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Chloride City - This settlement
was established in 1905 when the Bullfrog strike brought people into the
area to re-work old mining claims, established as early as 1873. Having a
very short life, it became a ghost town within a year. It was revived in
1916 and the remains that can be seen today are primarily from that time
period. A few mine openings, mill ruins, dumps, and the remains of three
stamp mills can be seen in the area along with the grave of a man named
James McKay, of whom nothing is known. It is located in the East-central
side of
Death Valley;
14 miles Southwest of
Beatty,
Nevada.
Currie Well -
Currie Well's claim to fame rests mostly on its use as a desert watering
hole for stages and trains traveling between
Rhyolite and
Goldfield.
Located some eleven miles north of
Rhyolite, the water from this site was
first used to supply thirsty horses, mules, teamsters and passengers
traveling through the area. The site was claimed in succession by several
miners and entrepreneurs, who tried to eke out a living by selling water,
travelers providing meals, and forage for animals. There is no indication
that these efforts, which lasted intermittently from 1907 to 1909, ever
paid off. Sporadic efforts were also made in later years to improve the
well site, with no obvious degree of success, and in 1911 two intrepid
souls attempted to start a farm garden and alfalfa field. Again, the short
life of these operations indicates that they were entirely unsuccessful.
The two brief spurts of real activity which surround the well site came
during 1907, when the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad's construction crew
made the place a work camp due to its water source, and during 1909, when
the owner of the well tried unsuccessfully to improve the water flow in
order to pipe it to adjacent mines. These spurts of activity were brief,
however, and soon died out. Several short-lived mining companies also
briefly tried to develop their claims in the area, but all these efforts
died quickly.
Today, the site is littered with debris, but
still contains some low stone walls and the ruins of a small beehive
furnace. it is located about 11 miles north of
Rhyolite alongside the
grade of the abandoned Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad.
Gold
Bar - A
small mining camp in the Bullfrog Mining District, it got its start in
1905 at the base of the Gold Bar Mine and the Homestake-King Mine and
Mill. Sitting side by side, the mines seemed to do very well for the first
several years partly because of their close proximity to the Las Vegas &
Tonopah Railroad, making the transportation of ore much less costly. The
townsite of Gold Bar eventually supported about 50 people and had a number
of substantial buildings. In the end, the Gold Bar Mine turned out to be a
swindle, with the only people making any money being the promoters.
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