Now this place has a lot of history behind it! It was one of three bottle houses to be built in Rhyolite. But you have to say that Mr. Kelly had the largest!
Most of the bottles used were Adulphous Busch, (You know, it's known as Budweiser today!) anyway, there are a few patent medicine bottles that were used also. Did you know
that they used opium in patent medicines in the early 1900's? (It really did make you feel better, but I am not sure that it cured anything!)
Unfortunately, a lot of people who used the medicines became addicted to them. That was a big problem in some of these mining towns. (Some of the stories I could tell you about the people around
here! But that's for another time.)
Everyone laughed and had a grand time as they brought their old bottles here for Mr. Kelly to build with, and of course, he retrieved most of them from
the saloons in town. There were over 53 saloons here so bottles were easy to come by. I guess it was a good thing though, you see, this was not the only house built of bottles in Rhyolite. Just about 100 yards
behind this one was Mr. and Mrs. Wylies home. It was only one room but it was quite a nice little place made of beer bottles. There was also one up there by the school. That one was a little different
because most of the house was underground. It was called a 'Cousin Jack' home, but the surface material other than the roof was made of bottles also.
Back to Mr. Kelly and this house. He started it in September of 1905 and had it finished just 5 1/2 months later in February of 1906. And he was 76 years old when he
built it! Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to tell you that Mr. Kelly used almost 30,000 bottles before he completed his house. He did not even wash the bottles before he used them.
But I guess that was because the water lines had not been laid yet. We had to buy water in those days for up to $5.00 a barrel. That was pretty expensive, so you couldn't waste it on
washing bottles for building materials. I believe one of the bottles in the north wall, if you look real close, will have some crickets still left in there.
Mr. Kelly never did live in the house. He raffled it off and everyone was buying tickets. They only cost $5.00 and you might just get a nice
three room house to live in. He plastered the interior of the home, so you could wallpaper or paint. You wouldn't even know that you lived in a bottle house when you were inside. The Bennet family won the drawing
and lived in the Bottle House until 1914.
In 1925 Paramount Studios made a movie in Rhyolite, using the Bottle House. The town was pretty well deserted by then and a few repairs needed on the old house.
The Movie was called The Airmail starring Billy Dove and Douglas Fairbanks. It is believed that they are the ones responsible for the patchwork of bottles in the back of the house.
There was some confusion at the first movie, at one time it was believed to be "Wanderers of the Wasteland". Although there was a movie by this name made in Rhyolite in 1924, this was not when Paramount repaired the house.
We have been fortunate to speak to the descendants of the Bennet family and Mrs. Bennet still living in the area took photographs of the picture crew working on the house during "The Airmail".
THUMB NAILS OF THE BOTTLE HOUSE
(If you don't want to look at all the photos, just scroll to the bottom of the page.)
Click on the thumbnail and it will open in a new window
1905
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1906
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1906
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1906
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1907
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1909
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1925
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1925
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1925
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1925
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1929
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1932
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The Murphy Era at the Bottle House spanned from 1936 until 1954
Now here things start to get a little murky. In Betsy' Ritters book "Life in a Ghost Town" she has a photograph and mentions a Mr. Johnson who owned the bottle house in 1939. Others state that Mr. Murphy was
the first person asked by the Beatty Improvement Association to take care of the Bottle House. So for now we will assume that several unnamed people cared for the Bottle House between 1932 and 1940 and will start off again with
the Murphy era. If new information comes along, I will be sure to post it. With the help of Bessie Moffat, Lewis Murphy took care of the Bottle House and invited tourists to view
the townsite. This was the beginning of Rhyolite becoming a popular ghost town, and the start of the long
tradition of being greeted at the Bottle House. The Thumbnails below are from the Murphy Era.
1940
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1940
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1945
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1945
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1946
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1948
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1950
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1951
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1951
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1952
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1953
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From 1954 until 1989 was probably the most famous part of the Bottle House history. Tommy and Mary
Thompson with their grandson Evan III had charge of the Bottle House. Tommy and Mary came to Beatty in 1953 and lived in the original
Beatty Ranch House. They were vaudeville performers and decided it was time to settle down. They came to the Bottle House after Mr. Murphy
passed away and added their talents to the evergrowing tourist population. After Evan grew up he took care of the place until 1989. See
if you remember these.
1959
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1961
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1962
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1962
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1970
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1972
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1979
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1980
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1980
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1986
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1986
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1986
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From 1990 to present, the townsite has been managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Clint and Ellen Boehringer started volunteering in the winter months at that time.
You could find them there from November 1 until April every year. In 1996 Riley and I started volunteering in the Summer Months from April until November. We lived full time at Rhyolite and started
staying over with the Boehringers to help manage the Bottle House and research this wonderful town. Clint and Ellen left in April of 2006, Riley and I left in July 2006. There have been several
caretakers since that time but there are no longer full time caretakers in Rhyolite. Here are some photographs of what has been happening since 1990.
Boehringers
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1990
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1994
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Mccoys
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1998
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1998
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1999
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1999
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2001
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2002
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2002
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2002
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2002
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2003
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2003
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2003
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2004
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2004
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2005
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2005
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2005
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2005
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2007
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2008
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Go Here to see the restoration of the Bottle House. - This will open in a new link, so just close it when you are through.
Ready to go to school?
This page updated August 2010
