The clown motel, where dreams are always as sweet as cotton candy

In the middle of the desolate distances of Nevada, there is a motel that may seem like the embodiment of a sick fantasy of a paperback horror writer. It is called the Clown Motel ("clown motel"), and there is a whole army of clown dolls with glass eyes. From the windows of the motel there is a wonderful view of a typical Wild West cemetery, where the remains of local miners are buried (and maybe worried). The atmosphere in the motel is exceptionally joyful. At least, that's what the owners promise.

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Bikers, truckers and other travelers who have left the beaten path stop here. Clown Motel, located in the town of Tonopah, is the last outpost before another endless part of the Nevada desert. Probably, the oasis-like location helped this motel stay afloat for so long. After all, such a number of clowns of all stripes and sizes looks creepy and can scare away rather than attract tourists.

A lot of guests from Europe come to this motel, as several publications wrote about it last year, and this seems to have made the place fashionable. Who else gets here? Clown lovers, lost travelers, correspondents who are terrified of clowns.

The owner of the motel is 75—year-old Bob Percetti. The motel came to him many years ago on the basis of a contract drawn up literally on a piece of paper. One man really wanted Bob to buy a motel, and Bob was in no position to turn him down. The owner's biography is far from limited to the motel: he is from the second generation of Tonopah settlers, his parents were one of the founders of the town in the early 1900s. He was the sheriff of a test site in the Nevada Desert at the height of nuclear testing. He ran a successful hotel and restaurant business in his hometown. Only about 2,000 people live in Tonopah now: the mines have closed and the population has moved.

Coulrophobia is the scientific name for the fear of clowns. It is known that this fear is as old as the profession of a clown. The fact is that a person intuitively does not trust a person in a mask, and the inability to see a real face under clown makeup does not allow us to perceive clowns as our own kind. After all, anyone can hide there, even an alien. In addition, clowns are transgressive, they do not obey social rules and are never punished for it.

Clown Motel did not appear on its own initially as a motel. It all started with a collection of clowns. In 1993, an ardent fan of clowns bought this collection from a professional clown, Mr. Clown, and then built a motel. Why he sold his dolls to him is unclear, because Mr. Clown conducted training courses and clown tours after that.

The motel sells branded T-shirts, caps and mugs. You can buy some figures of clowns, if you ask which ones are for sale. Naturally, it is unlikely that these will be rare figurines. Nevertheless, people from all over the world donate their clowns to the motel, some of which are very rare and valuable.

A night in a motel will cost about $ 35, and this is a very good value for money, considering that there are all amenities, free Wi-Fi and you can even live with animals. The rooms have a minibar, a flat-screen TV, and the bathroom floor is heated.

As for the cemetery, residents of the town who died between 1901 and 1911 from an unknown but terrible epidemic are buried here. The first sheriff of the city and the miners who died in a fire in one of the mines are buried here.