Tag: Keane Wonder Mine

Chloride City California – Inyo County Ghost Town

Posted on by

Chloride City is a remote ghost town and historic mining site located in the Funeral Mountains on the eastern side of Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California. Situated at an elevation of approximately 4,770 feet (1,454 m) in a saddle high above the valley floor, it offers dramatic panoramic views across Death Valley to the Panamint Mountains—over 5,000 feet below—making it one of the more scenic yet challenging historic locations in the park. Access requires a high-clearance vehicle (often 4WD) via rough dirt roads, such as Chloride City Road off Daylight Pass Road or near Hell’s Gate, and the site remains largely untouched, with scattered remnants rather than intact structures.

Crowells Mill under construction in Chloride City, CA about 1915
Crowells Mill under construction in Chloride City, CA about 1915

Early Discovery and Initial Mining (1870s)

The area’s mining history dates back to one of the earliest documented strikes in the Death Valley region. In August 1871, prospector August J. Franklin (a civil engineer involved in U.S. government surveying work on the Nevada-California border) made the initial discovery. According to local legend, Franklin killed a rattlesnake with a rock, noticed rich-looking float (loose ore fragments) beneath it, and traced the material uphill to its source—a vein of silver chloride (a form of silver ore) at what became known as Chloride Cliff.

Franklin staked claims and formed the Chloride Cliff Mining Company, sinking a shaft to about 70 feet by mid-1873 and employing several miners. Ore samples reportedly assayed at high values—between $200 and $1,000 per ton in silver—indicating significant potential. However, the remote location, harsh desert conditions, lack of water, and transportation difficulties limited development. Activity was intermittent; Franklin and later his son George worked claims sporadically to maintain ownership, but the site saw little sustained production through the 1870s and remained largely deserted from around 1873 until the early 1900s.

Boom Period and Establishment of Chloride City (1905–1906)

Interest revived in the early 20th century amid the broader Death Valley mining boom, particularly following the major gold discovery at Bullfrog, Nevada (near Rhyolite) in 1904 and the development of the nearby Keane Wonder Mine (discovered in late 1903). Prospectors from Bullfrog crossed into the Funeral Mountains, reworking older claims and exploring new ones.

By 1905, enough activity centered on the Chloride Cliff area (including renewed work on silver-lead and emerging gold veins) that a small support camp was laid out: Chloride City. It served as a hub for nearby operations, featuring basic facilities such as an assay office, bunkhouse, and possibly other rudimentary structures. The town was positioned in a picturesque but wind-swept saddle, supporting miners extracting ore from adits (horizontal tunnels) and shafts in the vicinity.

Despite initial promise, the boom was short-lived. Most operations proved uneconomical due to low-grade ore, high processing costs, and isolation. Chloride City became a ghost town by late 1906, abandoned as miners moved to more promising strikes elsewhere.

Later Activity and Nearby Mines (1910s–1940s)

Sporadic mining returned in the 1910s and especially the 1930s, when higher gold prices during the Great Depression spurred renewed prospecting. Nearby sites like the Big Bell Mine (and Big Bell Extension) saw more substantial work, including construction of an aerial tramway, ore bins, ball mills, cyanide tanks, and other equipment—much of which remains remarkably preserved due to the site’s inaccessibility. These operations focused on gold and silver, with some claims reportedly changing hands through dramatic means (e.g., gambling, disputes, or even a reported duel). Activity largely ceased by the early 1940s, with the last major shutdown around 1941.

Chloride City itself did not revive as a town; it remained a loose collection of mining features rather than a populated settlement.

Current Status and Remnants

Today, Chloride City is within Death Valley National Park and protected as part of its historic resources. Little of the actual “town” survives—mostly scattered foundations, mine dumps, numerous adits (some explorable with caution), ore remnants, and the remains of three stamp mills. A single grave marks the site: that of James McKay, about whom virtually nothing is known.

The area includes dramatic overlooks at Chloride Cliff, where visitors can stand on old dumps and gaze down into Death Valley. Nearby hikes lead to well-preserved ruins like those of the Big Bell Mine complex, featuring rusting machinery, collapsed shacks, and tramway elements frozen in time.

The site exemplifies the fleeting nature of desert mining booms: early promise, rapid influx, quick bust, and long-term abandonment. Its isolation has helped preserve artifacts, offering a glimpse into the grit of 19th- and early 20th-century prospectors in one of Earth’s harshest environments. Visitors should prepare for rough roads, extreme conditions, and practice Leave No Trace principles, as the area has no facilities or signage in many spots.

Chloride City Trail Map

Joseph Raphael De Lamar

Posted on by

Joseph Raphael De Lamar (1843–1918) was a Dutch-born American maritime adventurer, mining magnate, and financier who rose from poverty to amass a $29 million fortune, leaving a lasting legacy through his contributions to mining and philanthropy.

Dutch-American businessman Joseph Raphael De Lamar
Dutch-American businessman Joseph Raphael De Lamar

Early Life

Joseph Raphael De Lamar was born on September 2, 1843, in Amsterdam, Holland, to Maximiliaan de la Mar, a banker, and Johanna Teune. His father’s death when Joseph was four plunged the family into poverty, leaving his mother to raise seven children. As a young boy, De Lamar stowed away on a Dutch ship bound for the West Indies, working as a cook’s assistant after being discovered. This sparked a maritime career, and by age 23, he commanded a ship, gaining a global education through extensive voyages.

Maritime and Submarine Ventures

De Lamar’s early career was defined by bold ventures. He became a ship’s captain and, during the American Civil War, a submarine contractor, salvaging sunken vessels. In 1872, he raised the Charlotte, a steamship carrying Italian marble, off Bermuda, succeeding where others failed. A near-fatal incident in 1874, trapped for 36 hours in a diving suit while inspecting the Steamer William Tibbitts at Martha’s Vineyard, led him to abandon diving. He then traded along West African rivers, profiting despite significant crew losses to disease.

Mining Career

In the late 1870s, De Lamar joined the Colorado gold rush, studying chemistry and metallurgy to enhance his mining expertise. In 1879, he bought the Terrible Lead Mine in Custer County, Colorado, for $5,500, selling it in 1885 for $130,000. In Idaho, he extracted $1.5 million in gold and silver from a mountain near Silver City, selling a half-interest to the De Lamar Mining Company of England for $2 million. He invested in Colorado’s Cripple Creek and built a cyanide-process mill in Mercury, Utah, expanding it to process 1,000 tons daily. In the 1890s, he explored copper prospects in Bingham Canyon, Utah, influencing its development. His mining legacy includes ghost towns named Delamar in Nevada, Idaho, and California.

Political and Financial Career

In 1891, De Lamar served as an Idaho state senator, chairing key committees but declining a U.S. Senate candidacy. Relocating to New York, he became a secretive Wall Street financier, known as “the man of mystery” for his reserved yet successful dealings, influencing major business interests without seeking public office.

Personal Life and New York Society

In 1893, De Lamar married Nellie Virginia Sands, a John Quincy Adams descendant, and they had a daughter, Alice. After their divorce, he raised Alice alone. To cement his status in New York’s Gilded Age, he commissioned a Beaux-Arts mansion at 233 Madison Avenue, completed in 1905 with features like an automobile elevator. He also built Pembroke, a Long Island estate, housing an Aeolian organ and Tiffany stained glass. Despite his wealth, his reserved nature kept him on the fringes of elite society.

Later Years and Legacy

An accomplished organist, De Lamar hosted grand events, including Alice’s 1915 society debut. He amassed art, including sculptures and paintings, for his homes. De Lamar died on December 1, 1918, in New York from pneumonia following surgery, leaving a $29 million estate (roughly $480 million today) to Alice and $10 million to Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia for medical research. His Madison Avenue mansion, later home to the American Bible Society and National Democratic Club, became the Polish Consulate in 1973 and a New York City landmark. In 2023, De Lamar was inducted into the American Mining Hall of Fame, cementing his rags-to-riches legacy.

Jack Keane

Posted on by

Jack Keane was an Irish immigrant and prospector best known for his discovery of the Keane Wonder Mine (often called Keane’s Wonder Mine) in the harsh landscape of Death Valley, California. He represents a classic figure from the early 20th-century American West: a persistent, down-on-his-luck miner who finally struck it rich after years of hardship, only to see control of his find pass to larger investors.

Born in Ireland (exact date and early life details are sparse in historical records), Keane emigrated to the United States and eventually made his way to the desert regions of the Mojave and Death Valley areas. By the late 1890s, he had settled in or around Ballarat, a small mining supply camp on the western edge of Death Valley (in the Panamint Valley region). There, he worked as an out-of-work or struggling Irish miner, prospecting persistently for over eight years with little success. Life in these remote desert outposts was grueling—extreme heat, scarce water, isolation, and frequent disappointment defined the existence of prospectors like Keane.

In late 1903 (December, according to some accounts), Keane partnered with a colorful local figure: Domingo Etcharren, a one-eyed Basque butcher from Ballarat. The two men set out prospecting in the Funeral Mountains on the eastern side of Death Valley, specifically in an area known as Chloride Cliffs. Their initial target was silver deposits, and they focused on a particular ledge for several months without meaningful results. Etcharren eventually grew discouraged and abandoned the effort, but Keane pressed on, continuing to scout the rugged terrain.

The breakthrough came somewhat by accident. While exploring near their silver work site, Keane noticed a promising outcropping—possibly a quartz vein, which often signals nearby gold deposits. Upon closer investigation, he uncovered an immense ledge of free-milling gold ore (ore that could be processed relatively easily without complex chemical methods). This was his first significant strike after years of fruitless searching, so he aptly named the discovery the “Keane Wonder” (or “Keane’s Wonder”), reflecting both the surprise and the perceived value of the find.

Keane and Etcharren quickly staked and patented eighteen mining claims in the area to secure their rights. The high-quality ore generated immediate interest. They sold an option on the claim to a New York investor named Joseph DeLamar, but that deal fell through. A second investor also backed out. It wasn’t until 1906 that the property attracted serious development capital. Investors including John F. Campbell (and later Homer Wilson) purchased the mine, reportedly for amounts ranging from $150,000 to $250,000 in various transactions (before any major extraction had begun, attesting to the ore’s promise).

As part of the purchase agreements, Keane and Etcharren retained significant stakes: Keane became president of the Keane Wonder Mining Company, and Etcharren served as secretary. This arrangement allowed Keane a continued role and financial interest even as larger operators took over. Under new ownership, the mine boomed. By 1907, full-scale operations included a 20-stamp mill for processing ore, an ice plant (essential in the desert heat), and an impressive mile-long aerial tramway to transport ore down the steep mountainside—moving up to 70 tons per day at peak. The mine produced substantial gold (and some silver), with estimates of total output valued at around $750,000 to over $1 million (roughly $25–30 million in today’s dollars) between 1904–1917, with the most productive years from 1909–1911.

The Keane Wonder Mine became one of the most successful and longest-operating sites in the Funeral Mountains region—the first major strike there and a catalyst for brief regional excitement during the broader Death Valley mining boom (which also included places like Rhyolite and Skidoo). However, by 1912, easily accessible ore bodies were largely depleted, and operations wound down significantly. The mine ceased major activity around 1916, with a final brief revival attempt ending by 1942. Today, the site—now within Death Valley National Park—features preserved historic remnants like tramway towers, mill foundations, and ore buckets, serving as a protected window into early 20th-century mining history.

After the initial sale and development phase, Keane’s personal trajectory becomes murkier and less triumphant. Some accounts suggest his fortunes shifted dramatically; he reportedly acquired other mining claims (e.g., in the Skidoo district on the west side of Death Valley) but became embroiled in violence. One report indicates that he shot and injured two law enforcement officers, then fled to Ireland, where he was later convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for a murder committed around 1907. These details are not universally corroborated in all sources and may reflect fragmented or sensationalized local lore from the era.

Jack Keane’s legacy endures primarily through the mine that bears his name—a testament to perseverance in one of the harshest environments on Earth. His accidental discovery helped spotlight Death Valley’s mineral potential during a fleeting gold rush era, even if he did not retain long-term control or wealth from it. The Keane Wonder Mine remains a popular, if challenging, hiking destination in the national park, evoking the grit of prospectors like Keane who chased dreams amid the desert’s extremes.