last look
More than 65 people attended a group tour of Belmont Courthouse during a weekend in mid-May. DONNA MOTIS
Tour the Historic Belmont Courthouse The Friends of the Belmont Courthouse is a nonprofit organization established to preserve and restore the historic brick building in the tiny central Nevada town of Belmont. The group seeks donations for and offers tours of the courthouse, no longer a State Historic Park as of this May. “Our plan is to do scheduled tours through September,” says Donna Motis, president of Friends of the Belmont Courthouse. “We also do unscheduled tours if any of us are in Belmont when there are interested tourists.” The Belmont Courthouse, built in 1875-76 and now the property of Nye County, is worth the visit. Its well-preserved exterior belies the reality that it has been abandoned for more than a century. Inside, graffiti dating to the 1890s makes the building truly unique among Nevada attractions. In the past, the property hosted a multitude of squatters, the most notorious of which spent a few weeks there in the summer of 1969. A doorway on the first floor reads, “Charlie Manson + Family 1969,” the “o” replaced with a peace symbol. 32
N E VA D A M AG A Z I N E . C O M
SET UP A TOUR OR DONATE Friends of the Belmont Courthouse P.O. Box 985, Tonopah, NV 89049 belmontcourthouse.org 775-482-3968
SCHEDULED TOUR DATES *July 4, 13-14, 27-28 Aug. 10-11, 24-25, 31 (BBQ & music on Aug. 31) Sept. 1, 14-15 *All tour times are 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., with the exception of July 4. Times vary throughout the Fourth, and there’s also a town parade and barbecue that day.
WORTH A CLICK Belmont Courthouse Photo Gallery flic.kr/s/aHsjrC2mZ9