HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
America's most unsettling motel: 4,000 clowns, 33 rooms, and the Old Tonopah Cemetery next door
521 N Main St, Tonopah, NV 89049
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Budget motel nightly rates; see website for current pricing
Access
Limited Access
Single-story motel with outdoor walkway access. Adjacent cemetery is unpaved.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1985 · Dark Tourism Landmark · Adjacent Old Tonopah Cemetery · Featured on Ghost Adventures
Tonopah's mining economy had largely wound down by the 1980s when the David family chose the vacant lot on North Main Street, directly adjacent to the old cemetery plot that had served the town from 1901 to 1911. Leroy and Leona David opened the 33-room motel in 1985 as a tribute to their father Clarence, displaying his collection of roughly 150 clown figurines in the lobby.
The location was not incidental. Clarence David is buried in the Old Tonopah Cemetery, which holds nearly 300 graves including victims of a pneumonia epidemic in the early 1900s and fourteen miners killed in the February 23, 1911 Tonopah-Belmont Mine Fire. The cemetery closed to new burials in April 1911 when growth of the town required a site further from the main road.
Bob Perchetti bought the motel in 1995 and continued accepting donations to the clown collection, which grew substantially over the following two decades. The Mehar family, experienced hoteliers from Las Vegas, purchased the Clown Motel in 2019 and invested in property renovations while expanding the clown collection to over 4,000 pieces from donors worldwide.
The property's combination of clown décor and cemetery adjacency attracted national attention through travel media and dark tourism coverage. In 2015 Zak Bagans filmed an episode of Ghost Adventures at the motel, and two low-budget horror films — 'Clown Motel: The Film' (2016) and 'Clown Motel: Spirits Arise' (2019) — were produced on location.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of the Clown Motel derives partly from the property itself and partly from proximity to the cemetery. Investigators visiting the motel report disembodied voices, unexplained footsteps in empty corridors, and lights flickering without electrical explanation.
The most specific documented incident came from the 2015 Ghost Adventures filming, when Bagans and his crew reported capturing a large clown prop hand appearing to move on its own during a monitored session. The crew also reported a dark silhouette in one of the motel rooms and a disembodied voice during an EVP session.
Ghost hunters who have visited since cite the adjacent cemetery as the primary source of activity, attributing reported experiences to the miners killed in the 1911 Belmont Mine Fire and victims of the early 1900s pneumonia outbreak buried there. The specific claim of a figure appearing next to sleeping guests appears in multiple independent traveler accounts across review platforms, though the consistency of the detail may reflect the motel's reputation shaping visitor perception.
Media Appearances
Book one of 33 rooms at the motel that sits directly adjacent to the Old Tonopah Cemetery, where 300 residents lie buried from mining disasters and a 19th-century plague. The lobby and rooms are lined with over 4,000 clown figures, paintings, and artifacts collected from around the world since 1985.
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