Perils of Opportunity - Mines and the Miners

In the last half of the 19th Century, there were those who decided to leave the relatively organized societies of St. Louis, Chicago, or New York to try to find a new life for themselves in California. These travelers were often drawn by the illusory dreams of riches, or sought freedom from stifling traditions.

After a difficult journey across the plains and deserts of the Great Basin, some took a southern “shortcut” across Death Valley to avoid the snowy passes of the Sierra Nevada. Here they encountered a parched, unforgiving landscape with summer temperatures which regularly soar to 120 degrees fahrenheit or more. Some, like “Shorty” Harris, Pete Aguereberry, and William Coleman decided to stay and work the rock, eking out a living on gold, silver, copper, and borax. Most moved on as quickly as possible to the verdant valleys beyond the mountains.

 

Visitor Safety Tip: Mines are Dangerous!

For your safety, stay out of mines and do not touch tailings piles. Mines in the park are unstable and may collapse. Not all shafts are closed. Dangerous chemicals and toxic metals can be present in mines and tailings at high concentrations. Do not climb on mining structures.

 

Beehive Charcoal Kilns - 1877

These kilns, located at 7,000’ elevation in Wildrose Canyon, were built in 1877 and produced charcoal for the Modock Consolidated Mining Company for about three years. Modock was owned by George Hearst, father of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, the original owner of Hearst Castle along the central California coast.

Piñon pine was burned in the kilns for six to eight days and the resulting charcoal was then cooled for an additional six days. The charcoal was then hauled 20 miles by wagon to the Modock mine smelter, where it was burned to extract silver and lead from the mined rock. One can still smell smoke inside the kilns despite the passing of 140 years.

 

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Credit: Photographer: Paul L. Henchey, Courtesy of UC Davis Library

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Harmony Borax Works and the 20-Mule Team - ca. 1890

Just north of Furnace Creek is Harmony Borax Works, the site of a borax refining facility founded by San Francisco businessman William Coleman. It was built adjacent to a large salt pan to avoid the cost of transporting large amounts of mud and salt long distances. Coleman moved over 2.5 million pounds of borax out of Death Valley each year Harmony and other mines were in operation.

The Twenty Mule Team was, for a long time, the symbol of the borax industry. Their image was displayed on product boxes and on television. The teams pulled the borax across 165 miles of challenging terrain to the Mojave market. Their loads weighed up to 36 tons, including 1,200 gallons of drinking water. The rear wagon wheels are seven feet tall and the entire rig with mules was over 100 feet long.

 

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Credit: Photographer: Ted Faye; Death Valley National Park Museum  #25887

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Borax Tanks at Harmony - 1900

Workers, including Chinese workers, separated mud from the borax by heating water in the boiling tanks, dumping the ore into the tanks, and adding carbonated soda. The borax dissolved and the unwanted salt and mud settled out. The borax liquid was then poured into cooling vats where the compound crystallized on metal rods. Once completely cooled, the rods were taken out and workers chipped off the hardened borax and loaded it into sacks for transport. Borax won’t crystallize at temperatures above 120° F so the operation shut down during the summer.

The Harmony Borax Works closed in 1888 after five years of operation.

 

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Credit: Death Valley National Park Museum #30864

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Aguereberry Camp's Emigrant Springs Restaurant - 1908

Pete Aguereberry was born in 1874 to a Basque family in France. Aguereberry had read about the 1848 gold discovery in California and sailed for America at 16 years of age. He wound up in Goldfield, NV in 1902 and almost died trying to cross Death Valley in 1905 during the summer heat. Pete befriended Shorty Harris, a local prospector, and on a trip to a Fourth of July celebration in Ballarat, discovered a ledge above Emigrant Canyon that contained gold. Pete filed the claims on the north side of the hill while Shorty took the south side.

Aguereberry and Shorty Harris founded Aguereberry Camp and their discovery of gold in the Panamint Range spawned a mini-gold rush. Their operation in Emigrant Canyon expanded to 300 men and the town was renamed Harrisburg. At the height of the mining operation, they were able to extract gold valued up to $500 per ton.

 

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Credit: westernmininghistory.com

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Keane Wonder Mine - ca. 1908

Named “King of the Desert” by the Rhyolite Herald in 1911, the Keane Wonder Mine in the Funeral Range produced over a million dollars in gold from 1904 to 1917. The operation had a 20-stamp processing mill, housing for its workers, an ice plant, and a mile-long aerial tramway. To increase profits, the ore was mined in horizontal diggings (as opposed to sinking vertical shafts) and moved via the aerial tram down the mountain to the mill for processing.

 

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Credit: "Loafing along death valley trails" by William Caruthers 2016 Project Gutenberg

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Shorty Harris in Mesquite Dunes - ca. 1910

Shorty Harris's discovery of surface gold in the Bullfrog Mountains in 1904 launched a rush which fueled the rise of Rhyolite, Harrisburg, and Skidoo. The 5’4” Frank Harris, an orphan from Rhode Island, arrived in Death Valley in the 1870s after having spent time in Leadville, Tombstone, and Idaho country. He was known as a “single blanket jackass” prospector who found good claims but never developed them, preferring to sell them to others. He would go spend the proceeds, typically on alcohol, and return to search for more when his money ran out. Shorty Harris lived on and off with his refillable whiskey bottle, which he named “O be Joyful”, until his death in 1934.

The sand dunes in Death Valley are a permanent yet temporary landscape, a dramatic expression of the erosion that continues to shape the valley.

 

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Credit: Courtesy of Walter Feller, MojaveDesert.net

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Ballarat Saloon - ca. 1920

Founded in 1896 near the foot of Surprise Canyon, Ballarat served as a supply point for mines in the Panamint Mountains to the east, including Panamint City. During its heyday from 1897 to 1905, Ballarat was the place for miners to go for fun and relaxation. It sported seven saloons, three hotels, a Wells Fargo station, a post office, school, jail, and morgue. There were no churches.

The town served as a stopping point for the Great New York to Paris auto race. The winning car, a Thomas Flyer, arrived in Ballarat on March 22, 1908.The town declined after the Ratcliff Mine east of town shut down its operations and in 1917, the post office closed.

 

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Credit: Images of America: Death Valley by Robert Palazzo 2008 Arcadia Publishing

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone

 

Salt Creek Trading Post - 1930

Trading posts were scattered across Death Valley, providing opportunities for lonely prospectors to obtain basic supplies and get a little human interaction.

Salt Creek, which runs through Devils Cornfield is a perennial stream that is home to the Salt Creek pupfish. The pupfish’s ancestors swam to the area from the Colorado River long ago when there was a system of waterways connecting the two regions. The fish feed mostly on algae, snails, and other crustaceans and reproduce rapidly resulting in several generations each year.

 

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Credit: Photographer: Burton Frasher, Courtesy HJG Frashers Fotos Collection

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Credit: NPS/Ted Barone