Ghost Towns

GHOST TOWNS & MINING CAMPS

A tour of Death Valley’s unique towns of the past

by David A. Wright

Great Basin historian, Co-Author of  Skidoo!

and master trailblazer of California & Nevada backroads

I trace the roots of my love of ghost towns, and exploring the pathways to them, to my maternal grandmother. Growing up in the Mojave Desert of southern California, she and I used to bounce around in the desert in her old, post World War 2 Chevrolet sedan – with its six cylinder engine and “three-on-the-tree” transmission shift. My grandmother was barely tall enough to see over the dashboard and thus had to view the road and world ahead by looking through the giant spoked steering wheel; such a large wheel was a necessity in those days before power steering was invented.

My grandmother and I loved to drive on the myriad of dirt roads that ran hither and yon into hidden coves in the desert mountains, looking for abandoned homesteads to explore. I loved to ride on that vinyl and cloth seat in those days before seatbelts right next to her, sharing in the adventure.

Personal wanderlust also evolved from that post war sedan to my motorcycles, as I explored and poked about on every cowpath in the desert and in the nearby San Bernardino Mountain Range and soon learned every way in which one could get to Big Bear Lake and other mountain hamlets in the pine forested range. Wanderlust rooted early in my life and it has stuck with me into middle age (as this is being written).

Though enjoying the outdoor life, my parents didn’t venture into Death Valley very often. Most destinations involved the cool heights of the eastern Sierra Nevada. But I do recall riding the long distances to Death Valley on the back of the motorcycles ridden by either my father or mother a time or two. Dad rode big bore English iron, Mom rode the small bore Japanese machines then starting to make inroads on the late 1950s and early 1960s American roads. And into my high school years we’d occasionally mosey into Death Valley in an old Volkswagen camper van with the accompaniment of friends driving their Ford pickup with a big camper on its back. They had three lovely daughters, I was a teenage boy. Was it Death Valley or the girls? I like to think it was a little of both.

Those experiences fueled my desire to see more and in time I came to spend my lunch breaks during high school years in the school library pouring through Desert Magazine, it’s articles on ghost towns fascinated me and I yearned to visit them for myself. Ghost towns were found everywhere I wanted to be – in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Nevada and Death Valley country. I photocopied everything I could to provide fodder for further exploration and to help pass those last months of high school before freedom would allow me the chance to make good on my ambition to go exploring on my own. The heady odor of the early photocopy process became the smell of sagebrush in my mind. Or maybe it was those fumes impregnated into the paper by the old time process. I guess sniffing photocopies was better than sniffing glue.

I made my first inroads into the 1970s and Death Valley as a young adult on my honeymoon. My new bride and I camped our second, third and fourth night together in Death Valley, taking in all the sights we could see from paved roads. We were driving an old friend – my parents old Volkswagen camper van, so it was sort of being like home.

Our first night was spent at Furnace Creek, the second at Mesquite Spring, the third night at Bonnie Clair just outside the park and a short distance into Nevada from Scotty’s Castle. However, the last night in the region, at Bonnie Clair, I ate something that didn’t agree with me. During the night I became increasingly sick. The next morning found me driving, albeit quite queasy, north to Lida Junction, then west on Nevada 266 past Lida and into the eastern Sierra via Westgard Pass. By the time we hit Big Pine, over in Owens Valley and against the backdrop of the giant Sierra Nevada Range, I was near the bursting point – stopping at the small campground (then a roadside rest stop) at the junction of U.S. 395 and California Highway 168 I spent a good hour or more in the restroom due to the bad food I had eaten the night before. I guess you could say I christened the small town I would move to nearly a quarter century later and have lived in for some years now.

A few years later, my wife and I moved to a tiny ski resort town of June Lake, located in the eastern Sierra Nevada north of Mammoth Lakes. The Disco Era was deeply entrenched on America, however I wasn’t into that dance craze. There, buried roof deep and higher in the drifting snows nearly nine months per year, I’d spend a lot of time looking at maps, longing for wide open spaces, bad roads, and ghost towns to explore. At one time, I had accumulated a large quadrant of relief maps that covered eastern California and the northern half of Nevada, which I had affixed to a large empty wall. During the long winter evenings I’d stare at that thing for hours on end. It was well covered in blue lines – signifying routes I had traveled, but there were many lines that had not received blue ink and these were ones that I made plans to follow – someday. Nevada had the most blue lines; but a decade or two would pass before Death Valley got inked in.

By circumstance, I ended up leaving the eastern Sierra and moved to eastern Wyoming in the western fringes of the Black Hills. However, shortly after I moved there, the economy went sour. I wound up unemployed, and seeking employment with the coal mines an hour from my home, I ended up being spring-boarded right back into California. I landed feet first in the malodorous and industrial moonscape called Trona, right next to Death Valley; for the same parent company that owned the Wyoming coal pits also owned the borax plants right next to where the famed 20-mule teams hauling Death Valley borax plodded nearly a century before. Or so that’s what Ronald Regan told us on TV’s Death Valley Days. He was leading America when I came to Trona.

While living in Trona, I ended up spending much of my time in Death Valley country, since I was living within an hour or so of pretty much any point within the park. Soon those unmarked roads on my big relief map started receiving much needed ink. Roads that took me here, there and everywhere. And I traveled here, there and everywhere along with them. Death Valley has a plethora of ghost towns and mining camps to explore.

Most people think of a ghost town along the lines of Virginia City or Bodie. That is not the case with many Death Valley ghost towns. The earliest of Death Valley camps were built of local rocks. Rocks piled up into walls; roofs of sagebrush – or for those lucky enough to be in or near the mountain ranges that border the valley, roofs were built of Pinyon Pine branches. Especially during the mining and stock speculation craze of the early 20th century, towns were not built to be permanent – sturdy stick or stone built homes were set aside for the quick assembly tent with a wooden base that served as a floor and lower walls. A tent came in handy for use as a restaurant, a saloon, a hotel, a general merchandise store, a boarding house, or a brothel. They were cheap, easily available and quickly set up and taken down to rush off for the next craze to pop up in the desert nearby.

Virginia City and Bodie were for the most part protected early after their glory years passed by. However, most of Death Valley’s ghosts were basically unwanted and had to contend with relentless extremes of sunshine, low humidity, high temperatures, heavy snow, cannibalism of buildings or building materials for use elsewhere, political indecision and opinion, neglect and vandalism.

Yet for the persistent, one can locate subtle bits of these towns – wood, metal, glass, china, and the ever present piles of tin cans. The age of tin seemed to come to its peak in Death Valley. Tin cans of all shapes, sizes and purposes litter the desert landscape at each ghost town or mining camp.

Walk through a ghost town, especially early in the morning, or late in the afternoon; when the colors are at their peak. There is a special ambience that soothes your senses that I just don’t have the words to describe. Quiet and solitude are probably the most obvious things that you notice. However there are other nuances that require one to loose their inhibitions as to being alone out in a wide open land and allow nature and the now empty site that once was a living settlement to massage their psyche.

Once, while visiting a friend who owns many properties in the semi-ghost town of Gold Point, Nevada, just outside the northern tip of Death Valley, a visiting guest was a Dutch journalist. After a scrumptious dinner at the home of my friend and his wife, the dinner guests and I walked the dirt streets of Gold Point just as the sun set. Clouds from an approaching storm front littered the sky, which the western sun set ablaze, creating a surrealistic glow on the slopes of Mount Dunfee to the east and on the western facing walls of Gold Point’s wooden buildings. The Dutch woman walked along with me, interviewing me as we walked Gold Point’s empty streets with that Technicolor sunset. One of her questions was regarding what it was that attracted people to ghost towns of the American West. I had no words in which to answer, I could only point to the sky, the land and the town and ask her to allow the scene and ambiance to draw out her own personal feelings and answer that question for herself. If you feel it, you will know. If you don’t, maybe you need some other stimuli that Death Valley and its history can’t offer.

It is best that you, the reader, do some homework prior to embarking on your own personal ghost town experience. There are numerous books available at the visitor centers in Death Valley or nearby; or they can be obtained online or even at your local library. Books such as Death Valley Ghost Towns, by Stanley Paher, and Explorer’s Guide to Death Valley National Park by Betty Tucker Ryan and T. Scott Ryan and this one are good starter books for the uninitiated. These books give thumbnail sketches and photos of the ghost towns of Death Valley National Park; the Explorer’s Guide gives a turn by turn narrative of natural and man made history of pretty much all the park’s roads. For those who have a few years and miles under their belts, such books as Death Valley & The Amargosa, A Land Of Illusion, by Richard E. Lingenfelter, and “Loafing Alone Death Valley Trails: A Personal Narrative Of People And Places by William Caruthers give more details and flavor. The Caruthers book, in particular, gives a distinct tang as it was written more than half a century ago and within a few decades of the deaths of these towns; when a hanger-on or two still lived in a still standing dwelling that is now no longer there. These towns are now long dead and in some cases nearly gone, as well as those hearty and reclusive souls who Caruthers interviewed and knew.

As good as the books are, however, for the true scholar of Death Valley ghost towns a study of the region’s newspapers from the heyday of the respective camps is a must. Many newspapers were published in and around Death Valley during the glory years and something was always in the press. Examples:

Inyo Independent, Feb. 15, 1873:

Times are lively at Lida. Free fights are plentiful and any seeker for one can be accommodated.

Rhyolite Herald, May 26, 1905:

“LOCAL PANNINGS.”

A bad man, loaded with Oh Be Joyful and a sixgun, wanted a sample from the hot tomale [spelling incorrect] man, who objected to free lunches. The bad man pulled his gun, fired at the peddler and hit him between the eyes, the bullet grazing the forehead. Dr. Boylan and Dr. Grigsby were both near by and the wounded man was quickly fixed up. The man with the gun was not arrested.

Beatty Bullfrog Miner, June 3, 1905:

“EXPLOSION.”

Julius Lauzon will be busy for a week or two picking bird shot or other materials out of his anatomy. While standing at a camp fire Monday in Beatty a cartridge or giant cap exploded in the fire and the contents perforated his person in 150 places with painful but not serious results.

Ghost town press was more often meant to enlighten the gullible and separate them from their hard earned money in towns and cities far, far away. Sometimes the press was so optimistic as far as the town’s outlook was as to the be to the point of embellishment. But looking between the lines through a ghost town newspaper often pointed at life on the level and point of view of the common man in day to day affairs, something not found in a history book.

Visiting ghost towns is an enjoyable recreation. Getting there is also fun, as many are found along dim routes suitable only by a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Some ghost towns are only accessible by foot due to wilderness legal restrictions or nature’s antics – the summer monsoonal rain coming in torrents and tearing out or covering up yesterday’s roads. The harder it is to get to a ghost town, the more likely your visit will be solitary.

One thing I enjoy doing is to take my well worn ghost town books in hand, pages open to a historical photo of a town during its heyday, and walk the ghost town streets – and compare. Preferably the book has a large photo of the entire town sitting in a location below the photographer for a vista of the entire townsite. And I have my own collection of 8”x10” black and white historical photos obtained from museums. Using the historical photo as a guide, try to locate first the spot where the photographer stood with his large and heavy camera – and sit and muse the disparity of a town then and now.

In some cases, your first impression is that the town is completely erased. But take the time to gaze meditatively and see – you will first observe the landmarks visible in the historical photos out on the land; the black and white of the historical photo becomes color as you look over the landscape in your view. If the town was laid out by surveyors to a grid or plat, you may see its old streets barely visible running in subtle straight lines through the sagebrush. Try to visualize where the dwellings and business houses in the historical image might be located as you turn your gaze back to the here and now.

The ghost town of Skidoo is such a place that is a wonderful place to sit and gaze in awe. A photographer climbed to a vista point a short distance west of town about January, 1907 to look down upon the then youthful Skidoo from a point on a hillside at an elevation a couple hundred feet higher than the town as it sat in its little bowl at the top of the Panamint Range. His lens captured the small central core of the town; with tent and wooden structures scattered about to the north, east and south; as well as outlying structures. Ribbons and patches of winter snow still lingered throughout the scene.

Remove your eyes off the page and look at the scene now. It is largely erased. Over the years I’ve witnessed Skidoo’s square-set streets slowly dissolve from the landscape, buried by sage and time to the point where they are now largely invisible.

Yet ponder the black and white photo of Skidoo. A newspaper was written, edited and published in this now empty sagebrush covered basin at the top of the Panamint Range. A paper that once proclaimed that life was lived here with zest:

1906, December 28 Skidoo News:

SKIDOO’S FIRST CHRISTMAS DAY

The first Christmas in Skidoo was certainly a merry one. In the first place the boys at the Skidoo mine were made a present of their day’s time and they came down and proceeded to enjoy themselves. “Tom and Jerry” was most popular. Every few minutes the cry would be heard at a different corner, “Hurry, hurry, Tom and Jerry; We’ve got a live one; Hurry, hurry, Tom and Jerry”.

A turkey was put up, to be given as a prize to the best rifleman. One hundred yards was paced off and the one cutting off the gobblers head was to be the lucky man. That was nothing difficult for these frontiersmen. The second shot brought down the game. The lucky man was a prospector; couldn’t use the bird unless he ate him raw. This, he was disinclined to do. The turkey was put up again. Several times it was awarded to some one who had no more use for it in its uncultivated state than a rabbit has for a holiday. Finally, Dick Merget brought it down and carried the poor, riddled trophy home and the last heard from it was that the gobbling was fine.

The Hoveck House served a big turkey dinner, to which the good-hearted Skidoovians did work most mighty havoc. It was a feast long to be remembered for the desert.

Business was suspended and the day was spent in good natured celebrating.

After viewing the big picture to your heart’s content, then methodically work your way through and around the ghost town. Locate buildings in the historical photo, try to establish their locations now. In some cases what was once a home might be completely erased from the land; other times you will find evidence that people once lived and loved here. Scraps of lumber, tin cans strewn around, wire, broken glass, ground disturbed so long ago that sagebrush and desert scrub has nearly reclaimed it.

Tin cans proclaim all habitations of man in Death Valley. One such a can might have been one small circular tin once holding Billy Point Oysters. Yes, people flocked here, hoping to cash in on one of the wildest mining and stock speculation rushes the United States knew. A century ago a man left his family, lived alone hoping one day to live the dream. Once on some evening while seated in his meager tent, longing for his wife and children, he treated himself to the fleeting luxury of a can of Billy Point Oysters while seated in a Death Valley camp; relishing them ever so briefly in lieu of promised and hoped for riches.

Death Valley’s ghost towns ran from large cities, such as Rhyolite, Nevada; down to small scale mining camps that held only a few men who braved the lonely and remote land to eek out a meager living. Rhyolite attracted men and women like moths to a lamp – indeed Rhyolite’s wide, bladed streets and cement sidewalks were adorned with gas street lamps – and it enticed the rich and poor alike. Stock exchanges around the world watched with eager anticipation the results of Rhyolite’s own stock exchange, while mining magnates whisked dustily into town in their flamboyant Thomas Flyers and other early displays of automotive luxury that were just starting to gain a foothold on America’s dirt roads. Locomotives hauled Pullmans and boxcars along three separate ribbons of steel from north and south to Rhyolite, each with grand names of destinations at each end – Las Vegas & Tonopah, Bullfrog-Goldfield and the Tonopah & Tidewater. Large buildings of wood, stone and concrete went skyward – one, two and even three stories!

Yet, walk Rhyolite’s streets now. Rubble, semi-collapsed walls, creosote brush and debris. A few, well rusted, fire hydrants are found amid the desert scrub far from any visible standing ruin. Historical photos show Rhyolite’s posh central city to be crumbling as early as 1920, with litter, fallen power poles and broken glass. A handful of people were still living in the former city during that time, but so few that even the electrical company had turned the switch off four years prior and the post office had sold its last stamp about the same time. Empty railroad grades run the desert north and south, and only a few hearty souls run these once proud lines today with their 4×4 vehicles in search of adventure in the wide open desert instead of anticipation as to what Rhyolite had to offer in riches and luxuries of life in a day long passed by.

Palmetto, Nevada, lived two separate lives. It cried out its song to miners who couldn’t find anything valuable in far away Virginia City or Austin, during the 1860s and 1870s. It then faded from the scene until the wild bonanza period of 1902-1907. It’s stone walls and mill ruins are situated along Nevada State Highway 266 just over the northern lip of Death Valley, in scattered Pinyon forests and mountainous terrain. I’ve often stopped at this ghost town in an attempt to find something I hadn’t yet seen. One day I was nearly left stranded alongside the road at Palmetto. On that day, I had driven my car and it blew a water hose on the engine just as I had shut down the engine. In that situation, I might as well been one of those lonely miners days away from civilization on burro, horse or foot. There I was, 50 miles from home; no cell phone signal to be had; dressed for a summertime day in short pants, T-shirt and flip-flops; and not a thing onboard the car in which to make a field fix that might get me home or close enough to it that I might survive.

Palmetto is a Nevada Historic Site, thus has an interpretive marker and a set of trash cans. Hoping to find something in which to create a makeshift bandage, I started digging around in the trash. At that moment, I became aware of a vehicle slowing down, then pulling in. To my relief, a Nevada State Trooper pulled in. He saw my raised hood and stopped to see if he could render aid. He was based in Tonopah, more than an hour away, and seldom patrols the road. On this day he did – and he had a big, new roll of duct tape to boot! I chewed a stick of Wrigley’s, spread it out over the hole in the hose, then applied duct tape heavily. It got me home with plenty of water still left in the engine.

In Death Valley itself, the sand dunes once held a scrappy abode that was known as Stovepipe Well. A length of stovepipe protected from the drifting sands a stagnate puddle of water that’s a rare commodity in these parts. This place served the traveling public primarily during a span of a few years just before and just after the Wright Brothers made the first powered short hop of a flight in their bi-winged invention called an airplane. Inside the dusty and drafty edifice could be had a dirty cot to sleep on, a glass of rot gut whiskey and a chance to hop an occasional stagecoach to somewhere else. One blustery spring day, I once stood at the very spot and braved the drifting sand and biting wind with a historical photo of the place in my hand at one of America’s loneliest spots while America’s top secret of the late 1980s flew a thousand feet overhead – the amazing and huge bat winged B2 bomber and a large chase plane. A paradox indeed!

Speaking of paradoxes, in the early 20th Century years, “Alkali” Bill Brong was among those who used the automobile to pave the way for single blanket “jackass prospectors” slowly going from Point A to Point B, piloting a car load of hopefuls swiftly and relatively comfortably along to these same points. Brong operated the Death Valley Chug Line, sort of an early day taxi service that ran the unimproved desert two-tracks hither and yon to every camp that sprung up on the desert sage. Brong also loved to tempt fate, broken axles and springs by setting numerous speed records.

Today, especially in the warmer months, your travels in and around Death Valley might be with some odd looking vehicles that will likely catch your attention – cobbled up “mules” of dubious automotive parentage, covered in wildly exaggerated vinyl cladding and stuffed with foam inserts to throw off their style lines, body panels barely hanging on with pop rivets and just looking otherwise other-worldly. Yes, automobile manufactures just love Death Valley and they flock to the valley and its surrounding region annually. Not for the wonderful weather, but to thrash to the limits these automotive oddities that will evolve into models offered for sale that you might lust for in showrooms three to five years in the future. Today’s gorgeous beauty was yesterday’s ugly newborn. If you see one or more, you’ll likely see a bunch of big camera lenses poking from out of the roadside brush – automotive voyeurism is big business, as magazines and rival manufacturers fall all over themselves to get a peek inside these super secret rolling laboratories.

For examples of these ugly ducklings – many of them shot in Death Valley and nearby, see http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/oddsends/testmules.html

In Death Valley you can even hike to a ghost town while picking your way uphill in cold, rushing whitewater foaming around your feet and legs and up to your knees – the famed Panamint City. Once wagons carrying cannonballs of considerable weight in pure cast silver noisily rattled down this very path, the hefty cannonballs could not be carried away by the highwaymen of the day that hid in the lofty canyon walls. Surprise Canyon hides Panamint City from the floor of Panamint Valley. Walking uphill to Panamint City, the rushing water suddenly appears – at first damp dirt, then a trickle, then before you know it rushing water that is so noisy as to make conversation with your hiking partner next to impossible. Then as you progress up the canyon it disappears within a few feet, only to appear again at some other point as you climb skyward.

You used to be able to drive to Panamint City. In my collection of old photos is a late 1950s photograph showing a 1955 Buick Roadmaster with a woman standing next to it, parked in the center of the ghost town with Panamint’s trademark brick smelter smokestack pointing skyward behind it. But after the serious flashfloods of 1984, the road was swept away. Four-wheelers took this act of nature as a challenge and soon men pushed highly modified and battered rigs up and down the cascading falls. But naturalists noticed nature reclaiming the land and decided to lend a hand, and now only two or four feet can pass by instead of two or four wheels.

During the years after these towns died, practical people who lived nearby cannibalized the towns for usable materials. The nostalgia that America possesses now wasn’t heard of then; but good lumber, glass or metal was mighty handy to have around to build an addition to the cabin or to patch it up. However, especially beginning in the 1950s, more and more folks came armed with Geiger counters, metal detectors and shovels. Building materials or other practical items weren’t on their shopping list, but bottles, coins and other artifacts were. They were practical to adorn their own homes, or to sell for a tidy sum of money in the little antique shops that used to be found in every diminutive desert settlement. Little was it known that a 1906 law called the Antiquities Act was valid and still on the law books, but nearly unknown and seldom enforced.

In later years, as the masses wished to escape their cities and visit the land, some brought along destructive habits. Mindless vandalism visited many ghost towns and historical sites. One such site is near the Harrisburg ghost town site. A co-founder of Harrisburg, Pete Aguereberry, stayed with the camp long after it died; Pete died instead while still living there over four decades later. Once Pete’s old cabin was as tidy and well kept by those who appreciated its importance as did Pete keep it – Pete was known as a tidy man, tidy about himself and his possessions. But during the 1990s, Pete’s cabin started to become the target of vandals. I carry a microcassette with me to make verbal notes of my observations and thoughts as I travel, which are transcribed; and a comparison of two trips – 1998 and 2002 – are telling:

“Inside of Aguereberry’s cabin. It’s not as well kept as it once was. Most of the windows are broken out now. Looking kind of shabby. Last time I was here, or the time before that, I think, it used to have a broom and some cleaning supplies. Somebody’s punched through the ceiling in the main living room. You can look up … you can look up through the rafters now, which are showing daylight. … Somebody’s torn up the floor. … A lot of holes punched in the walls, it’s sad to see. So it will probably be a matter of a decade or so before this thing is on ground.”

And in 2002:

“I am going to go up to the Pete Aguereberry cabin. Last time I was here, in ’98, it was really getting vandalized. So I’m going to take a look to see what it looks like now. Three years later. … At first glance, the main house looks to be in deplorable shape. Holes punched through. The door off its hinges. … [Sigh] Uh, the cabin is getting more and more dilapidated since I was here last. The bathroom floor is totally gone. … The ceiling, for the large part, is caved in multiple places. The floor is uh … are kind of tattered. … Multiple holes in the walls all over the building. Glass is gone. … Sad to see that the Pete Aguereberry camp is in such deplorable shape. Pete Aguereberry was known as a clean man and kept a clean and tidy camp. If he could see his camp nowadays, he would be very appalled.”

I haven’t been back since. I’m afraid of what I might find. Or not find.

Bureaucratic opinion changed over time. Some of those in charge of Death Valley; that portion that fell within man made boundaries of the National Park system, beginning in 1933; felt that Death Valley should be a showcase of natures work and not man’s, and so a few of man’s works were erased. Wildrose Station is one such place. Once a popular stop for shade, cool drinks, ample meals and a cabin for the night; now it’s simply a wide spot in the road up Wildrose Canyon from Panamint Valley, though still shady and a pleasant place to stop for a while.

And time has taken its own toll. Just a few days ago as this is being written (April, 2008), I visited two ghost town sites in the northernmost regions of Death Valley near Gold Mountain and found their last remaining standing structures now collapsed from a century of neglect, vandalism and ample winter snows.

So I invite you to explore Death Valley in your own way. One trip is not enough. It’s a place that is so grand in size and scale that many trips are required. Below is a list of ghost towns and historic sites; each listed by the type of road or trail to help you determine if you and your vehicle can make it. This listing is categorized using the five-class road difficulty scale as developed by Steve Greene. He uses a scale to classify dirt roads only (1-5), with Class 1 being the easiest and Class 5 being the most difficult. I have put the first group here into a class I term “Class 0” because the roads are covered in pavement. There are also two listings for ghost towns that require a hike, where no vehicle is allowed, and for railroad beds. Keep in mind too that personal opinion and ability also play into road interpretation, as do recent weather events – you may or may not find the roadbeds to these places as I describe them today.

What is left to see is also thumbnailed. And at the end of each entry are one or more websites with photos and more information. Some of these website links will take you to pages with period press articles so you can get some of the local flavor of these sites during their heyday (of course, as the Internet is a very fluid environment, web addresses may change with time – they are current as of this writing, however). All right, let’s move on to the ghost town listings …

GHOST TOWN RECOMMENDATION BY ACCESSIBILITY

CLASS 0 – PAVED ROADS, ALL VEHICLES:

Bonnie Clair, Nevada – Found on both sides of Nevada Highway 267, ruins can be reached on foot or on short dirt roads. On the west side of the highway are the large mill ruins from later day operations (1950s), which were built over the original mill site. To the east of the highway, along the grade of the railroad grades of the Las Vegas & Tonopah and Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroads, is the townsite and cemetery.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/nevada/lifedeath-laworder_bonnieclareNV.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/bonnie_clair.html

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/bonnie.html

Carrara, Nevada – South of Beatty just east of U.S. 95. Ruins are found alongside and near U.S. 95, east of the highway. Concrete ruins of various milling structures, homes and business buildings, basin of town fountain. Grade of cantilevered railroad running to marble quarry in mountains to the east of the townsite. Not to be confused with large cement ruins a short distance north, which were part of a cement operation from the 1940s.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/carrara.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/carrara.html

Crater – Near the summit of the Last Chance Range, between Eureka and Death Valleys. Site is situated north of the road at the end of several miles of a paved section of the Big Pine-Death Valley road. Little left except exposed sulfur excavations and metal debris scattered over a wide area.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/crater.html

Darwin – Several miles south of California Highway 190 between Panamint Springs and Lone Pine. Paved roads and streets. Numerous original and newer homes. Ruins of the big Anaconda mines and mill just north of town.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/darwin.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/darwin.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_darwinCA.htm

Death Valley Junction – East of Furnace Creek in the Amargosa Desert. Paved highways, at the junction of California Highway 190 and California Highway 127 east of Furnace Creek Inn. Not a true ghost town, however Death Valley Junction has no services and few people. Many scenic and old buildings are found, as well as some remains from the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad and Death Valley Railroad facilities.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_deathvalleyjunctionCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/death_valley_jct.html

Emigrant Springs – In Emigrant Wash, southwest of Stovepipe Wells. One of the early 1900s camps to start up in the Panamint Range just prior to the rush to Skidoo and Harrisburg. Nothing to be found of the original town; however concrete vats from later milling operations are found if you get out of your vehicle and look around (they can’t be seen from your car unless you know where to look).

http://www.ghosttowns.com/

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_emigrantspringsCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/emigrant_springs.html

Gold Point, Nevada – Paved highway in from U.S. Highway 95, good dirt roads maintained annually in springtime by Esmeralda County in and around the townsite. Many wooden structures. There are permanent residents, although they tend to stay inside and watch you through windows. Photogenic. The saloon building does serve food and drink irregularly and during annual events.

http://www.goldpointghosttown.com/

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/goldpoint.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/tule.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/gold_point.html

Harmony Borax Works – on the west side of California Highway 190 a short distance north of the Furnace Creek complex. Interpretive displays, including an entire set of one of the original borax wagons.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/harmony_borax.html

Journigan Mill – In upper Emigrant Canyon, southwest of Stovepipe Wells. Paved road. Cement foundations.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/journigan_mill.html

Lida, Nevada – Northernmost Death Valley. Found on both sides of Nevada Highway 266. Paved highway, dirt side streets. Occupied homes. Abandoned wood cabins. Scenic mountain location.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/lida.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/lida.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/nevada/lifedeath-laworder_lidaNV.htm

Loretto – West of Eureka Valley along both sides of the paved Big Pine-Death Valley road. Stone ruins, wooden and stone dugout, cans and glass on both sides of road. Modern mill ruins nearby; modern mine ruins up mountainside nearby.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/loretto.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/loretto.html

Palmetto, Nevada – Northernmost Death Valley. North side of Nevada Highway 266. Stone ruins, stone walls, cans, glass, mill ruins.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/palmetto.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/nevada/lifedeath-laworder_palmettoNV.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/palmetto.html

Wildrose Station – Lower Wildrose Canyon, along the Trona-Wildrose Road. Both sides of road. The Trona-Wildrose Road is paved, but has been washed out so many times over the decades that the Park Service and Inyo County have resigned to simply blading the sections where the pavement is missing. Foundations, stone ruins, a mine adit or two. A pleasant shady location to stop for a picnic or rest stop.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/wildrosecamp.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/wildrosestation.html

CLASS 1 – DIRT ROADS, ALL VEHICLES. HOWEVER, A 4×4 SUV OR PICKUP IS HELPFUL ON MANY DIRT ROADS DUE TO SOME ROCK AND WASHBOARDS:

Ashford Mill – Southernmost Death Valley, west of Shoshone. Good, maintained dirt road and not far from pavement. Adobe and cement walls of mill building. Very picturesque during times of wildflower bloom.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ashford.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net\essays\dvmarch2.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/ashford_mill.html

Ballarat – Panamint Valley. An easy dirt road running northeast from the paved Trona-Wildrose Road. Ballarat has some deteriorating adobe cabins from its early period; otherwise the “General Store,” built in the 1960s, dominates the townsite. The store is stocked with some supplies and open primarily in the autumn, winter and spring months; irregularly open in summer. A campground, primarily a large dirt lot, is available for a small fee. The cemetery is just north of town on Indian Ranch Road and houses some of Ballarat’s colorful characters, including Seldom Seen Slim (Charles Ferge).

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ballart.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_ballaratCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/ballarat.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_ballaratCA.htm

Eagle Borax Works – West side of Death Valley, along the West Side Road. Located just off the east side of the maintained West Side Road in the salt flat.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/eagle.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/eagle_borax.html

Harrisburg – Panamint Range, west of Aguereberry Point. Pete Aguereberry camp in sight a short distance south of the road against the small hill. Main townsite of Harrisburg on south side of hillside behind Aguereberry camp, requiring a short walk along an old road now closed to vehicle travel. Remains of the Cashier Mill ruins, a stone cabin, a collapsed wooden cabin, can dumps, glass, debris of household items in alluvial plain south of Cashier Mill ruins. Eureka Mine has in past years been un-gated and public access allowed with interpretive signs within the mine (powerful flashlight necessary), but closed during winter months to protect hibernating Townsend bats.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/harrisburg.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/harrisburg.html

Keane Wonder Mill – Eastern Death Valley north of Furnace Creek. Maintained dirt road, a short walk to the mill ruins. Interpretive displays. Mill ruins with some machinery, heavy timber framework, cable tramway towers. There is a steep trail up to the Keane Wonder Mine, located a distance up the face of the Funeral Range.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/keane.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/keane_wonder.html

Leadfield – Titus Canyon, Grapevine Range. Maintained dirt road down Titus Canyon, but often closed for short periods of time due to flashflood damage. Wood, sheet metal, stone ruins, auto frame, mine adits, cans and household debris in picturesque setting.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/leadfield.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/leadfield.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_deathvalleyCANV.htm

Leeland, Nevada – Amargosa Desert north of Death Valley Junction. Situated on the east side of a maintained dirt road, a short distance north from a paved road. Depot site for Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad. Cement foundations, cement foundations for water tank. Debris from railroad ties, metal bits from railroad salvage operations during the 1940s. Occupied homes nearby.

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/leeland_station.html

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/leeland.html

Marble Canyon – Inyo Range north of Saline Valley. Maintained dirt road. Wooden structures scattered along length of canyon near road. Open, unprotected or poorly protected mine shafts. Mining machinery, vehicles, household debris.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/marble_canyon.html

Oriental – Gold Mountain. Good roads, maintained annually in springtime by Esmeralda County, Nevada. Ruins of stone and wood structures scattered around townsite, large scale concrete milling ruins in nearby canyon. Last standing structure recently collapsed due to time and heavy winter snows.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/oriental(oldcamp).html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/oriental.html

Phinney Mine – Nevada Triangle. A site that is along a Class I road, but requires a short hike of about a third of a mile.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/shorb.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/phinney_mine.html

Pioneer, Nevada – Northwest of Beatty, Nevada. Occasionally maintained dirt road. Stone ruins, collapsed lumber structures, mine ruins, mine adits.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/pioneer.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/nevada/lifedeath-laworder_pioneerNV.htm

Ryan – Upper Furnace Creek Wash between Furnace Creek and Death Valley Junction. Not accessible to the public. However, you can see Ryan from several vantage points. The best and closest view the public can get is to drive a short distance off the Greenwater Valley road to a locked gate and scope out the townsite with binoculars. The townsite is still quite a ways off, but clearly visible.

http://www.ttrr.org/

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ryan.html

Sand Spring – Northern Death Valley, east side of the Big Pine-Death Valley road. Not a true town, but site of a gasoline station during short lived Skookum boom in 1920s. Rock ruin and stone lined well of the spring, as well as a small riparian area.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/sandspring.html

Skidoo – Panamint Range, southwest of Stovepipe Wells. Few indications that a town existed here. Can dumps, some scraps of lumber, household goods. Interpretive display with historic photos of Skidoo. Skidoo mill ruins nearby, requiring short walk on either of two old roads accessing mill. Stamp batteries intact, flywheels, some remaining parts of old processing machinery. Can be accessed by any vehicle, caution advised for those with sedans or other automobiles, as there is some rock in the road in spots.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/skidoo.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/essays/simpson.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_skidooCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/skidoo.html

Stateline, Nevada – Gold Mountain. Dirt roads maintained annually in springtime by Esmeralda County, Nevada. Mine ruins, headframes, numerous stone ruins, one standing wooden cabin maintained in an adopt-a-cabin state. Scenic location and easy to access.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/goldmountain.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/stateline.html

Strozzi Ranch – Nevada Triangle. Several structures, household debris. A nice place to camp at the end of the road just above the ranch structures, with many trees. The Park Service has a porta-potti placed here and there is a picnic table.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/shorb.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/strozzi.html

Sylvania, Nevada – Northernmost Death Valley. Generally semi-maintained roads. Recent word that road up Sylvania Canyon from Fish Lake Valley was washed out and has not yet been rebuilt. Other roads from the vicinity of Palmetto ghost town access Sylvania from the north. Numerous standing wooden cabins, mine machinery, mine headframes and stone ruins amid picturesque forested mountain setting. Several cabins appear to be occasionally occupied.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/sylvania.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/sylvania.html

Tule Canyon (Roosevelt City, Rachfords, Senner) – Northernmost Death Valley. Good dirt road maintained annually in springtime by Esmeralda County, Nevada. If accessed via Death Valley, road is generally a mild Class 2 on California side from Crankshaft Crossing, but can have sharp drop-offs into washes after rainy weather or summertime flash flooding. If accessed from Nevada side, generally Class 1 roads. The upper half of the canyon will likely be impassable in winter due to deep snow. Lower Tule Canyon has stone ruins, as well as an abandoned piece of 20th Century equipment or two. At Roosevelt City, one standing cabin (has weakened and deteriorated considerably in the past decade and doesn’t appear to be capable of standing another decade) and several collapsed wooden structures, one stone ruin, an ore chute is found; as well as a windmill and corral nearby. At Rachfords, the old cement and stone stage station building is still standing amid a reclaimed 1990s placer mine operation. A half mile above Rachfords are several stone ruins along the road, although a small wildfire recently visited the area and has removed the sagebrush; which will take a couple of decades to restore. At Senner, mine dumps, stone ruins and one standing structure that has collapsed in recent years.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/tulecanyon.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/tule.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/nevada/lifedeath-laworder_tulecanyonNV.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/tule.html

Ubehebe – Class 1 road to Racetrack Valley, a bit rougher the short distance to camp and mine. Wooden cabin, stone ruins, mine ruins.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/ubehebe.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/ubehebe.html

Warm Springs Talc Mine (sometimes called the Pfizer Mine or White Pot Mine) – Formerly maintained dirt road, but usually in good shape. Suggested AWD or 4WD vehicle, although 2WD pickup truck can generally travel road. Standing wooden cabins, dormitory building, swimming pool, gated large mine adit, small open pit mine nearby. Scenic riparian area with flowing water from springs.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/whitepotmine.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/escort.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/warmsprings.html

Wildrose Charcoal Kilns – Panamint Range. Paved road first few miles from the Trona-Wildrose Road, then maintained dirt after. Often inaccessible in winter due to deep snow.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/wildrosecamp.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/wildrosekilns.html

CLASS 2 – 4WD RECOMMENDED:

Capricorn Mine Camp – Funeral Range, southwest of Beatty, Nevada. Road often disappears due to little use and desert growth. Few remains. Barely inside California and DVNP. Open mine shafts, but cable netted by Park Service.

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/capricorn.html

Chloride City – Funeral Range, southwest of Beatty, Nevada. The road is generally in good shape, although there are a few steep pitches with bedrock to navigate around.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/chloridecity.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/chloride.html

Greenwater/Furnace/Ramsey/Kunze – Southeast of Furnace Creek. Good desert two-track roads. Stone structure at Kunze townsite. Many can dumps, glass, household debris, lumber debris at all sites. Numerous open mine shafts, cable netted by Park Service.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/greenwater.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/green2002.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_greenwaterCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/greenwater.html

Inyo Mine – Funeral Range, southeast of Furnace Creek. Generally this road can be traversed by 2WD vehicles, except for a short obstacle found at the mouth of Echo Canyon. This short stretch, about 10 yards long, has several staggered dips deep enough to stop forward progress without 4WD. An all wheel drive vehicle likely won’t be able to cross over unless it has enough clearance so as not to hang up on its frame. Once past this obstacle, the road is generally smooth and easily traversed. Ruins of the mill, several standing and collapsed cabins, some machinery.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/schwab.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/t2000a.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/inyomine.html

Lee/Lee Annex, California and Nevada – Amargosa Desert Northwest of Death Valley Junction. Class 1 dirt roads in Ash Meadows, deteriorating to a rocky Class 1 and 2 remainder of way. Dim Class 2 road between Lee Annex and Lee, Nevada. Numerous stone ruins and mine shafts (protected) at Lee and Lee Annex, California; some stone ruins, open and unprotected mineshafts at Lee, Nevada. Cans, glass, lumber debris at all sites.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_leeCANV.htm

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/lee.html

Lost Burro Mine – South of Teakettle Junction. Class 1 road to Hidden Valley, Class 2 to mine. Standing wooden cabins, stone ruins, mine adits, wooden debris, headframes. Scenic.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/lostburro.html

Minnietta Mine – Western Panamint Valley. Class 1 semi-maintained road to base of Lookout Mountain, then rough and rocky rest of way. Stone and wooden ruins, standing cabin in adopt-a-cabin state. Stone ruins out in wash to the south. Deep mine adit.

Reilly (Anthony Mill Ruins) – Western Panamint Valley. Rocky road several miles from paved road. Numerous stone ruins, interpretive displays.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/reilly.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/reilly.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/reilly.html

Ryan (Old Ryan) – Southwest of Death Valley Junction. Mine ruins and mine dumps.

Willow Creek/Gold Valley – West of Greenwater Valley. Road has some off camber and rock, otherwise passable by most stock SUVs. Few ruins scattered about entire Gold Valley area. Some mill ruins at Willow Spring. Very remote and lonely country.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/green2002.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/goldvalley.html

CLASS 3 – 4WD HIGH CLEARANCE:

Barker Ranch – Western Panamint Range. Road up Goler Wash often can be Class 4 or even Class 5; at other times an easy Class 3. A former Panamint Range desert homestead, Barker Ranch became notorious as the hideout of Charles Manson and his gang of hippies after the 1969 murder spree in the Los Angeles area. The main cabin is still standing, in an adopt-a-cabin state, with heavy emphasis on items found in the cabin on the Charles Manson era. Otherwise the ranch is in a scenic and pleasant location.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/barkerranch.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/escort.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/barker.html

Clair Camp – Western Panamint Range. Rocky road, often washed out and passable to modified 4WD vehicles only. Several riparian areas with dense will thickets impinging on road, water running down road. Wooden dwellings and mine structures, mining and milling machinery, vehicles, sheet metal sheds. A few collapsed and semi-collapsed buildings. Scenic location high in Panamint Range.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/claircamp.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/claircamp.html

Lookout – Western Panamint Valley. Class 1 road to base of Lookout Mountain, remainder of road often Class 3 style rough and rocky up alluvium to base of Argus Range, then generally Class 2 on Lookout Mountain. Numerous stone ruins, lumber debris, ruins of mill, wagon scales, cans, glass. Gorgeous views. Deep mine adits.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/lookout.html

Saline Valley Salt Tram Towers and Summit Station – Inyo Range east of Owens Valley and west of Saline Valley. Truck based 4WD vehicles with low range transfer case only. Numerous wooden tramway towers along route. Summit Station has heavy beamed wooden crossover structure spanning summit ridge of the Inyo Range; large wooden living quarters for personnel undergoing restoration. Gorgeous long distance views into Owens and Saline Valleys with backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Range and the desert ranges to the east.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/4×4/swansea.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/salinevalley_salttram.html

CLASS 4 – 4WD HIGH CLEARANCE ONLY and CLASS 5 – MODIFIED 4WD ONLY:

Echo – Funeral Range. Few indications that a town existed. Can dumps, scraps of lumber, glass, stones set in unnatural patterns – likely as a perimeter for a tent dwelling. One standing cabin nearby, but of later construction. Nice views into southern Nevada. Echo be accessed by a 4WD vehicle if modified and with an experienced driver. Travel with two or more vehicles highly recommended.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/echo.html

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/echo.html

HIKING ACCESS ONLY:

Big Belle Mine – Funeral Range below Chloride Cliff. A hike down/up very steep terrain. Ruins of several structures in standing and collapsed state. Ruins of a winch tramway utilizing a truck frame with railroad wheels that ran along steel tracks.

http://www.blackturtle.us/DV_SITES/CHLORIDE/

Keane Spring – Funeral Range near Chloride City. The road to Chloride City is generally Class 2, the townsite of Keane Spring requires a half mile walk along a road now closed to vehicle travel. Stone ruins, remains of water pipe, glass and cans.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/keanesprings.html

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_keanespringsCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/keanespring.html

Panamint City – Western Panamint Range. Seven mile hike, first mile in rushing, cold water over slick bedrock falls. Some water in the middle portion of the hike from Brewery Spring. Hiking along old vehicle route most of the distance. Steep with elevation gain of about 4,000 feet. Several “adopt-a-cabins” at townsite, all of more modern construction. Relatively dependable water piped to the “Panamint Hilton” cabin along main road, sometimes water can be found at the other nearby cabins. Dependable water from springs at Thompson Camp above Panamint City. Most of the ruins at Panamint City date from modern mining operations from the 1960s-1980s; although stone ruins from old Panamint City are found along the canyon for about a mile below the modern ruins. The brick chimney stack from the original mill in Panamint can be seen for the last mile into town and is usable as a guide to measure your progress in reaching Panamint City. Mining ruins, old vehicles and cabins can be found along the lower portion of Sourdough Canyon, as well as the old Wyoming Mine site high up and south of the main cluster of buildings.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/panamintcity.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/panamintcity.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_panamintcityCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/panamintcity.html

Schwab – Funeral Range, southeast of Furnace Creek. Found in a branch of Echo Canyon, but the original road is closed to vehicle travel. Accessible easiest from near the Inyo Mine. An easy half mile walk along the old road alignment from either direction. Few ruins except to the observant. An old section of what may have been Schwab’s main street is found on a bench about 20 feet higher than the wash; upon which are found stone supports for tents and other structures dropping into the wash; a couple of dugout and wood lined cellars; cans, glass and other household debris. Nearby up the wash are found a “grave” marker with painted lettering (no recorded deaths occurred at Schwab) and stone ruins.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/schwab.html

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/nov/stories/nevada.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_schwabCA.htm

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/schwab.html

Stovepipe Well – Central Death Valley. An easy walk along the old dirt road. A historical marker, a length of stovepipe embedded in a stone base marks the spot on the east side of the sand dunes.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/stovepipe.html

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/gt/stovepipewell.html

RAILROAD GRADES:

Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad – Amargosa Desert. Grade mostly alongside or obliterated by U.S. 95 south of Beatty. Grade can be driven between Dorris Montgomery Summit on Nevada Highway 374 west of Beatty to Rhyolite. Grade can be driven from west of Rhyolite into Sarcobatus Flat or just alongside.

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/trips/shorb.htm

Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad – Amargosa Desert. Road bed can be driven on or alongside through much of the country south of Beatty. Many areas of soft sand or fine dirt. Beware of washed out culverts.

http://www.ttrr.org/

http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/life_death/california/lifedeath-laworder_ttrrCANV.htm

Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad – Amargosa Desert, Sarcobatus Flat. Line under or adjacent to US95 north of Beatty. Can be driven on or beside grade through Sarcobatus Flat.

Death Valley Railroad – Amargosa Desert.

http://www.ttrr.org/