Fodor's Expert Review Marta Becket's Amargosa Opera House

An artist and dancer from New York, Marta Becket first visited the former railway town of Death Valley Junction while on tour in 1967. Later that year, she returned to town and leased a boarded-up social hall that sat amid a group of run-down mock-Spanish-colonial buildings. The nonprofit she formed in the early 1970s eventually purchased the property, where she performed for nearly 50 years. To compensate for the sparse audiences in the early days, Becket painted a Renaissance-era Spanish crowd on the walls and ceiling, turning the theater into a trompe-l'oeil masterpiece. Despite her passing in 2017, a simple hotel still operates in her name beside the opera house open daily for tours at 9 am and 6 pm for $15 per person. Within the hotel lobby, you can see Marta's hats, books, and works of art on display.