Amargosa Opera House and Hotel. She painted her own audience.

The Pacific Coast Borax Company built the complex between 1923 and 1925 as the civic center of its company town. The U-shaped Spanish Colonial Revival building, designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch, held company offices, a hotel, a lobby, a store, a dormitory for miners and a social hall. The social hall, Corkill Hall, hosted community dances, church services and movies.

Mining left the area in 1928, and the hotel opened to the public. The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel went on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

One more piece of trivia: David Lynch filmed part of Lost Highway here in 1997.

Marta Becket, a ballet dancer from New York City, lived from August 9, 1924, to January 30, 2017.

In March 1967 she was on a break from touring her one-woman show. She and her husband stopped in Death Valley Junction to fix a flat tire at the gas station across the street. Exploring the empty buildings, she peeked through a hole in the back door of Corkill Hall and found a wreck: flood mud on the floor, rust stains from a leaking roof. The manager rented it to her for $45 a month, as long as she handled the repairs. The deal was sealed with a promissory note and a dollar bill. The couple came back that August with their belongings.

They leveled the floor, extended the stage and painted the walls white. Her first performance was February 10, 1968, for an audience of 12. Life magazine reported the night’s gross: $11.25.

The murals

Later in 1968 a torrential rain flooded the hall. Clearing out 16 inches of muddy water, Becket decided to paint an audience. The King and Queen of Spain hold court on the back wall, with nobles and a bullfighting family beside them. Two of her first cats, Tuxedo and Rhubarb, sleep on red velvet cushions in the corners. The walls took four years. The ceiling, with 16 ladies playing antique instruments, took two more.

A January 1970 National Geographic story put her on the map, and real audiences followed. Travel Nevada says her final show was in February 2012. She died in 2017 at 92. The nonprofit she founded keeps the place going.

Tours

• When: daily at 9 AM and 6 PM.
• Price: $20 adults, $10 children.
• How: pay at the hotel front desk, open 8 AM to 8 PM daily. Large groups call ahead at (760) 852-4441.

Shows

The nonprofit schedules a performance season in the old hall, including an anniversary show on or around February 10, the date of Becket’s first performance. The most recent show on the site was a Mother’s Day matinee on May 9, 2026, with $30 tickets. Tickets go through the box office at (760) 852-4441.

The hotel wing was built with the rest of the complex, 1923 to 1925, to house visiting investors of the borax company. It opened to the public after the mining moved out in 1928. It was modern for its day, with central cooling and heating and skylights in every bathroom. The dining room had white-glove service.

After the 1981 National Register listing, Becket painted murals through the hotel too. The guest dining room is a trompe l’oeil Spanish courtyard with a guitar resting on a chair. Rooms carry cherubs, peacock feathers and statues. Room 22 has a ballerina dancing on a ball and a troupe of acrobats, dedicated to Red Skelton, a close friend who stayed in that room several times.

Hotels in Death Valley Junction

The Amargosa Hotel still takes guests, year-round. It has 16 rooms, air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter. There are no TVs or phones, on purpose: the hotel wants you listening to the quiet and looking at what it calls some of the darkest night skies in North America. The guest dining room has a fridge, freezer, ice machine, microwave, toaster oven, coffee and tea around the clock. Book through the front desk at (760) 852-4441, open 8 AM to 8 PM daily.

The Opera House’s own pages make no ghost claims. Here is what they do say. Becket often painted herself as the dust devil, “a ghostly figure spiralling up out of nowhere.” The site adds that her spirit is eternal, and that many people who enter the hall feel her creative force.

That is the owner’s version. We will leave the lights on.

Death Valley Junction is a crossroads in Inyo County, California, at Highway 127 and State Line Road, where Highway 190 heads west into Death Valley. Amargosa Valley, Nevada, is about seven miles north.

Death Valley Junction history

It was a company town for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which mined in nearby Death Valley. The Opera House and Hotel building was its civic center. The mining moved out in 1928. By the time Becket arrived in 1967, she was poking around abandoned buildings.

Is it a ghost town? Not quite. The Opera House, the hotel and a campground still run, and the nonprofit is restoring the adobe walls, the wiring, the plumbing and the murals.

Camping

The Death Valley Junction Campground, owned by the Timbisha Shoshone, sits at Highways 190 and 127: 20 pull-through sites for RVs or tents, each with a picnic table and fire ring. It is dry camping, open 24 hours, debit or credit card only.

The Amargosa Café in the Opera House complex is closed for the season, according to the Opera House site on October 1, 2026. Its last menu ran breakfast all day, from local free-range eggs to house-made focaccia and granola, with wraps, a chicken bánh mì and pizza from 11:30 AM. The café line is (760) 852-4432.

Fuel

Heading north, the Longstreet in Amargosa Valley sells gas and diesel about 8 miles up the road. Heading south, Shoshone has gas about 27 miles away. Fill the tank in Pahrump.

More food and fuel nearby: Amargosa Valley and Shoshone.

From the Opera House’s own planning notes:

• Summer: days typically 110 to 120°F for four months, with nights that may only drop to 95°F. August and September are monsoon season, and thunderstorms show up fast.
• Winter: days 60 to 80°F from November through March. Nights can freeze, and humidity can sit at 10 percent or less.
• Best time: November through April.

Ground water is only about 9 feet down, and the Junction is the low point in the area, so runoff from the mountains heads its way. It floods.

• From Pahrump: north on Nevada 160, then west on Bell Vista Road to the state line. About 30 miles, about 45 minutes.
• From Amargosa Valley: about 8 miles south of the Longstreet on Nevada 373, which becomes Highway 127.
• From Shoshone: about 27 miles north on Highway 127, about 40 minutes.
• To Furnace Creek: 30 miles west on Highway 190.

Drive times are from a routing service, rounded.

Make a loop of it: Ash Meadows is next door, Shoshone, Tecopa and the Tecopa hot springs are south, and Beatty is north on US 95. For the big park itself, see our Death Valley guide.