# Clown Motels And Mystery Plagues **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628 "2023-06-16T14:01:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/1 "2023-06-16T14:01:48Z")
The Thread title says it all. An Old West Mystery Plague, & a town with a {SHUDDER} Clown Motel. I nominate it for Hellgate of the year. [LINK–Yes, OG help us, it’s real.](https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/in-the-american-west-a-clown-motel-and-a-cemetery-tell-a-story-of-kitsch-and-carnage/) > In the shadow of the clowns, just across the motel’s parking lot, lies a cemetery that holds the story of a truly ghoulish history. A little over a century ago, Tonopah was a bustling silver mining town of about 3,000 residents. Then a mysterious illness decimated the population. It was one of the most nightmarish events in Nevada’s history — known as the Death Harvest. In the spring of 1905, a local newspaper began reporting that about a dozen seemingly healthy men in their 20s were dying every day of an unknown affliction that killed four out of every five men it infected. Early details coming out of the town were sparse and horrific. A victim’s neck would swell, then his skin would turn black. Most died within a day of getting sick ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/2 "2023-06-16T14:11:07Z")
> In the shadow of the clowns, just across the motel’s parking lot, lies a cemetery that holds the story of a truly ghoulish history. A little over a century ago, Tonopah was a bustling silver mining town of about 3,000 residents. Then a mysterious illness decimated the population. It was one of the most nightmarish events in Nevada’s history — known as the Death Harvest. In the spring of 1905, a local newspaper began reporting that about a dozen seemingly healthy men in their 20s were dying every day of an unknown affliction that killed four out of every five men it infected. Early details coming out of the town were sparse and horrific. A victim’s neck would swell, then his skin would turn black. Most died within a day of getting sick ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/3 "2023-06-16T14:36:00Z")
If the cause of the plague was what they say, why were only men affected? Also: clown motel! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/4 "2023-06-16T14:40:19Z")
I’m asuming the Clown Motel was built long after the Mystery Plague. But if the town was so small that its history was well-known, you gotta wonder about a guy who’d choose to build a clown-themed motel there. Heck, you gotta wonder about a guy who’d build a clown-themed motel _anywhere_ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/5 "2023-06-16T14:46:20Z")
If you build it, they will come… ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/6 "2023-06-16T14:55:10Z")
Sounds like a bad Stephen King knockoff: ‘IT’ meets ‘The Stand’. 😱 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/7 "2023-06-16T15:16:11Z")
The one vehicle in the parking lot is incongruously large. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2015-05-04_09_46_55_The_Clown_Motel_along_Main_Street_%28U.S._Routes_6_and_95%29_in_Tonopah%2C_Nevada.jpg/800px-2015-05-04_09_46_55_The_Clown_Motel_along_Main_Street_%28U.S._Routes_6_and_95%29_in_Tonopah%2C_Nevada.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/2015-05-04_09_46_55_The_Clown_Motel_along_Main_Street_%28U.S._Routes_6_and_95%29_in_Tonopah%2C_Nevada.jpg/800px-2015-05-04_09_46_55_The_Clown_Motel_along_Main_Street_%28U.S._Routes_6_and_95%29_in_Tonopah%2C_Nevada.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/8 "2023-06-16T15:26:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > you gotta wonder about a guy who’d choose to build a clown-themed motel there This is perhaps not the thread to fully explore why clowns are creepy, but I know why they’re creepy to me: when I was a kid, pediatricians’ offices everywhere were filled with clown paintings. I came to associate those clowns with being sick, and scared. But I have to assume (charitably) that those who selected the clown paintings just thought “Eh, kids like clowns.” What I’m saying is that there was a time when clowns were not default-creepy, and that time was the 1960s and prior. Hell, the motel guy might have thought “this town has a creepy reputation – let’s wash that right out of people’s minds with a clown theme” and been completely sincere about that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/9 "2023-06-16T15:44:32Z")
Betcha 50 clowns could spill out of that thing. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/10 "2023-06-16T16:01:30Z")
When I was a boy in the mid-50s to early-60s, I loved clowns. So did most of my classmates. My favorite show for awhile was _International Showtime_ (hosted by Don Ameche), and they spotlighted famous clowns around the world every week. As a kid I wanted to either be Emmett Kelly or Albert Einstein. I ended up just being a smartass. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/11 "2023-06-16T16:26:57Z")
H.P.Lovecraftian version of that quote. Clowns. Damn. 😱 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/12 "2023-06-16T16:42:50Z")
My Mom used to stay at The Clown Motel a few times a year. She had a house in Vegas and would drive from Reno and stay in Tonopah half-way. The people knew her well, and always had a room for her and her dogs. I never really asked her much about the place. She did hint that it was pretty gaudy, but nice enough. There is another Boom hitting Tonopah, and from what I hear, every room in town is booked solid, including the Clown Motel. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clown-motels-and-mystery-plagues/985628/13 "2023-06-16T17:03:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’m asuming the Clown Motel was built long after the Mystery Plague. 80 years, according to the motel’s website. I gather it was originally a way to display the clown collection that the first owners had inherited.