Clown Motel, the creepy motel next to a cemetery

In short
The Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, is a clown-themed motel with thousands of figurines in its lobby, built next to the Old Tonopah Cemetery, where about 300 people who died between 1901 and 1911 are buried, including miners killed in the Tonopah-Belmont mine fire. Today it is known as “America’s scariest motel”.

It sounds almost like the setting of a horror film: a motel in the middle of the Nevada desert, next to a cemetery. But no, the Clown Motel really exists, and if you suffer from coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, it will give you the chills.

The Clown Motel

This motel is in the town of Tonopah, Nevada, in the middle of nowhere, and its main customers are bikers and truck drivers. Or, more generally, people who have to travel long distances and need somewhere to spend the night. If they dare!

The Clown Motel is truly sinister, even for those without a particular fear of clowns. But why is it so creepy? First of all, at reception you are greeted by a whole shelf crammed with little clowns. There are all kinds, from the most cheerful to the most terrifying. As if that were not enough, every room is clown-themed.

The abandoned cemetery

Tonopah is a small town of a few thousand people, halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. In the past, though, it was a thriving mining town, founded in 1900 after silver was discovered. When the mines closed, many people left.

But the town’s old cemetery is still there, now the final resting place of about 300 people buried between 1901 and 1911. Among them are 14 miners killed in the Tonopah-Belmont mine fire of 1911 and victims of the so-called “Tonopah Plague”, a mysterious epidemic of 1902 whose cause is still unknown today.

And it was right next to this abandoned cemetery, where the souls of miners killed in work accidents and townspeople who died of a mysterious illness rest, that the founders of the Clown Motel had the bright idea of opening their business.

Ghosts and clowns

When I wrote this article, neither the Clown Motel nor the cemetery had much of a reputation for being haunted, although a few guests told of strange things happening during their stay in Tonopah. Things have changed since then: the motel has been nicknamed “America’s scariest motel”, it appeared on Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, and some swear that at night the miners’ spirits drift from the cemetery into the rooms. Today there are about 3,200 clowns in the lobby, with new ones arriving every week, donated from all over the world.

The motel was opened by Leona and Leroy David in memory of their father, Clarence David, a clown-loving miner who is buried in the cemetery next door.

Of course, having a room with a view of the cemetery isn’t exactly ideal. Unless you are a real fan of the macabre. In short, if the cemetery and the clowns don’t bother you, the Clown Motel is a great little place to spend the night.

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