Darwin Ghost Town

Article and photography by Natasha Petrosova 

The semi-ghost town Darwin , that was once the biggest town in the county , sits on the western outskirt of Death Valley in Inyo County, California.  The settlement got it start in early 1860 when prospecting expedition led by Dr. E. Darwin French set out from Visalia , Califonia in search of Lost Gunsight Mine and a place that had been referred to as "Silver Mountain".  

French's expedition never found the Lost Gunsight Mine or Silver Mountain, but they did discover rich silver outcrops, staked a number of claims and headed back to Visalia to record them.  When they returned , they were followed by hundreds of others and soon mines developed and the rugged mining of Coso Junction was born.  

More gold, silver, and lead deposits were discovered around 1970 in  the Coso range  and that resulted in a  formation of the New Coso Mining District in 1874.  The settlement of Darwin was soon established and named after its early explorer and prospector , Dr. Darwin French.  Darwin quickly developed into the main commercial center in the area.  Darwin boasted two smelters, some 20 operating mines, a post office, graded streets, a drug store, hotel, three restaurants, and the saloons, a newspaper, 200 frame houses and more than 700 residents.  The Defiance Mine was a main producer in the district, but other profitable mines included the Argus-Sterling, Christmas Gift, Lucky Jim, Custer, Independence, Keystone Thompson and the Wonder Mine.  

By next year the town was growing strong with more than 1,000 residents.  Darwin became the largest town in Inyo County.  It's Centennial Celebration on July 4, 1876 was a second largest in the county.  The settlement also gained a reputation of rowdy and violent town.  Due to its isolation and distance from the county seat of Independence, gunplay, assaults, and stage robberies were common.  Despite that , the town still continued to grow with population peaking of about 3,500 residents in 1877.  But this did not last for long.  The following year a smallpox epidemic swept the community and national economic slowdown hit Darwin hard.  Production slowed and mine owners scaled back wages , creating more violence in the community.  

In September 1878 the newspaper office closed and the publisher , T.S. Harris, packed up the presses and headed north toward boomtown Bodie.  Many miners followed him.  However, Independence newspaper reported next month that the town Darwin still had 200-300 residents, four stores, three restaurants, five saloons and a drug store.  In April 30, 1879, six months later  the arson fire began in the Darwin Hotel which resulted in the loss of 14 businesses, including several stores, offices and the hotel, saloons and the post office.  

Even though Darwin shrunk from its former self , it did not completely die.  In 1880 there were still about 85 residents that still called Darwin  their home.  In 1902, however , the post office closed briefly , but would later reopen.  

During the early 1900's a rebirth of the mining industry occurred in southern Inyo County when copper, which had earlier been left on the dumps because it was considered worthless, began to be mined in earnest as its value had risen dramatically. In 1907 Senator Tasker L. Oddie of Nevada bought nine claims in the Darwin area, while George Nixon and George Wingfield of Goldfield, Nevada fame also took over some property. At the same time, the Lucky Jim Mine was shipping lead-silver ore to Salt Lake City smelters in Utah. Another smelter opened in nearby Keeler and during the next ten years more mines opened and older ones were re-worked. A new hotel was built, and the town began to show true signs of coming back to life.   However , another fire broke in the town in August 1917 and destroyed a service garage, the new hotel, and three homes.  In less than a year later, another fire swept down the other side of Main Street destroying more homes and businesses.  

In June 1919 the Darwin District , especially Lucky Jim and Christmas Gift Mine were going strong driven by the increase of silver price.  Another development occurred on MT. Ophir, when a company town was built to house all the miners needed to work the Wagner & Company mine.  In 1926 the Eichbaum toll Road was built through Darwin and into Death Valley, bringing with it tourist cabins and service businesses.  By 1927 the Darwin District's future seemed assured, for the area .  The area was rich with ores of all metallic materials such as silver, lead, gold, tungsten and copper.  However, the mines were shut down during the World War II for the war effort. Production for the area from 1870 to October 1938 reached approximately $3 to $5 million, and some estimate are as high as $7 million by 1945. 

In that year the Anaconda Copper Mining Company purchased the principal mines and took over operations there. Darwin became the chief source of lead in California, producing two-thirds of all that commodity used in the state. The total value of all lead, silver, and zinc produced has been put at $15 million.

The Company "Project Darwin LLC“ acquired the Darwin mines and 58 patented mining claims in 1996. The company is looking for investors to re-start the Darwin mines.

Today Darwin is practically a ghost town .  On the hillside of Mt. Ophir, about ½ northwest of "downtown," can still be seen the remains of the company camp, including decaying rows of company houses as well as Quonset huts and mill buildings. There are still about 50 residents who live here.  Some of those residents are aging hippies and artists from Big Sur , California.  Among them is a sculptor James Hunolt.  His yard is full of abstract marbles sculptures.  

 Darwin is one of the few places where people are forced to live without the internet connection. Want to stream movies on Netflix or video-chat on Skype in Darwin? Forget it.  Want to surf the Web while talking on the phone? Well, you can't. There is no food, gas or any business in Darwin for that matter.  The closest  grocery store is about 90 miles away.  

"The 2009 economic stimulus package included $7.2 billion to extend broadband Internet to underserved areas. More than $80 million was awarded to a California public-private partnership to build a 553-mile fiber network connecting Barstow, Calif., and Carson City, Nev., along U.S. 395 in the Eastern Sierra.

The Digital 395 project, targeted for completion in mid-2013, would bring "middle mile" broadband infrastructure to communities such as Lone Pine, Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, now served by an overtaxed, unreliable system that's the modern equivalent of tin cans connected with yarn.

In theory, after the government helps build the expensive middle mile, private companies will have an incentive to supply the "last mile" to customers.

Problem is, Darwin needs more than 35 last miles".

References: 

Mike Anton:  http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/12/local/la-me-darwin-20120312

Darwin's Post Office

Darwin's Dance Hall 

  art installation 

 Sculpture Garden by James Hunolt 

James Hunolt Sculpture

 Gate of Hell by James Hunolt

main street 

inside a cabin 

Darwin Mining district

This Old Darwin mine consists of straight rows of decaying company houses,  stuck on the non-level Mountain Ophir.  In 1919 major development began on Mt. Ophir, and a company town was built to house all the miners needed to work the Wagner & Company Mine.  Wagner was only the first of several lessees and owners of the property until 1942 when the mine was closed be the government order that all mines were to be closed for the “War Effort”.

After the War ended, Anaconda Copper Mining Co. purchased the property and reopened the facilities, and within a couple years, the Anaconda’s Darwin Mine was the number one lead mine in California.  The mines remained in operation until the 1970s.  The remains of that company camp almost overshadow the original site of the town.

The Company "Project Darwin LLC“ acquired the Darwin mines and 58 patented mining claims in 1996. The company is looking for investors to re-start the Darwin mines.

Darwin  is known for its majestic setting, especially from late fall to early spring when the mountains are covered with heavy snow and the townsite and valley are dusted with clean white powder.  Cobalt-blue skies and a low sun angle highlight details of each building, and the historic town of Darwin gleams like a tiny jewel set in the vastness of its isolated setting.

 road inside Darwin Mines

 Darwin mine from the distance

 Miners cabins

Swansea

Article and photography by Natasha Petrosova 

Swansea in Califonia was once a booming "silver town" located on an eastern shore of Ownes lake  . Swansea owns its success to a nearby silver mining  operations of Cerro Gordo mines in the late 1860s.   Swansea stands about 10 miles south of Lone Pine along Highway 136.  Swansea in California is named after many experienced Welsh miners who traveled across the Atlantic from Swansea to find their fortune in Death Valley, became a hub for smelting the ore and transporting the resulting ingots to Los Angeles more than 200 miles away.   

In 1872 the disastrous Lone Pine earthquake damaged the smelters and uplifted the shoreline and rendered the Swansea pier inaccessible by Owens Lake steamships.  As a result , most of the smelting and transportation business moved to a nearby town called Keeler, leaving Swansea virtually a ghost town.  To make matters worse, in the summer of1874 , a thunderstorm- induced debris flow inundated Swansea under several feet of water , rock, and sand .  However by this time the town was almost deserted.  The Owns Lake Silver-Lead company was also involved in expensive litigation with another company at the same time and they could never afford to rebuild.  

As 2007 there is only one structure is left in Swansea.  

 the only structure left in Swansea 

Keeler: The town that Los Angeles Killed

Keeler Beach 

Article and photography by Natasha Petrosova 

Keeler is practically a ghost town.  Many Buildings are falling apart,  Owens lake is dry , the mines  have been played out, yet about 50 people still live here.

In 1870 and early 1980s Keeler was first used  as a stop for steamer ships such as Bessie Brady and the Mollie Stevens.  Back then Ownes lake was filled with water and the town Keeler was called Cerro Gordo Landing.  Silver mined from Cerro Gordo would be halted down to Keeler and loaded up on the steamer ships for transport across the lake on its way to Los Angeles.

The town was renamed to Keeler after Julius M. Keeler who owned the mill there.  In 1883 a rail line was built in Keeler, with the last stop on the Carson&Colorado Railroad being in the town.  The same year the post office was opened.    The success of the Cerro Gordo mines caused Keeler to boom until silver prices plummeted in the late 1800s. After zinc was discovered up at the mine in  1911, it gave another boom to Keeler and the railway found some life.  However, zinc deposits ran out by 1930.  The last train left Keeler in 1960.  The train that use to run on the line was known as the "Slim Princess".  

However ,  that was not the end for Keeler.   Keeler at this point became a popular resort for people coming from Los Angeles. Standing right by the entrance to the Death Valley and on the shores of beautiful  and giant Owens lake, Keeler did well as a vacation spot for travelers.  Hotel Keeler provided lodging for  vacationers and those departing the train.  But unfortunately, this phase was short-lived.  

Western Water wars can last for a long time.  It's been almost 100 years since William Mulholland stood atop an aqueduct along the Owens River and said, " Here it is, Take it".  He was referring to a diversion that started piping water to Los Angeles from 200 miles away.  That water allowed Los Angeles to become the metropolis it is today.  But it also meant that Owens River no longer flowed into the massive Owens Lake , which quickly dried up and became one of the biggest environmental disasters in the nation.  


Today Owens lake is a salt flat a size of San Fransico ,  and when the wind blows, it can churn up huge dust storms with high levels of particulates that are dangerous to breathe. That earned Owens Lake the dubious mark of being the largest single source of dust pollution in the nation. 

In the late 1990s, the city of L.A. reached a historic deal and agreed to a cleanup plan. To date, the city has spent more than a billion dollars doing that, giving it another distinction: It's one of the largest dust-control projects in U.S. history. The levels of particulate coming off Owens Lake were 100 times the standard the federal government says is safe to breathe. These tiny particulates are especially harmful because they're hard to detect, and can build up in the lungs over time and cause respiratory problems. 

The City of Los Angeles is still to blame for this pollution disaster.  Many may argue that it is a desert climate and is naturally dusty.  Yes, it is,  but it never been that dusty.  L.A.  Water Department made it a  dust bowl that it is today.  Thier job cleaning up the area from dust pollution is still not done .  The way the water disputes  flow in the West  is back to the courts and after numerous prior law suits, Los Angeles is back in court over the obligation to control dust pollution at Owens lake.   

the Sierra Talc Company.  This old mill used prosessed talc from 5 diffrernt mines in California and Nevada

Owens dry lake

keeler beach 

Carlson and Colorado Railraod Depot 

Keeler plaque : " "Keeler End of the Line - From Mount House, Nevada, narrow gauge rails of the Carson & Colorado reached this site in 1883. As Cerro Gordo and other mines faltered, the rail line fell on hard times, so plans to extend the line to Mojave were abandoned, leaving Keeler as "End of the Line". Dedicated May 12, 1973 Slim Princess Chapter E Clampus Vitus Inyo County Board of Supervisors"

 Famous A.B.C. Beer 

 abandoned building 

 This house is still lived in 

 keeler post office

 art intalation 

The ruins 

 abandoned structure 

 inside 

 another abandoned building 

 this house is occupied 

 keeler gas station had been cloes for decades