Valley,
as the first community of size north of Las Vegas, and as a headquarters
for exploring and rockhounding.
Beatty, Nevada
Calendar of Annual Events
MARCH
Rhyolite Resurrection
Festival775-553-2424
MAY
Best of the West — NHPA Sanctioned Horeshoe
Tournament775-553-2424
JULY
Old-Fashioned Family 4th of
July775-553-2225
SEPTEMBER
Beatty Days775-553-2424
OCTOBER
Rally the Valley Motorcycle
Run775-553-2424
Lost River Rock & Gem
Jamboree775-553-2424
Pitch & Witch Horseshoe
Tournament775-553-2424
Burro Races775-553-2424
Beatty Grand Prix Off-Road Motorcycle
Race775-553-2424
Western Cup Cowboy Shooting
Championship775-553-2424
Welcome to Beatty
These businesses are pleased to welcome you
Local Area Information
BEATTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
119 E. Main Street. 775-553-2424. We’re easy to find beside the highway
and glad to help with tourist and relocation information. Stop in and visit
our gift shop. We’ll help you find your way to the nearby wonders of Rhyolite,
Titus Canyon and Death Valley, and the fabulous underground Amargosa River.
Stay the night in Beatty!
Casino Hotels
BURRO INN Motel Casino.
Highway 95 South. 800-843-2078. Come in and experience genuine small
town hospitality. Enjoy home cooked meals in our award winning restaurant.
Try your luck on our slot machines, video poker, black jack table. We have
62 deluxe motel rooms, 43 full hook up R.V. sites. We’re home to “Best of
the West” horseshoe tournament.
STAGE COACH Hotel Casino.
Highway 95. 775-553-2419. For fun food and fortune stay at the Stage
Coach. We have two great restaurants, food specials for seniors, weekend
entertainment, free overnight motorhome parking, budget room rates, swimming
pool and jacuzzi. All modern accommodations with an Old West Theme.
A brief History & Description of
Beatty, Nevada
by
David W. Toll
Four Years after
the discovery of silver ore at Tonopah, and two years after the fabulous
discoveries at Goldfield, prospectors organized the Bullfrog Mining District
and established a number of small communities, Beatty among them. Because
of its favored location astride the usually underground Amargosa River (which
makes most of its long winding way to Death Valley below the surface), Beatty
survives while the livelier mining towns of Bullfrog and Rhyolite are dead.
Beatty today is important as a gateway to Death Valley, as the first community
of size north of Las Vegas, and as a headquarters for exploring and rockhounding.
An information station for Death Valley National Monument is located just
west of the stop sign at the center of town, and the Chamber of Commerce
is a short distance to the east of the sign.
The Exchange Club bar is one of the art treasures in town, and is well stocked
with the usual lubricants and gambling games. The Stagecoach and the Burro
Inn, are on the north and south sides of town respectively. Restaurants,
groceries, gasoline, auto repair, lodging and all services for motorists
are available.
Beatty’s environs are among the most spectacular in the world, and Beatty
is a good base for exploring the spectacular countryside.
Nevada Route 374 leads to the historic ghost town of Rhyolite and over Daylight
Pass — or better, take the unique and thrilling digression through Titus
Canyon (when it’s open) into Death Valley. Rhyolite is covered separately
on a following page and the Monument is mostly in California, placing it,
alas, beyond the embrace of this book.
South of Beatty there are two areas of interest. One is the Beatty Dunes
west of US 95 and accessible by graded dirt road. This romantic feature was
the setting for much of the movie Cherry 2000, starring Melanie Griffith
as its future-shocked and violence-prone heroine. Most days you’ll have this
curious geographical feature to yourself.
The ruins of Carrara, a marble quarry named for the famous Italian source
of raw materials for Michelangelo, are easily visible to the east about nine
miles south of Beatty. There are a few concrete ruins along a bumpy track
that proceeds from the highway into the colorfully uplifted and folded strata
of the hills. The striped hillsides attracted the stone workers who established
the quarry in 1904, shipping their cut and dressed stones to Las Vegas by
rail from the Tonopah and Tidewater depot here. A hotel with a large bathing
pool made stopping here a special pleasure in the old days.
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