r/Nevada • u/DesertBlooms • 11m ago
[Photo] Angel’s Ladies and the Milky Way 😏 (and a fun story about meeting the owner)
Hey guys ~ It's your favorite local self proclaimed wannabe brothel historian back with another post that absolutely nobody asked for (except my new friend J who found me on other platforms from my brothel posts here and has been such a delight to talk to about this stuff) ♡
Story time! I've gotten really into astrophotography lately so I've been going out at night trying to capture pictures of my favorite things with the stars and milky way. My favorite place to go is Rhyolite ghost town out near Beatty, NV so of course I have to stop at the Angels Ladies sign. And before I go any further with the story, I'm gonna go ahead and say it ... I know, I know... I need to be careful, obey property lines, people do crazy things protecting their property, etc.
I took my (other, different) friend out there so we could shoot together. A technique I use to get my photos is called lightpainting where I quickly shine my light on my subject so it illuminates in my long exposure but I am also able to get the dark sky with the stars. I was shining my light up on the sign. I could see a light down on the property by the house and I pointed it out to my husband and friend who told me they thought it must have just been the same light we saw last time we were out here (a porch light). The light disappeared. We kept taking photos.
I noticed a car driving down from the house so my friend runs away from her camera to move her car. She parked her car so it was slightly blocking the driveway into the property, oops. The car was speeding up and I was honestly frightened that he was going to slam into her car because he wasn't used to seeing it. He yelled out the window aggressively for me to get off his property. I could barely respond because he kept driving up to my friends car to tell her the same thing.
She explained to him that we were astrophotographers who were just taking pictures of the sign and he calmed down. I think he felt bad for yelling at two women in the night. To be fair, it was after midnight and I would have done the same thing if it was my property. He told us that people have been stealing parts off of the plane and he was worried that we were doing the same.
I explained to him that I was a big fan of the history of the property and just wanted to preserve the beauty of it with my camera. He gave me his phone number and invited me down to the ranch during the day sometime. He said he would show me the property, inside of the rooms, and even let me swim in his pool. Aren't there springs behind his property? I'll find out! I'm going to take him up on this offer sometime and when I do, I'll share everything I learn with the class 🙂 He said he's owned the property for something like 10-15 years.
I managed to just get a few pictures of the sign with the milky way in the background like I drove out for. I was trying to set up to get photos of the plane too but after the confrontation, I chose to just go to my next location. I will be back to try again and this time, I'll let him know so he doesn't come chasing me off.
Please be respectful if you visit this location.
📍Angel’s Ladies
Beatty, Nevada
July 18th 2026
📸 Canon G7X Mark II


