Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building and cultural center located in Death Valley Junction, in eastern Inyo County, California near Death Valley National Park. Resident artist Marta Becket has staged dance and mime shows there since the late 1960s. The Death Valley Junction Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The theater was part of a company town designed by architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch and constructed in 1923–25 by the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The U-shaped complex of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture style adobe buildings included company offices, employees' headquarters, a dormitory and a 23-room hotel with a dining room, lobby and store. At the northeast end of the complex was a recreation hall used as a community center for dances, church services, movies, funerals and town meetings.[1][2]
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Marta Becket rented the recreation hall in 1967, then known as Corkhill Hall, began repairs, created the sets, painted murals on the adobe walls and renamed it the Amargosa Opera House.[3] In 1970, journalists from National Geographic discovered Becket doing a performance at the Amargosa Opera House without an audience. Their profile and another in Life led to an international interest in Becket and her theater. She began performing to visitors from around the world, including such notables as Ray Bradbury and Red Skelton.[4] In 1983, the Opera House bought 120 theater seats from the Boulder City Theater in Boulder City, Nevada to replace the worn garden chairs needing retirement.
Becket is performing in her theater currently and is preparing for the 2011 - 2012 season. Becket will perform sunday afternoons at 2pm, The Amargosa Cafe and the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel are open year round for visitors from all over the world. Beyond these maintained areas, the town of Death Valley Junction is almost a ghost town. There are no gas stations and only one restaurant. The single restaurant, The Amargosa Cafe, is part of the Opera House and Hotel. www.amargosaoperahouse.com
The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is located on California State Route 127 in Death Valley Junction at the junction of National Scenic Byway, California State Route 190, California State Route 12, Furnace Creek Inn area and Death Valley National Park, 27 miles (43 km) northeast.[5][6] South is the town of Shoshone, California and the Tecopa Hot Springs. The Nevada state line is five miles to the northeast.
As the Lost Highway Hotel, it was featured in David Lynch's Lost Highway.[7]
Amargosa (2000), Todd Robinson's documentary about the Amargosa Hotel and Marta Becket won a 2003 Emmy Award for cinematographer Curt Apduhan, in addition to the film's numerous festival awards and nominations.[8]