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You are here: Home / Destinations / Clown Motel and Tonopah Cemetery, Nevada

Clown Motel and Tonopah Cemetery, Nevada

July 13, 2015 by Nutty Hiker Last Modified: March 17, 202217 Comments

My husband isn’t a fan of clowns and by not a fan I mean hates them with a passion and won’t go near them. So when we decided to go on our road trip, my Mom (thanks Mom) saw a link for a clown motel that was along the way!

It sounded like a good time to me, so I put it on our list of stops. My husband of course wasn’t as happy, but happy wife, happy life is what he always says =).

Situated right next to it is the Old Tonopah Cemetery which was started on May 7, 1901. The cemetery served the town of Tonopah until 1911 when it became full and a new cemetery had to be established a mile west of town.

The cemetery which has over 300 bodies buried contains many of Tonopah’s pioneer residents. Those from the 1902 “Tonopah sickness” (which claimed about 20 lives) and victims of the Tonopah-Belmont mine fire of February 23, 1911 (which claimed 14 lives) are also buried here.

It is said the cemetery and even the hotel are haunted. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay the night to find out. I would have loved too, but Jerry well he has no intentions. See it’s not the ghosts he was worried about; he thought that an evil clown might haunt the motel.

So when we pulled up, Jerry was really hesitant to get out and go in the office. I somehow managed to get him in there. Imagine how quickly he departed after seeing the inside (sorry for the not so great pics, I was using my cell phone):

Clown Motel & Tonopah Cemetery Nevada

Clown Motel Tonopah Cemetery Nevada

I sat and talked to the attendant in the office for a while to get some information and found out that Ghost Adventures came out in January and did a lockdown to investigate the hotel and cemetery. The episode is supposed to air later this year on October 24th. How cool is that? Anyway, I turned around to Jerry to ask him “How cool is that?” and realized he departed the office at some point.

I thanked the attendant for the info and set out to find my husband. He had headed on over to the cemetery and was looking around.

clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-9 clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-8 clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-7 clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-6 clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-5 clown-motel-tonopah-nevada-4

We both concluded that the cemetery was haunted. Mid July in Nevada, temp was high 90’s and yet when you stood in front of a particular grave, it felt like you were standing in a cold air-conditioned room. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. I won’t tell you which grave it was as I will let you find it for yourself. Trust me you will know when you find it and if you do, leave a comment below!

So if you are ever in Nevada and want a wacky off beat site to stop at; stop at the Clown Motel and Tonopah Cemetery in Tonopah, Nevada. They don’t have a website, but here is their information if you want to stop in:

Clown Motel & Tonopah Cemetery Nevada

521 N. Main St.
Tonopah, Nevada 89049
775-482-5920

Download the old newspaper article about the cemetery here.

Filed Under: Destinations, Nevada Tagged With: Cemetery, Odd & Wacky

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michele Gatlin says

    July 13, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Oh thats not right scary i hate clowns…lol

    Reply
  2. Cassie Hocking-Morrow says

    July 13, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Meanie….

    Reply
  3. Andrea Marie says

    July 13, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    Lmao nice

    Reply
  4. Christina Foliart says

    July 13, 2015 at 9:07 pm

    Lmao. Lemmee guess u stayed in the truck.

    Reply
  5. Mikie Taylor says

    July 13, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    Well, how’d he do?

    Reply
  6. Bridget Carlson says

    July 14, 2015 at 12:24 am

    He did fine…walked in with my urging then walked right back out and to the graveyard that’s right next to it.

    Reply
    • Christina Foliart says

      July 14, 2015 at 12:30 am

      lol

      Reply
  7. Bridget Carlson says

    October 20, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    Mom(Mikie), I know you wanted to see this since you were the one that told us about it =)

    Reply
  8. Mikie Taylor says

    October 20, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    Pretty cool. I’d love to visit both places.

    Reply
  9. Nathan Escoffier says

    October 20, 2015 at 10:11 pm

    My wife wouldn’t stay there going through tonopah

    Reply
  10. Bridget Carlson says

    October 21, 2015 at 1:37 am

    Yea my husband hated it, well the hotel part anyway, he’s scared of clowns =)

    Reply
  11. TheRidgelineReport says

    May 2, 2018 at 7:43 am

    I don’t have a particular fear of clowns but I feel as though this would create one… yikes. Super spooky but also super cool. I love finding weird and crazy things when you least expect it!!

    Reply
  12. Delisa Zak | Destination: Overlooked says

    May 2, 2018 at 9:50 am

    Oh so creepy! clowns are towards the top of my list of “nope”s. Interesting about the cemetery, although I’m not sure I would go since it’s not really my thing.

    Reply
  13. airmailadventures says

    May 2, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    This is a pretty unique experience and one I’ve never heard of. ..thanks for sharing. But I’m with your husband on this one, a quick pop in would be enough for me! ?

    Reply
  14. resrutt says

    May 3, 2018 at 3:58 am

    Nice travel tip for the future, thank you!

    Reply
  15. Alexander Popkov says

    May 3, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    Oh hahahahah! Clown motel! You sold it to me. So lovely to see a place to stay with such an original design. That would be a fun stay.

    Reply
  16. Varsha says

    May 4, 2018 at 9:27 am

    I am not sure if I liked this motel or not. I think I have to check it myself ;)

    Reply

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