Postcards from the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Rhyolite, NV

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Rhyolite was a booming town around 1905 full of thousands of miners that were part of the gold rush. They had homes, a saloon, a jail, lots of activity. For various reasons, however, by 1920 there was no one there. Today it is a ghost town with standing ruins.

Immediately south of Rhyolite is the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a series of statues and art works were added after 1980 by a group of artists from Belgium. In a vastness of nothing, these statues look formidable.

Rhyolite and the museum are inspiring. So many people had high hopes here, lived, and died too. It's touching.

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Photos

Art work in the Goldwell Open Air Museum
This is my favorite. I even got the t-shirt.

Labyrinth
Nobody seems to know who put this labyrinth in place in 2008, but here it is for the visitor to walk it.

Art work by Albert Szukalski - 1984
To create the figures a person had to be under it without moving for about 20 minutes. Then he would be helped from under it, leaving the figure to dry.

"The Last Supper"
from afar

"Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada" Created in 1992 by Dr. Hugo Heyrman
It's supposed to be a sculpture made out of pixels.

"Sit Here" Created in 2000 by Sofie Siegmann
The contrast of the colors against the background is awesome.

Explanation?
If you get it the first time you read it you're better than me.

Grave of Sarah Isabella Peters, a.k.a. Sakie Haskett, a.k.a. Isabella Haskins, a.k.a. Norma, a.k.a. Mona Belle
Ok here's a cool story... Sarah here came to Rhyolite when it was a booming town to sell her body with the purpose of gathering money to get her boyfriend out of the prison you see on the background. Eventually she did. And eventually he killed her because he was a maniac. Because she was a prostitute the respectable women of the town did not want her buried in the town's cemetery (you'll see a pic of it later), and it was determined that the only place Sarah could be buried would be behind the jail. Here she rests. Nobody has forgotten her. It is said that a group of women come by once each year to leave flowers and other trinkets. Isn't ironic? nobody knows where the respectable women ended up!

Bullfrog-Rhyolite cemetery
Has the bodies of miners who died between 1904 and 1912. In the search for gold and the discovery of land...

Entrance to Rhyolite
this is what marks the entrance to the ghost town from the highway