Amargosa Opera House and Hotel

When Marta Becket rented and repaired Corkhill Hall in 1967, she changed the name to the Amargosa Opera House.

Amargosa Opera House, interior painting by Marta Becket.

Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building and cultural center located in Death Valley Junction, in eastern Inyo County, California near Death Valley National Park. Resident artist Marta Becket staged dance and mime shows there from the late 1960s until her final show in February 2012.^[1] The Death Valley Junction Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The theater was part of a company town designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch and constructed in 1923–25 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The U-shaped complex of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture style adobe 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.^[2][3]

History

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.^[4] In 1970, journalists from National Geographic discovered Becket doing a performance at the Amargosa Opera House without an audience. Their profile and another in Life 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 and Red Skelton.^[5] In 1983, the Opera House bought 120 theater seats from the Boulder City Theater in Boulder City, Nevada to replace the worn garden chairs needing retirement.

Operas and lodging

The Amargosa Cafe and the Amargosa 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 town. There are no gas stations and only one restaurant. The single restaurant, the Amargosa Cafe, is part of the Opera House and Hotel.

Location

The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is located on California State Route 127 in Death Valley Junction at the junction of National Scenic Byway, California State Route 190, California State Route 127, Furnace Creek Inn area and Death Valley National Park, 27 miles (43 km) northeast.^[6][7] South is the town of Shoshone, California, and the Tecopa Hot Springs. The Nevada state line is five miles to the northeast.

Films

As the Lost Highway Hotel, it was featured in David Lynch's Lost Highway.^[8]

Amargosa (2000), Todd Robinson's documentary about the Amargosa Hotel and Marta Becket won a 2003 Emmy Award for cinematographer Curt Apduhan, in addition to the film's numerous festival awards and nominations.^[9]

Local interest

Features

• Amargosa River
• Amargosa Valley
• Amargosa Pupfish Station
• Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

History

• Death Valley Railroad
• Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad
• Horton, California
• Lila C, California
• Francis Marion Smith, the "Borax King"
• Ryan, California
• Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the "T&T"
• Pacific Borax Company
• Amargosa

See also

• Death Valley

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amargosa Opera House

• Amargosa Opera House official site
• Amargosa Museum
• Photo gallery of the Amargosa Opera House at Flickr
• Flickr gallery