Amargosa Opera House and Hotel
Encyclopedia
Death Valley Junction, California
Death Valley Junction is a tiny Mojave Desert community in unincorporated Inyo County, California, at the intersection of SR 190 and SR 127, just east of Death Valley National Park. The zip code is 92328, the elevation is , and the population fewer than 20. The city limits sign reports a...
, in eastern Inyo County, California
Inyo County, California
-National protected areas:* Death Valley National Park * Inyo National Forest * Manzanar National Historic Site-Major highways:* U.S. Route 6* U.S. Route 395* State Route 127* State Route 136* State Route 168* State Route 178...
near Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
. Resident artist Marta Becket
Marta Becket
Marta Becket is an actress, dancer, choreographer and painter who performed for more than four decades at her own theater, the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California...
has staged dance and mime shows there since the late 1960s. The Death Valley Junction Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
The theater was part of a company town
Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch and constructed in 1923–25 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company
Pacific Coast Borax Company
The Pacific Coast Borax Company was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis "Borax" Smith, the "Borax King".-History:...
. The U-shaped complex of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture style adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
buildings included company offices, employees' headquarters, a dormitory and a 23-room hotel with a dining room, lobby and store. At the northeast end of the complex was a recreation hall used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings.
Adobe illustrated
Marta Becket rented the recreation hall in 1967, then known as Corkhill Hall, began repairs, created the sets, painted murals on the adobe walls and renamed it the Amargosa Opera House. In 1970, journalists from National Geographic discovered Becket doing a performance at the Amargosa Opera House without an audience. Their profile and another in LifeLife (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
led to an international interest in Becket and her theater. She began performing to visitors from around the world, including such notables as Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
and Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
. In 1983, the Opera House bought 120 theater seats from the Boulder City Theater in Boulder City, Nevada
Boulder City, Nevada
Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately from the City of Las Vegas. As of the 2010 census the population of Boulder City was 15,023.Boulder City is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibit gambling....
to replace the worn garden chairs needing retirement.
Operas and lodging
Becket is performing in her theater currently and is preparing for the 2011 - 2012 season. Becket will perform sunday afternoons at 2pm, The Amargosa Cafe and the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel are open year round for visitors from all over the world. Beyond these maintained areas, the town of Death Valley Junction is almost a ghost townGhost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
. There are no gas stations and only one restaurant. The single restaurant, The Amargosa Cafe, is part of the Opera House and Hotel. www.amargosaoperahouse.com
Location
The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is located on California State Route 127California State Route 127
State Route 127 is a California state highway that connects Interstate 15 to Nevada State Route 373, passing through Death Valley National Park....
in Death Valley Junction at the junction of National Scenic Byway
National Scenic Byway
A National Scenic Byway is a road recognized by the United States Department of Transportation for its archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and/or scenic qualities. The program was established by Congress in 1991 to preserve and protect the nation's scenic but often...
, California State Route 190
California State Route 190
State Route 190 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that is split into two parts by the Sierra Nevada. The western portion of begins at Tipton at a junction with State Route 99 and heads east towards Porterville before ending at Quaking Aspen in the Sequoia National Forest...
, California State Route 12, Furnace Creek
Furnace Creek, California
Furnace Creek is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States. The population was 24 at the 2010 census, down from 31 at the 2000 census. The elevation of the village is below sea level....
Inn area and Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park is a national park in the U.S. states of California and Nevada located east of the Sierra Nevada in the arid Great Basin of the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a diverse desert environment of salt-flats, sand dunes,...
, 27 miles (43 km) northeast. South is the town of Shoshone, California
Shoshone, California
Shoshone is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States. Shoshone is located on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad east of Epaulet Peak, at an elevation of 1585 feet . The population was 31 at the 2010 census, down from 52 at the 2000 census.The town was founded in 1910...
and the Tecopa Hot Springs
Tecopa, California
Tecopa is a census-designated place in the Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California, United States. Tecopa is located south-southeast of Shoshone, at an elevation of . The population was 150 at the 2010 census, up from 99 at the 2000 census.One of Tecopa's popular features is its natural hot...
. The Nevada state line is five miles to the northeast.
Films
As the Lost Highway Hotel, it was featured in David LynchDavid Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's Lost Highway.
Amargosa (2000), Todd Robinson's documentary about the Amargosa Hotel and Marta Becket won a 2003 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for cinematographer Curt Apduhan
Curt Apduhan
Curt Apduhan is an Emmy Award winning director of photography known for his work in feature documentaries. Apduhan's contributions to director Todd Robinson's documentary film Amargosa, a study of artist Marta Becket earned the cinematographer the NATAS 2002 News/Documentary Emmy for outstanding...
, in addition to the film's numerous festival awards and nominations.
Features
- Amargosa RiverAmargosa RiverThe Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into...
- Amargosa ValleyAmargosa ValleyThe Amargosa Valley is a Nevada landform east of the Amargosa Range that is the eponym for the town of Amargosa Valley, Nevada. The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad ran through the valley from 1906 to 1940.-Solar thermal plant:...
- Amargosa Pupfish StationAmargosa Pupfish StationThe Amargosa Pupfish Station is a protected Pupfish wildlife refuge, part of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex, is administered by the U.S...
- Ash Meadows National Wildlife RefugeAsh Meadows National Wildlife RefugeThe Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located west-northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, in southern Nye County...
History
- Death Valley RailroadDeath Valley RailroadThe Death Valley Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad that operated in California's Death Valley.It was built in 1914 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company to carry borax with the route running from Ryan, California, located just east of Death Valley National Park, to Death Valley Junction, a distance...
- Tonopah and Tidewater RailroadTonopah and Tidewater RailroadThe Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the T&T, was a class II railroad extending through remote reaches of the Mojave Desert from the Santa Fe Railway railhead at Ludlow, California, through Death Valley and Amargosa Valley, terminating at the Mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield in the Great Basin...
- Horton, CaliforniaHorton, CaliforniaHorton is a former settlement in Inyo County, California.It was located at the junction of the Death Valley and Tonopah and Tidewater Railroads east-southeast Death Valley Junction.The name honors Ben Horton, railroad company official....
- Lila C, CaliforniaLila C, CaliforniaLila C is a former settlement in Inyo County, California. It was located southwest of Death Valley Junction, at an elevation of 2562 feet .-Borax Company:...
- Francis Marion SmithFrancis Marion SmithFrancis Marion Smith was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California.Frank Smith created the extensive interurban public transit Key System in Oakland, the East Bay,...
, the "Borax King" - Ryan, CaliforniaRyan, CaliforniaRyan is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California.[1] It lies at an elevation of 3045 feet south of the Amargosa Desert in the Mojave Desert.[1]...
- Tonopah and Tidewater RailroadTonopah and Tidewater RailroadThe Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the T&T, was a class II railroad extending through remote reaches of the Mojave Desert from the Santa Fe Railway railhead at Ludlow, California, through Death Valley and Amargosa Valley, terminating at the Mining towns of Tonopah and Goldfield in the Great Basin...
, the "T&T" - Pacific Borax Company
- Marta BecketMarta BecketMarta Becket is an actress, dancer, choreographer and painter who performed for more than four decades at her own theater, the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California...
- Amargosa