Tonopah Historic Cemetery and Clown Motel
521 N Main St
Tonopah, NV
An old silver-camp cemetery of miners and plague victims, and the roadside clown motel that decided to move in right next door.
On the north edge of Tonopah, an old boomtown cemetery and a clown-themed motel sit side by side, an accidental pairing that has made this one of Nevada's most talked-about roadside stops. The Old Tonopah Cemetery holds the dead of the town's silver rush, and the Clown Motel, built decades later, chose the lot right next door.
The cemetery was in use only about ten years, from 1901 to 1911, but in that short span it filled with nearly 300 graves: miners killed in accidents, victims of a mysterious sickness the town called a plague, men lost in a deadly mine fire, and the ordinary settlers of a hard place. The motel next door, with its collection of clowns, is the improbable, slightly unsettling coda to their story.
What Guests Love
- Reading the weathered markers of miners, settlers, and plague victims from Tonopah's boom years
- The pure roadside-Americana strangeness of a clown-themed motel next to a pioneer cemetery
- How it distills the boom-and-bust drama of a Nevada silver camp into one small hillside
- Tonopah's famously dark night skies just overhead
Worth Knowing
- It is a real historic cemetery, so treat it with respect: stay on the paths and do not disturb the graves
- The two sites are a curiosity and a short stop, best paired with the Mining Park to fill an afternoon
- High-desert weather means strong sun, wind, and cold, snowy winters, so dress for it
- The motel leans fully into its clown theme, which delights some visitors and unnerves others
Details
Tonopah, NV
Learn about Tonopah Historic Cemetery and Clown Motel
A cemetery of the silver boom
The Old Tonopah Cemetery opened in 1901, with the first burial that May, and was used until 1911, when the town opened a new cemetery. In that decade it became the resting place of close to 300 people whose graves read like a catalog of boomtown risk: mining accidents, violence, and disease, alongside immigrants, settlers, and a few Civil War veterans.
The ground itself tells part of the story. The cemetery was built on mining tailings, and over the years drifting waste rock at one point nearly buried the markers. Simple wooden and stone headboards, many now weathered nearly blank, step across the hillside, each one a small window into a town that lived fast and buried its dead young.
The plague and the mine fire
Two events left their mark here. In 1905 a wave of deaths swept the crowded, poorly drained camp, an outbreak the town remembered as the Tonopah plague. The exact cause was never fully settled, though pneumonia and bad sanitation are the usual explanations, and dozens died in a few months.
Then, in the early hours of February 23, 1911, fire broke out deep in the Belmont Mine, and a chain of mistakes trapped and killed seventeen miners. Among them was a young man remembered as a hero for going back down to help others. Their graves, and those of the plague victims, are part of what gives this small cemetery its heavy, quiet weight.
The Clown Motel next door
The Clown Motel opened decades after the cemetery closed, and its founders leaned all the way into a clown theme, filling the lobby and rooms with hundreds of clown figures and portraits. Set immediately beside a pioneer graveyard, it became a magnet for lovers of the odd, the eerie, and the classic American roadside attraction.
The pairing is entirely accidental, a matter of which lot happened to be available, but it has made Tonopah a pilgrimage stop for road-trippers, ghost-hunters, and anyone who appreciates the surreal. Whether you find the clowns charming or unsettling, standing between them and the weathered graves is a genuinely only-in-Nevada moment.
Visiting respectfully
This is a real historic cemetery, not a set piece, so walk the paths, read the markers, and leave the graves undisturbed. It is a short stop, so most travelers pair it with the Tonopah Historic Mining Park and a look at the grand old Mizpah Hotel to make an afternoon of the town's boomtown story.
Tonopah sits high in the central Nevada desert, with strong sun, wind, and cold, snowy winters, so dress for the season. The town's exceptionally dark skies are a reason to linger after sunset, trading the daytime strangeness of clowns and graves for one of the best star-filled skies in the country.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Tonopah
Tonopah Historic Mining Park
About 1 mile south
The preserved silver mines that built Tonopah, with headframes, a glory hole, and an underground tunnel, right in town.
Mizpah Hotel
About 1 mile south
Tonopah's restored 1907 grand hotel, once the tallest building in Nevada and long rumored to be haunted.
Tonopah dark-sky stargazing
In town
Among the darkest night skies in the United States, with a dedicated stargazing park on the edge of town.