Beatty - Nevada

Beatty is a small town just outside the Death Valley National Park that I used when I needed to stay at a motel or stock up on food and water or get relatively cheap fuel. It was founded in 1904 as a supply town for nearby gold and silver mining camps but now primarily serves travellers heading into Death Valley. Like the other old mining towns in Nevada that I visited, there was an excellent museum exhibiting an almost overwhelming collection of artifacts and information from the town’s past. Patrick, the manager, also volunteered at other places frequented by tourists, such as the ruins at the boom-and-bust mining camp of Rhyolite, a few miles out of Beatty. He told me about Old Man Beatty, real name Montilius Murray Beatty, after whom the town is named.

Bio of Old Man Beatty from the museum - one of many fascinating exhibits

I discovered an eating place called the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). Set up specifically for VETs, they now accept tourists. Talk around the bar was largely about the practical hardships of life - mending trucks was high on the agenda. They all sounded like expert mechanics, which I suppose they had to be.

As usual in Nevada, I was only ever treated kindly, and most people were more than willing to tell me their stories while I ate their very good burger and fries.

Along with the usual collection of memorabilia, the Stars and Stripes was centre-stage, as it was wherever I went in Nevada.

A couple of blocks down the road was the Sourdough Saloon. This was much more fun; Huck, the barman, told me about the saloon’s history, which stretched back to the turn of the century, apparently. Full of artifacts, including a working model railway above the bar, it was welcoming and made great pizza.

At the other end of the main street is Eddie’s World which was opened 2018 as a purpose-built roadside attraction for tourists going to and from Death Valley and Vegas. There was a superb ice cream concession which I used a couple of times. Modern eating establishments such as Denny’s and Subway were attached to the complex.

You couldn’t imagine a bigger contrast with the other end of the street.

The locals that I spoke to view the town with some optimism with new gold mines planned now with new technology. My last visit to Beatty was as I left Death Valley on my way to Vegas via some interesting old mining towns which I’ll write about later.