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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