Amargosa Opera House and Hotel

Road Trip ~ eastern Sierras ~ Death Valley Junction

I end my eastern Sierras road trip posts with a tribute to hands down the creepiest and most fascinating place I have ever spent the night, let alone three nights! But first I must digress.

For all the years I've lived in California, I've never gotten it through my head that it's tough to be spontaneous in a state with millions of residents and even millions more visitors. It's especially tough when kids are out of school and everyone is on family vacation. Yet we chose to take a "spontaneous" week in the eastern Sierras. We did concede that Death Valley might be a bit of a challenge because accommodations are sparse there, so it's the only place we made advance reservations. Now when I say "advance," I'm talking a week or two out. And that turned out to be the introduction to a place we never, ever would have known existed, let alone stayed at.

I am talking about Death Valley Junction, or more precisely the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel. Let's just call a spade a spade. There is nothing in this quasi-ghost town except the hotel which has a teeny cafe attached to it. No gas station. No bona fide restaurant. No homes. No nothing except the turn to Las Vegas. But since Death Valley and the surrounding area was full, when I googled accommodations the Amargosa was the only place left .

It looked "quaint" yet interesting. The reviews swung wildly from "you have to add this to your list of I-did-it experiences" to "never, ever would I stay at this dump again." So my husband and I being game (and a bit desperate) booked not one, but three nights at the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel.

We arrived early evening after driving past the place twice, not believing it was literally the only place in town. The clerk checked us in and gave us "one of Red Skeleton's favorite rooms." From the get-go we thought, "okay, thisssssssss is going to be interesting," but we never expected to want to bolt from our room the minute we entered it. Let's be very clear, a five-star hotel this was not. This wasn't even half a star. The place was clean, the linens were fresh and the bed was comfy. We even had hot and cold running water in the bathroom. The problem was the general condition of the room. And then there was that smell (which turned out to be an over generous use of powdered carpet cleaner ~ we couldn't bring ourselves to walk barefoot on it).

So time for a history lesson on the place. Built in 1923-25, the U-shaped adobe building was part of a town constructed by the Pacific Coast Borax Company for its employees mining borax out of Death Valley. It included offices, a dormitory, hotel, dining room and store. At one end was a community center for dances, church, funerals and meetings. In the late 1960's, a wanna-be and fast-becoming has-been actress, Marta Beckett, rented out the hall to perform (sometimes to no one but the "audience" she had painted on the walls). After an article appeared about her in both National Geographic and Life Magazine, she began attracting visitors such as Red Skeleton and Ray Bradbury.

In its hay-day, it must have been a gem in the middle of nowhere (about 85 northwest of Vegas). Marta painted colorful murals on the walls in the halls, the rooms, the lobby and elsewhere. But the place has seen its better days. Marta stopped performing at the end of the 2008-2009 season and the building is very run down (someone told us she still lives in an apartment on the second floor). Registered on the National Historic Registry, it's a now a non-profit operation that barely makes it. Plaster is falling off the walls, the adobe is cracked, wall unit air conditioners are boarded into the windows and the carpets need replacing. And would somebody please dust the office that is filled with Marta memorabilia!

We decided to stay the full three nights, despite the creepiness of the place because, honestly, it fascinated us. And we didn't have anyplace else to stay. And we got to change our room. And Europeans must google this hotel because they filled the place. And we met some very interesting people who were attracted to its history.

So our review ~ "a once in a lifetime experience." Only once.