Another hotel although it is unlikely to be habitable now.   It was the Hyena House Hotel in Calico on the edge of rocky canyons and mountains in the Mojave Desert. The hotel was established in 1881 when the silver rush begun after silver was found in 1875. It was a four storey structure built into an overhanging cliff with natural cavities in the rock forming rooms and the exterior walls were made mostly from the staves of barrels. Subsequently when provisions arrived to supply the busy little town they were able to use the wood from barrels and crates.  The owner would sometimes meet the stagecoach and offer free transport to his hotel in a wheelbarrow.  In 1881 silver was fetching high prices from the many nearby mines and a large settlement grew up. Soon there were three hotels, five general stores, a market, several saloons, three restaurants, boarding houses and brothels spreading out along the main street of Calico.  It was probably typical of towns built during the time of gold and silver rushes. A few years  later borax was also discovered but the silver mines were abandoned after producing $20 million and Calico became a ghost town. The borax mines continued a little longer but were abandoned in 1907 after yielding $9 million worth of borax minerals.

In the 1950s a local man purchased Calico and, with the help of people who once lived or worked there, restored many of the original buildings and included some from elsewhere to look as they did in the 1880s.  Today it is a popular tourist location recognised as the Official State Silver Rush Ghost Town where gold panning, mine tours and rides on the original narrow track railroad can be taken.

In the distance can be seen the bare sandy Mojave Desert and when we drove further west we had a view of many airliners parked. the Mojave Airport.. The airport is also a storage facility for commercial airliners, due to its vast area and dry, low-humidity desert conditions.  Often large major airlines are stored till needed again or refurbished and returned to active service or even scrapped. It is also used for flight training and testing.