Inside Nevada’s Belmont Courthouse: A pictorial

Click the image above to view a slideshow of Nevada’s historic Belmont Courthouse.

Belmont Courthouse State Historic Park is located 45 miles northeast of Tonopah via U.S. Highway 6, State Route 376 and Monitor Valley Road.

Built in 1876, the Belmont Courthouse was the seat of Nye County government until 1905. The building is partially restored and offers a glimpse into Nevada’s colorful past. Although no developed facilities are available, camping and picnic facilities are available on nearby public lands or the U. S. Forest Service Pine Creek Campground in the Monitor Valley, located 20 miles north of Belmont via Nevada Highway 82.

There are no public park facilities at Belmont and no tourist services available in Belmont. The Courthouse is open to the public. Contact Region 3 Headquarters office at (775) 867-3001 for information.

Visit parks.nv.gov/bc.htm for more information.

A mark of Manson (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Cultist’s name left in Nevada ghost town
Reproduced in full from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Investigators just wrapped up a fruitless dig for bodies at Charles Manson’s hide-out in California in Death Valley, but you don’t need a shovel to find what the Manson family might have left at one Nevada ghost town.

If someone is around to let you inside the old Nye County courthouse in Belmont, you can look for it on a door frame on the first floor — a simple patch of graffiti that now carries haunting undertones.

Many old-timers in central Nevada believe the mark was left by a member of the doomsday cult, maybe even Charlie himself. And though state officials and historians won’t confirm the notion, they don’t exactly reject it either.

“I have more reason to believe it than I do not to believe it,” said Eric Johnson, region manager for the Nevada Division of State Parks.

“It’s hard tellin’,” added Tonopah native and historian Bill Metscher. “To me, it’s entirely possible.”

Even State Archivist Guy Rocha, a man who has dedicated his career to busting fantastic-sounding historical myths, doesn’t completely dismiss the story of the Manson family in Belmont.

For one thing, he saw the graffiti himself decades ago.

“There is something there that relates to the Manson family. Whether they put it there, I don’t know,” Rocha said. “It’s a long-standing belief. It’s claimed. I don’t know how you verify it forensically.”