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Facts: Death Valley National Park In 1877 George Hearst’s Modock Consolidated Mining Company completed construction of the charcoal kilns in Wildrose Canyon. The charcoal produced by the kilns was to be used as fuel for two silver-lead smelters that Hearst had built in the Argus Range 25 miles to the west. The kilns operated until the summer of 1878 when the Argus mines, due to deteriorating ore quality, closed and the furnaces shut down. The Wildrose
kilns employed about 40 woodcutters and associated workmen,
and the town of Wildrose, a temporary camp located somewhere
nearby, was home to about 100 people. Remi Nadeau’s Cerro
Gordo Freighting Company hauled the charcoal to the smelters by
pack train and wagon. Death Valley Ghost Towns Ballarat 1897 marked the year Ballarat came into being. The main mine was
the Radcliffe which produced 15,000 tons of gold ore from 1898-1903.
The town was named after an Australian gold camp and was home to
400 people in 1898. Several Death Valley legendary figures lived
there. Ballarat is privately owned and the site of several adobe
ruins. It is located off the Panamint Valley road west of Death
Valley. Chloride City became
a town in 1905 when the Bullfrog strike brought people into the
area to re-work old mining claims. It became a
ghost town the following year. There are numerous adits and dumps
in the area and one grave of a James McKay, of whom nothing is
known. In addition, there are remains of 3 stamp mills. It is located
off a four wheel drive road 3.5 miles east of Hell’s Gate
or off the dirt road 7 miles further east at the Park boundary.
Turn right after the cattle guard. This town was built
around a copper strike in 1905. Water had to be hauled into the
town and was sold for $15 a barrel. The town
grew to a population of 2,000 and was known for its lively magazine,
The Death Valley Chuckwalla. By 1909 the mining had collapsed without
ever showing a profit and people left for other areas. There are
no ruins left in Greenwater, which is located south of Dante’s
View off the Greenwater Valley gravel road. |
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