When mining ended in the area in 1928, the Amargosa Hotel was remodeled and opened to the public. The historic hotel was built between 19 and was originally part of the Pacific Coast Borax Company‘s town center that was established for their mining activities. Amargosa Hotel, Death Valley Junction Amargosa Hotel Death Valley JunctionĪmargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building featuring a low-key quirky hotel near Death Valley National Park. The temperature can go down to the freezing point. Since Death Valley Junction is located in the California desert, temperatures can also get very low, especially during the night. In winter, the temperatures are milder during the day. It only cools down a little bit at night. At the peak of the summer, it can get scorching hot at Death Valley Junction. Just like in Death Vally National Park, the weather in Death Valley Junction is very, very hot and dry during the summer. When we visited it was closed, unfortunately. They have seasonal opening hours and are only open over the weekend from Friday to Monday. The Amargosa Cafe is also not open all the time. Other than the Amargosa Cafe there are no restaurants in Death Valley Junction. Amargosa Hotel & Cafe, the only Death Valley Junction restaurant Death Valley Junction Restaurants The drive between Shoshone and Death Valley Junction is about half an hour. There is no gas station at Death Valley Junction, so plan ahead and fill up your tank inside the national park or in nearby historic town Shoshone. The population of Death Valley Junction is less than 4 inhabitants. The artist Marta Becket brought the Amargosa Opera House to life with her stage dance and mime shows.įrom the late 1960s until her last show in 2012 she ran the show which was attended by many national and international tourists traveling through the area of Death Valley Junction.ĭeath Valley Junction plaque Death Valley Junction Populationĭoes anyone live in death valley? Yes, but only a handful of people. The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building featuring the famous Amargosa opera house, hotel and cafe.Īmargosa Opera House & Hotel is located at the Death Valley Junction, in California’s Inyo County East of Death Valley National Park. Amargosa Opera House Death Valley Amargosa Opera House Death Valley Junction As an Amazon Associate, we may earn a small commission when you use the links and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. But at the time, I was too busy peeking through windows, staring at Marta’s costumes and photographs….Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links. I didn’t even realise then – not before I started reading more about it, that the hotel would probably be better known to many as the ‘Lost Highway Hotel’ from David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997). I was not fortunate enough to catch one of her performances – I hadn’t even heard of Marta Becket or the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, before our trip in 2019! She only stopped performing in 2012, at the age of eighty-eight. The building seemed to be saying, ‘Take me… Do something with me… I offer you life.’” Īmargosa Opera House was born and it became Marta’s stage, home and life. Marta wrote in her memoir: “As I peered through the tiny hole, I had the distinct feeling that I was looking at the other half of myself. While her husband was taking care of the car, Marta walked around the building, realised it was an abandoned theatre and decided there and then that it was waiting for her to bring it back to life. We learn that in 1967, a flat tyre brought Marta Becket – a New York City born artist – and her husband, to this very garage you see in the first picture for repairs. Next to it, Corkill Hall – an entertainment centre with a built-in stage where the dances, weddings, movies, church services and other community events took place. Here we are, at the Death Valley Junction, looking in amazement at the Mexican Colonial adobe building, constructed in 1924 to house the Pacific Coast Borax Company’s offices and labourers’ quarters, and a twenty-three-room hotel welcoming the mining town’s many visitors. Marfa, for all its artistic weirdness, does not even come close – not by a long shot. About five miles past the border line, in the middle of nowhere and well underway to the Death Valley, a building complex housing a hotel, a café, an exhibition space and an opera house.