Rhyolite Nevada Post Office

Rhyolite Nevada Post Office History

The earliest mail delivered to Rhyolite was brought in by stage from Goldfield. Once it arrived it was placed in a box in a convenient location at Len McGarry’s general store. The citizens would examine the mail in the box, pick out what belonged to them, and leave the rest. When letters became old or illegible they were bundled and put into a barrel until someone had time to look them over or destroy them.

In the middle of February, 1905, Bill Parker opened a grocery store where a post office became established. When the stage arrived everyone gathered around the store for mail call. Someone would call off the name on a letter and the recipient would step forward to claim it.

A collection was taken once a month to pay the stage for the delivery of the mail. These collections never amount to less than $200 a month.

In the early days of the history of the Rhyolite post office, citizens had to go to Beatty for sending and/or receiving registered mail, as these services were not available in Rhyolite. There was no means of transportation at that time, so they had to walk to Beatty from Rhyolite.

The first official post office of Rhyolite opened June 17, 1905 in a 12’ X 10’ tent just north of the Southern Hotel. Mrs. Anna B Moore served as postmistress. Delivery continued in the manner as it had when located in the store.

On August 20, 1905, 2000 lock boxes, which were ordered from San Francisco, arrived. Upon the arrival of the boxes it was discovered that the tent was entirely too small. A 15’ X 24’ frame building was constructed on Broadway to house the post office. They soon outgrew this building and an addition was built on to it in November 1906, making it 15’ X 54‘.

It was report on March 31, 1907, that the Rhyolite Nevada Post Office was seventh in size in the state of Nevada. On June 10, 1907, Mrs. Moore resigned as postmistress. Her husband, M J Moore, took over as postmaster. He had been acting as assistant postmaster from the time the official post office had opened.

By December 1907, the post office was equipped with 300 lock boxes, thirty-five lock drawers, a complete money order and registry department, a 2000-pound "burglar-proof" safe, a cancelling machine, sorting cases and other fixtures needed to run a post office efficiently.

In January 1908, the John S Cook & Co. Bank Building opened on Golden Street. The post office moved into the 30’ X 70‘, basement of this building and as far as I know it remained there until it officially closed September 15, 1919.