Ghost Towns of Death Valley

 

by

Gary Speck

 

 

California’s famed Death Valley is a huge area encompassing the majority of eastern Inyo County.  It also strays briefly into northeastern San Bernardino County (CA) and southern Esmeralda and Nye Counties, Nevada.  Here in one of nature’s richest treasure chests many commercially valuable minerals have been found, including gold, silver, copper, lead, sulfur, marble, talc, borax and other salines.  This area is the hottest and driest region in the United States, and there is little reason for a town or other center of civilization to exist, except for mining or as a transportation center.  Expand the territory ten miles outside the national park borders, and nearly 200 ghost towns and mining camps can be visited.  Inside that same area, only 15 places have a permanent population, and of those 15, only half are viable towns.

           

The sites are presented in alphabetic order.  Summer here can be skull-searing hot (120+ degrees), and services are extremely limited.  From late Autumn through early Spring is the best time to visit.  Only sites accessible by passenger vehicles are listed, except at the end.  In the list of locations below, the designation (AAA @ A/1) will refer to the site’s location on the 1997 edition of the Automobile Club of Southern California’s (AAA) Guide to Death Valley map, or the AAA San Bernardino County map, which is noted.  These maps are indispensable in exploring the region, and are easily available from AAA or through local bookstores.  Any locations marked with DVNP are inside the park boundaries.  Please be advised that metal detectors are prohibited within the borders of the national park.

 

ASHFORD MILL

Roofless concrete and heavy timber mill building ruins stand a quarter mile west of State Highway (SH) 178, 26 miles west of its junction with SH 127 just north of Shoshone.  It was built in 1914 to process gold ore from the Ashford brother’s Golden Treasure (Ashford) Mine, located in the Black Mountains, five miles to the east.  AAA map @ N/10 (mill), M/11 (mine) -- DVNP.

 

BALLARAT

Squatting on the east side of Panamint Dry Lake, adobe ruins and wooden structures remain of the 500-person, 1890-1917 mining supply center.  The nearest mines were located in the steep-walled canyons on the west side of the Panamint Mountains.   Ballarat was named after the rich gold mining center in Australia.  Located 3.6 miles east of SH 178, at a point 9.5 miles south of the Wildrose Canyon road.  AAA map @ M/6.

 

CARRARA (Nevada)

Just east of US 95, at a point 8.5 miles south of Beatty.  This 1913-1924 era marble mining town today is nothing but concrete foundation ruins and rubble.  AAA @ F/10.

 

CRATER CAMP

In the Last Chance Range, at the far north end of the park is the remains of a sulfur mining camp dating to the 1930s.  Crater was a small company camp, and at last report still had a cluster of shacks and small buildings still standing, and was still open to visitors.  It is accessed by a 30 mile long graded dirt road from a spot 2.8 miles north of the Grapevine Ranger Station.  AAA map @ C/4.

 

DEATH VALLEY JUNCTION

Founded in 1907 as Amargosa, this one-time major borax-shipping center sits along SH 127, 30 miles southeast of Furnace Creek.  At one time it was a bustling railroad junction on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, and had 300 people.  Today it is an emaciated cluster of occupied and unoccupied buildings with a population of less than 12 people.  A major point of interest is the Amargosa Opera House, in which Marta Becket (the town’s present owner) has been performing ballet and pantomime stage presentations since 1968.  She provides a touch of culture in an otherwise barren landscape.  AAA map @ K/13.

 

HARRISBURG

A small gold mining camp active from 1905-1906, established by Shorty Harris, famed Death Valley prospector and discoverer of the rich Bullfrog Mine near Rhyolite.  Peak population was about 300 folks.  The site of Harrisburg is 1.7 miles east of the Wildrose-Emigrant Canyon Road, at a point 11.9 miles south of the junction with SH 190, nine miles south of Stovepipe Wells.  AAA map @ J/8.  DVNP

 

KEANE WONDER MINE

The majestic ruins of this small 1903-1916 era gold mining camp and its massive mill are at the foot of Chloride Cliff. It had a short run again in the 1930s.  The site is three miles east of the Daylight Pass Cutoff road, about 5.7 miles north of Beatty Junction, which is 12 miles north of Furnace Creek. The access road to the mill ruins is dirt, and is generally passable in a passenger car.  The ruins are worth the slow washboard trip.  A strenuous one-mile hike lifts you up past a dozen standing tram towers, to the mine.  Shown on AAA map @ G/9 – DVNP

 

SILVER LAKE

Straddling SH 127, and the former Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad are the foundations and melted adobe walls of the once busy little town of Silver Lake.  The town began in 1906 with the building of the railroad, and a year later had 100 people.  Silver Lake died after the railroad stopped running in 1939.   The site is on the east side of Silver Dry Lake about 8.3 miles north of Baker.  AAA San Bernardino Co. map @ C/7.  

 

SKIDOO

A 7.3 mile long graded dirt road from Emigrant Canyon Road takes you to the rubbled site of Skidoo.  From 1907 to 1917, it was a busy gold mining town with 700 people.  Its main claim to fame was the double hanging of one Joe “Hootch” Simpson.  He had shot a man, was lynched, and hung.  After he was buried, the newspaper reporters arrived, and he had to be exhumed so the appropriate photos could be taken. 

           

The founding of the town is almost as interesting, as it is claimed the founders were on their way to then booming Harrisburg, and got lost in one of Death Valley’s “rare” fogs.  They found rich gold ore, and the rest is history.  Many writers have pooh-poohed the fog story, but I believe it.  During our weeklong visit in December, 1997, it was extremely foggy, rainy and cold for the first several days.  The Wildrose/Emigrant Canyon Road was closed due to snow, so we were unable to visit Skidoo, Harrisburg and Wildrose.  It is located about 29 miles south of Stovepipe Wells.  AAA @ J/7 – DVNP

 

TECOPA

Dating to the 1870s, the tiny silver and talc-mining town of Tecopa has seen better days.  Once the center for an active mining industry, it now caters to retirees and folks looking for desert solitude.  Numerous mines such as the Noonday complex (silver/lead), Western Talc and Acme (talc) once produced tons of minerals, but today things are quiet.  Small mining camps or settlements were also located at some of the mines such as Upper and Lower Noonday, China Ranch, and Kingston Springs.  Tecopa is 3.9 miles east of SH 127, and just north of the county line.  AAA @ N/14

 

WILDROSE CHARCOAL KILNS

These ten beehive-shaped kilns were built in 1877, and produced charcoal for the Modoc Mine smelter 25 miles to the west.  They were in use until at least 1879.  They are located about six miles east of the junction of Emigrant Canyon road and Wildrose Canyon Road, which is about 30 miles south of Stovepipe Wells.  AAA @ K/8 -- DVNP.

 

Death Valley National Park is unique, in that it is one of the few national parks that still allow people to drive the backcountry on established dirt roads.  Many are passenger car accessible, but the vast majority of these roads are passable only for four wheel drive vehicles.  Check first at the ranger station in Furnace Creek prior to venturing off road.

 

The following sites are accessible ONLY with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

    • CHLORIDE CITY - (AAA map @ G/9 -- DVNP)
    • CHRIS WICHT CAMP - (AAA @ L/7)
    • CONFIDENCE MILL. – (AAA map @ N/11 -- DVNP)
    • FURNACE - (AAA map @ K/11 -- DVNP)
    • GOLD VALLEY - (AAA @ M/11 -- DVNP)
    • GREENWATER - (AAA map @ L/11. -- DVNP)
    • LEADFIELD - (AAA @ F-8 -- DVNP)
    • LEELAND (Nevada) - (AAA @ G/11)
    • LIPPINCOTT LEAD MINE - (AAA map @ G/4 -- DVNP)
    • LOOKOUT - (Not shown on AAA, but it’s in the area around K/5)
    • PANAMINT CITY - (ONLY for hiking in...AAA @ L/8 ---DVNP)
    • SCHWAB (Inyo Mine) - (AAA @ H/10 -- DVNP)
    • UBEHEBE LEAD MINE - (AAA @ F/4 -- DVNP)
    • WILLOW CREEK - (AAA @ F/2)

           

These have been just a handful of the two hundred or more ghost towns, mining camps and other deserted settlements that lie in and around this national park.  Here in this land of little rain is a veritable treasure trove of ghost towns just waiting for you to discover.    

 

This was our GHOST TOWN OF THE MONTH for January 2002.

 

PLEASE NOTE:  Because AAA map locations were given above and all sites noted appear on those maps, except a few, NO GPS or Township/Ranges will be noted for these above locations.

 

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FIRST POSTED:  January 01, 2002

LAST UPDATED: September 26, 2009

 

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