Rhyolite is a ghost town located in the Bullfrog Hills, about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern edge of Death Valley.

The town was founded in early 1905 as one of several mining camps.
During the gold rush, thousands of gold-seekers, developers, miners and service providers flocked to the Bullfrog Mining District.

Many of them settled in Rhyolite, and the town was growing.
But Rhyolite declined almost as rapidly as it rose. After the most ore was exhausted, production fell. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the financial panic of 1907 made it more difficult to raise development capital.

1910 the mine had no profit anymore and closed for good 1911.
After 1920, Rhyolite and its ruins became a tourist attraction and a setting for motion pictures.
Most of its stone made buildings crumbled, were salvaged for materials, or were moved to nearby City of Beatty or other towns.

In 2000 the Goldwell Open Air Museum was built on private property just south of the ghost town, which is on property overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.