The Mizpah Hotel: Tonopah's Silver-Era Survivor

The Mizpah Hotel opened in Tonopah, Nevada, in nineteen oh eight, two years after the town's silver boom was already making Nevada's new mining camp one of the most talked-about places in the American West. At five stories, it was the tallest building in Nevada at the time of its construction. Local legend says Jack Dempsey worked here before he became heavyweight champion, though Dempsey denied it. The hotel hosted the social life of a mining town producing millions in silver annually.

The Mizpah closed in nineteen ninety-nine, long after Tonopah's boom-era peak. It sat vacant for more than a decade. A restoration effort reopened it in two thousand eleven, restoring its pressed-tin ceilings, original elevator cage, and Victorian-era rooms. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and regularly rated one of the most haunted hotels in Nevada. The ghost of a woman known as the Lady in Red is the local favorite. The hotel is named for the Mizpah Mine, and it was built of reinforced concrete with steam heat. Today it has forty seven rooms, a bar, two restaurants, one of them the Jack Dempsey Room, and a casino.