Strong winds damage shed, upend well in Rhyolite
BEATTY — March had it backward this year. It is supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb.
In Beatty, as in the rest of the region, March 30 was a day of downed trees and flying storage sheds.
Rhyolite is notorious for its winds, which are intensified as they funnel between the mountains on either side. History has it that the first school built in the town, a wood frame building, blew over in a storm.
This storm uprooted a large Joshua tree on the grounds of the Tom Kelly Bottle House.
Caretaker Karl Olson said that a bird that had nested there for several years was “going nuts.” It also blew over the wishing well in the miniature village next to the Bottle House.
The storm also ended the show business career before it began of a wooden shed behind the Red Barn Art Center.
A company was scheduled to use the shed next month for the recording of a music video. That opportunity for fame now lies in battered shreds scattered across the desert.
Richard Stephens is a freelance writer living in Beatty.
