Time Traveling: Goldwell Open Air Museum, Beatty, Nevada

Good morning, virtual fellow travelers. For today's time traveling, let's back up about a week to our visit to the Goldwell Open Air Museum near Beatty, Nevada. The "museum" is located just outside Death Valley National Park, and close to the small town of Beatty. As we left the park, we found the usual throng of visitors climbing the sign and messing up my pictures. Honestly, the nerve of some people. 

Leaving the park, it's only a few yards more before crossing into the state of Nevada. During our visit to Death Valley, we crossed the border about half a dozen times in our sight-seeing adventures.

We were hoping to see some wild burros, but saw none on this trip.

As we headed toward the museum, we noted some mining activity off in the distance. As we approached, I realized we were headed right there. The collection of structures in the image below is the open air museum . . .

and the ghost town of Rhyolite.

Just prior to reaching Rhyolite, the museum appears. 

And what a weird place this is! It's been about 15 years since our first visit to Rhyolite, and I don't remember any of this stuff, although...according to their literature...it should have been there then. The first sculpture we encountered was the Ghost Rider created by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. Ask me no questions, I'll give you no answers...because, frankly, I have no answers for what I'm about to show you.

I learned about this place from a random Facebook post, and we figured we'd come take a look. What an eclectic collection of stuff. This next image shows a "Tribute to Shorty Harris," a legendary prospector in Rhyolite. His hopeful companion, a penguin, represents the artist who always felt out of place in the desert.

Moving on, the work known as "Sit Here!" created by artist Sofie Siegmann. It was originally created as an artist-in-residence project for a museum in Las Vegas. The couch was rescued, relocated, and rehabilitated at Goldwell in 2007.

I walked around, taking pictures from different angles.

Anyone feel inspired to make a quilt from this?

In the image below, I was trying to take a fractured selfie, but it didn't work very well.

Here...a collection of cairns. And...why???

Moving on we saw "1000 in 1 Cranes." It was created by artist Cierra Pedro. The 1,000 in its name refers to the 1,000 small paper cranes that are strung together in a "senbazuru," a traditional gift at weddings and sometimes newborn babies. Here's a picture of one from Wikipedia:

The size of the metal crane is calculated to roughly equal the total size of the 1,000 paper cranes, so it is 1,000 in 1.

Beyond, you can see "Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada." Dr. Hugo Heyerman was the artist, and it refers back to classical Greek sculpture while maintaining a pixelated presence in the high-tech world of the 21st Century.

But this is what we really came to see. It is a major sculpture by Albert Szukalski, titled "The Last Supper." It is a ghostly interpretation of Christ and his disciples sited against the backdrop of the expansive Amargosa Valley. 

I moved from right to left taking pictures of the individual pieces. 

To make these life-sized ghost figures, the artist wrapped live models in fabric soaked in wet plaster and posed them as in the painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. 

When the plaster set, the model was slipped out, leaving the rigid shroud that surrounded him/her. With more refining, the artist then coated the figures with fiberglass making them impervious to weather.

In subsequent years, six additional pieces were added to the site by three other Belgian artists who were also major figures in European art with extensive exhibition records, but who chose to create in relative obscurity in the Nevada desert.

This next one is known as the "Serving Ghost," and it was a private commission donated to the museum by Art & Patricia Adams. Originally, the ghost was serving from a set of vertical wooden bottles that eventually disintegrated. The low profile artist's palette was more recently added.

Okay...so that was interesting. Also seen: these concentric circles of rocks.

These next two images are the front and back of "Icara," created by artist Dre Peeters. It represents a female counterpoint to the Greek myth of Icarus, the boy who tried to fly to the sun with wings bound in wax. The figure was hand-carved right here on site.

I'm showing you on the map in this next image the areas we explored on this trip. The red arrow marks the Leadfield ghost town. The blue "X" marks where the open air museum is. Looking farther down the map, you can see where the Furnace Creek Visitor Center is, and the campground where we stayed is marked with a red "X".

And, just for grins, I wanted you to see the remote area where the museum is located. Look below, and see nothing all around.

As we left, I took some pictures of these power poles decorated with all sorts of stuff. I believe that's a horn from a longhorn sheep.

Below, the sign for the museum gift shop was just lying on the ground. The "gift shop" was open, but there was nothing for sale aside from some framed photographs.

From there, we headed into Beatty for some lunch. Along the way, we saw this sculpture of a prospector and his mule.

What follows are some leftover images of Death Valley. There weren't many blooming things in our travels, but I always love seeing the bougainvillea in Furnace Creek. It's one of the things I miss most about my home state of California.

Also, some pretty potted geraniums.

The restaurants and inns in Death Valley were taken over by a private vendor some years back. A lot of work has been done sprucing up all of the buildings. Here's a plaque explaining the history of Furnace Creek Ranch.

The whole area has been under construction during the past couple of years, but it appears close to being finished. We just wandered around looking at the new structures. Here, there was a demonstration set up for chipping flint to make arrow heads. The largest of the ones shown here were about 6 inches in length.

I was happy they'd left some of the biggest trees despite building new structures all around. There isn't much shade in Furnace Creek, and these trees were very nice.

There was a van parked nearby. I liked this drawing of the woman on a bicycle. I had a mind to try it as a quilting motif sometime. And, you know...this is exactly how I looked on the day I broke my shoulder! Really! Would I lie?

There is horseback riding in the park now, and I believe that might be new. We took a look at the horses and mules. There were about 15 in all while we were there.

This one approached the fence looking for handouts.

There's now a nice collection of small cabins where visitors can stay...those who can afford the steep price of a night's stay, that is. It's *very* expensive.

It looks nice though.

Look at these pretty door decorations.

And my photographer's eye liked the perspective in the image below.

There was a nice gift shop with some pretty stuff. I took this next picture for my pig-loving friend, Sue.

Walking back to the campground, we saw this. You see all kinds of people with different and creative RV set-ups. Here, a trailer was loaded onto the flat bed of a truck. They'd removed one of the wheels in order to clear the wheel well of the truck. 

After a couple of coolish days, the warm weather had returned. We found the kitties melted on the bed like so much tiger butter.

Yeah...high-strung, they are.

When I scaled the orange upside-down cake down to make it "for two," I had an extra orange. I didn't know how many I'd need. One is plenty, and so I had this leftover orange. What could I do but bake another cake with it?

There's a nice restaurant at The Inn at Death Valley just up the hill from the campground. We used to get dinner there, but it has gotten so expensive that we no longer do that, mainly out of protest. Instead, we usually get drinks and appetizers, and maybe a dessert to go. I already had dessert, but we headed up for drinks. I had my usual pretty Prickly Pear Margarita.

We shared a charcuterie board, and that was plenty for a dinner. I asked about the desserts, but nothing sounded better than the orange upside-down cake we already had back at the RV.

And, like the program, that brings an end to our Death Valley Days. (Please tell me you're old enough to remember when that program was on television.) So, now you're caught up on that internet-less portion of the trip. I have a quilt shop to tell you about, but that will have to wait. It's time for breakfast, and time to get back on the road.