History of Beatty

History of Beatty

Native American Occupancy

The Oasis Valley remained isolated until the late 1870s. The only occupants up to that time were the Western Shoshone and Paiute Indians. Being hunter-gatherers, the Beatty area was a natural place for their temporary camps, with plenty of water and small game to support their population.

The Players

In August of 1904, Shorty Harris and Ed Cross found gold in what is now part of Death Valley National Park. Shorty, being fond of his “Ol' Be Joyful” bar whiskey, spread the word of their new mining claim. As word spread of these newfound riches, it did not take long for miners and prospectors to head into the area.

Montillius “Old Man” Beatty had been ranching and mining in this area for over 30 years. He had purchased the Lander Ranch in the spring of 1896 and settled down with his Paiute wife to ranch and raise their family. Montillius was one of three white men in the Oasis Valley at the time and always opened his home to anyone passing through on their way to the mines in Death Valley.

Robert “Bob” Montgomery, along with his brother, had founded several mines in the Panamint Range. By 1901, he had moved to Tonopah, where he worked as an optician and jeweler. When he heard about the Harris/Cross find, he hired a Shoshone Indian who had helped him in his Johnnie Mine to help locate a claim in the new mining area. The Montgomery Shoshone Mine was founded, beginning one of the biggest and shortest-lived gold rushes in the Death Valley/Nevada area.

Birth of a New Town

With all the players in place, a new town was born. Robert “Bob” Montgomery had done some mining exploration with Mr. Beatty in the late 1890s, so he was familiar with the ranch. He purchased a large area of the Beatty Ranch to plat a townsite. While the nearby town of Bullfrog was already in place, it could not supply water. Montgomery’s town had water, making it much more appealing to miners and businessmen.

The First Postmaster

Bob Montgomery named his townsite Beatty in honor of Montillius Beatty. Mr. Beatty was also the first Postmaster and seemed to thrive on all the activity happening on his old ranch. Mr. Beatty also had an interest in an area in Death Valley known as Cow Creek, alternating his time between his ranch and Cow Creek as Native Americans had done for many centuries.

Three months after the start of Beatty in October of 1904, the Busch brothers platted the town of Rhyolite. Rhyolite was destined to become the third largest town in the State of Nevada by 1908. Although Beatty never reached a population much over 650, it became the supply center for the other mining towns in the Bullfrog Mining District. With an ice house, several hotels, saloons, a newspaper, fresh produce, meat markets, and general mercantiles, Beatty had nearly everything a person could want — including plenty of water.

Beatty’s first newspaper was the Beatty Bullfrog Miner, which began publishing in 1905 and went out of business in 1909.

The Montgomery Hotel opened in 1905 at the corner of 3rd and Main. It was owned by Bob Montgomery, namesake of the Montgomery-Shoshone Mine in nearby Rhyolite. The building was dismantled and moved to Pioneer in 1909, where it later burned down. Today, a church that has been converted into VFW Post 12108 John Strozzi stands at that location.