Rhyolite was not a notoriously bad town, but some residents were not strictly law-abiding, and the town saw gunfights on Golden Street, brawls, and everyday disputes. The first gunfight in the growing town took place on December 15, 1904, when two men with bad feelings toward each other shot it out in the Monaco Saloon at very close range, with gun barrels almost touching, and both died. During Rhyolite's boom, residents decided they needed a jail as much as, if not more than, an enlarged schoolhouse. The closest jail was in Bullfrog, and transporting prisoners by wagon cost the county $15 per trip. In January 1907, the Nye County Commissioners approved building a jail and appropriated $5,000 for its construction. The reinforced concrete building contained a jailer's quarters, a courtroom, and four 6.5 square-foot steel cells, but after 49 striking Austrians were arrested for rioting in nearby Bonnie Claire, this arrangement proved insufficient.