- [Man] Spend enough time in the desert
you'll believe just about anything.
- [Man] It's dark, the road doesn't seem to end,
and then outta nowhere is this neon miracle
bursting in the desert.
- [Woman] There is the Clown Motel,
that's the first thing you start noticing,
this big clown sign.
- [Woman] It just feels like something's gonna pop out,
or you're just waiting for something to happen,
or to see something.
- [Woman] The Clown Motel
is right across from the graveyard.
There's a lot of weird things that happen
between the hotel and the graveyard.
- [Woman] I've heard a lot of different stories
about the Clown Motel,
but whether it's really haunted or not, it's hard to say.
- [Man] Paranormal investigation is one of the biggest draws
that we do have because we do have some of these stories.
- Tonopah is a fascinating place.
There's a lot of interesting characters who live here.
I mean, to choose to live
in one of the most remote places in the continental US.
I mean, it's an interesting choice you have to make.
And it typically is made by interesting people
who have a story to tell.
(jaunty music)
- I was born and raised here in Central Nevada.
As a restoration project, my two brothers and I,
we chose to restore this cemetery.
We did what we could down here.
Then, lo and behold, a plot map was found
in a shed at a nearby mining camp.
And with that plot map, we had names to go with
all the grave sites, where they came from,
what they did, what did 'em in.
Died in the alley next to the big casino dance hall uptown.
Stabbed by her husband with a miner's candle holder.
Kicked in the head by a mule.
So, several ways to die.
(jaunty music)
People over the years have claimed the apparitions
they've seen and everything, down here at night.
I come here in the daytime only. (laughs)
- Clarence David was a miner and he died in a mine fire.
And he buried here.
So that's why the kids,
they wanted to do something for their dad,
like kind of memorial for dad.
So they bought this lot and they built this motel.
- [Allen] Many, many mine accidents.
Those accidents took a lot of lives.
All those millions of dollars worth of silver
didn't go to the miners
who were working for $2 and $3 a day.
They went to the company, the mining company owners.
And because of that too, safety was no big concern either.
- [Ramsey] Under Tonopah, there's 300 miles
roughly of mining tunnels.
Which to mine back in the day was just absolutely insane.
Tonopah has always been a boom and bust town.
And they thought this boom would never run out.
The silver would never run out, there was so much of it.
But then, it did.
(dynamic music)
This was probably the last boom town in the continental US
before a lot of miners moved up to Alaska.
Tonopah has always been
and will always be a very mineral rich location.
- [Man] A lot of the miners that mined under
in the Mizpah Hotel, they died in fires.
There was a story to be told
that one miner shot two people.
- [Man] And so they say it's the two miners
are still down there, walking around,
whatever they do down there.
- [Woman] There's been stories about the lady in red,
and the miner in the basement.
- My folks own the Mizpah Hotel.
And we have a family history that's brought us to Tonopah.
There's quite a few stories that starts off with,
I was drinking at the bar,
and I was stumbling up the stairs,
or passed out in my room, and then this happens.
But that being said, people 100% do have experiences
in the hotel, in the town.
Whether or not I believe 'em, that's a different story.
I mean, I think that feeling is that
things are kind of permanent in the desert.
The desert preserves things in a way that
if you're from different part of the world
things just fall apart, or nature consumes them.
Where in the desert, it takes a lot longer.
- [Woman] It's amazing.
There's different colors in the mountain, the hillsides.
The rust colors, and it's just so beautiful.
(gentle music)
- [Woman] Everybody wants to believe in ghosts.
and I believe that people's spirit does go somewhere,
you know what I mean?
- [Man] Life and death are so intertwined in the desert.
It's unclear where one ends and the other begins.
- [Woman] Honey, you gotta get yourself out of the city
if you wanna see something special.
- [Woman] You never know what you might find out there.
Or what might find you. (laughs)