Tag: Panamint Valley

Panamint Valley, nestled in the Mojave Desert of California, is a strikingly rugged and desolate landscape, stretching approximately 65 miles in length. Encircled by towering mountain ranges like the Panamint Range to the west and the Cottonwood Mountains to the east, this valley forms a dramatic basin with a floor that lies well below sea level. Its arid, stark beauty is accentuated by salt flats and occasional dry lake beds, creating an otherworldly atmosphere that contrasts sharply with the azure skies above. The area is not only a geological marvel but also holds historical significance, having been traversed by Native American tribes and later by explorers during the California Gold Rush era.

Indian Ranch Road

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The hottest place on earth, Death Valley National Park is on the order with California and Nevada
The hottest place on earth, Death Valley National Park is on the order with California and Nevada

Indian Ranch Road is a scenic, graded dirt road located in the Panamint Valley within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands adjacent to Death Valley National Park, serving as a vital gateway to the western foothills of the Panamint Mountains. This approximately 12-15 mile route (depending on extensions into side canyons) runs north-south from near the intersection of Panamint Valley Road and Trona-Wildrose Road, passing by the historic Ballarat Ghost Town and skirting the base of the rugged Panamint Range, offering stunning views of arid desert landscapes, colorful canyons, and distant peaks like Telescope Peak. It’s primarily a driving trail suitable for high-clearance vehicles, with some sections requiring 4×4 capabilities due to loose gravel, washouts, and occasional storm damage; hiking or off-road exploration is common in connecting canyons like Surprise and Jail.

Current Conditions (as of Latest Available Data, August 2025)

Based on reports up to 2024, the road is generally well-maintained as a graded gravel path but can become rougher toward the northern end, with potential for erosion from monsoon rains or winter storms making it impassable for low-clearance vehicles. Expect dry, dusty conditions in summer with extreme heat (often exceeding 100°F/38°C), while winter may bring cooler temperatures and rare snow at higher elevations. No recent major closures have been noted, but always check BLM or NPS updates for flash flood risks; a Campfire Permit is required for any open flames, and dispersed camping is allowed on BLM land west of the road until Happy Canyon Road. Water sources are scarce—carry ample supplies—and watch for wildlife like bighorn sheep or burros. As of early 2024, the road was navigable with high-clearance vehicles, but adjacent trails like Surprise Canyon Road (BLM Route P71) are rocky and demand 4×4.

Trail Description and Difficulty

Starting from Ballarat Ghost Town (about 3.5 miles north of Wingate Road on Panamint Valley Road), head north on Indian Ranch Road for a mostly flat to gently undulating drive along the valley floor, gaining minimal elevation (around 1,500-2,000 feet base). The main route is easy to moderate for experienced off-road drivers, taking 1-2 hours one-way, but side trips into canyons add challenge—e.g., turning east onto Surprise Canyon Road after ~2 miles leads to a steep, boulder-strewn path requiring advanced 4×4 skills and potentially hiking beyond vehicle barriers. Further north, at ~7.8 miles, Jail Canyon branches east for a colorful 4WD route to mining ruins, while the road continues to points like Indian George’s historic ranch site around 11 miles north. No permits are needed for the road itself, but respect private property signs near ranches and adhere to Leave No Trace principles.

Points of Interest

  • Ballarat Ghost Town: At the southern start, explore ruins of this 1897 mining camp, including adobe buildings, old vehicles, and a cemetery— a remnant of the late-19th-century gold rush.
  • Surprise Canyon Wilderness: Access via a short detour; hike the lush, water-fed canyon for riparian oases, waterfalls, rare Panamint daisies, and bighorn sheep sightings, leading to Panamint City ghost town ruins at ~6,500 feet.
  • Jail Canyon: A scenic 4WD side trail to a preserved mining camp and mill, with vibrant rock formations.
  • Indian George Hansen’s Ranch Site: Near the northern reaches, remnants of the Shoshone guide’s homestead, known for its spring water and role in supporting early travelers.
  • Panoramic views of the Panamint Mountains, with opportunities for stargazing in this dark-sky area.

Trail Map

Historical Contributions to the Panamint Mountains

Indian Ranch Road has played a pivotal role in the history of the Panamint Mountains by following ancient Native American paths and facilitating the 19th-century mining boom that defined the region. Named likely after Shoshone ranches like that of Indian George Hansen—a legendary guide who discovered silver in Surprise Canyon around the 1870s, sparking the founding of Panamint City—the road connected isolated valleys to bustling silver camps. Shoshone families, including Hungry Bill (born ~1839-1848) and his brother Panamint Tom, established ranches in nearby Johnson and Anvil Canyons from the 1870s onward, cultivating crops like corn, potatoes, watermelons, and fruit orchards under crude irrigation to supply miners in Panamint City and Ballarat. These ranches, such as Hungry Bill’s at ~5,000 feet in Johnson Canyon, represented seasonal Shoshone habitation and adaptation, providing fresh produce amid the desert’s harshness and bridging Native and settler economies during the silver rush of 1873-1875. The road’s alignment along routes like Johnson Canyon—a direct trail from Death Valley to Panamint City via Panamint Pass—enabled transportation of goods, mining equipment, and people, supporting boom towns like Panamint City (founded by outlaws in 1873) and contributing to the area’s economic surge before its bust in the late 1870s. Indian George, who lived to ~107 (dying in 1944), not only aided in silver discoveries but also healed locals with traditional remedies and negotiated water rights, embodying cultural resilience. Today, the road preserves access to these sites, highlighting the intertwined histories of Indigenous stewardship, mining exploitation, and environmental adaptation in the Panamint Mountains, with areas like Hungry Bill’s Ranch eligible for National Register status as historic districts.

Goler Wash and Mengel Pass

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Goler Wash and Mengel Pass over a route into Butte Valley from Panamint Valley. Although not technically in Death Valley, this trail is consider part of the area. Trail conditions vary from easy to difficult depending upon recent rainfall, with one section near Mengel pass being difficult.

The route twists and turns through a narrow valley, until it opens a bit into Goler wash itself. There is a short side trip to Baker Ranch and Meyer Ranch which was the one time, although short lived home of Charles Manson and his family prior to their arrest by Inyo County Sheriffs Department in October of 1969. Manson and others were responsible for the famous Tate – La Bianca murders in Los Angeles, California. Mason and his family drove a school bus up to Barker Ranch. The ranch was used as a mining and recreational property before Manson.

Barker Ranch - The building complex was heavily vegetated with trees, with a sparsely planted understory. Note the Manson bus in the left hand side of the image. View northwest, 1969 (DEVA collection). - NPS
Barker Ranch – The building complex was heavily vegetated with trees, with a sparsely planted understory. Note the Manson bus in the left hand side of the image. View northwest, 1969 (DEVA collection). – NPS

Barker Ranch

Barker Ranch is originally built in the 1930s by Bluth and Helen Thomason who were attempting mining operations at the site. They built a small stone building in the 1940’s and a windmill generated electricity. In 1955 the property was purchased by Jim and Arlene Barker. The Barkers expanded the original stone build for Barker family gatherings. In 1969, over the period of two days Charles Manson and his “family” are pursed and arrested. The arresting officer was CHP Officer Jim Jim Pursell.

In 2009, Barker Ranch is destroyed by a fire which tore though the dry wood of the buildings.

Asa Russell "Panamint Russ" in front of the Geologist cabin - Courtesy of Desert Magazine April 1955
Asa Russell “Panamint Russ” in front of the Geologist cabin – Courtesy of Desert Magazine April 1955

Follow the trail up to Megel pass, which offers the explorer access to Butte Valley, Megel’s Cabin, the Geologists Cabin and Russell’s camp.

Futher Reading

Goler Wash and Mengel Pass

Myers Ranch

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Myers Ranch is a privately owned ranch located in Goler Wash in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park, California. The forty acre ranch is privately owned ranch and located about .5 miles from Barker Ranch.

Myers Ranch, Panamint Mountain
Myers Ranch, Panamint Mountain

A Family Affair

Bill and Barbara Myers settled in Goler Wash in 1932, building themselves a comfortable house complete with such amenities as flush toilets, a swimming pool, an orchard, and of course, a garden. They raised three children there: Charles, Pat and Corky. The Myers family reluctantly moved to Fresno in 1960, so that their children could have a better education.

The ranch is built from wood ties used by the Searles Lake epsom salt monorail, it burned in 1999. The Myers ran a gas and food stop called Wildrose Station, which was demolished by the National Park Service.

Manson Family

Myers Ranch was the original destination for Charles Mason and his “family”. In 1968 he started to look for a desert location to move his “brood”. He choose the desert because “Out there, things aren’t so crazy”. One of his followers is Cathy (Cappy) Gilles is a grand daughter of Bill and Barbara Myers. “Cappy” obtained permission from the family matriarch for her and some girls to come up and stay at the ranch. He later received permission and based his activities at Barker Ranch.

From October 1968 to January 1969, Manson lived / camped in the area. In October 1969, CHP Officer Jim Pursell and a task force raided Goler Wash. Over the course of two days, they arrested seventeen people in the area. Charles Manson was arrested while hiding in a cabinet in the bathroom of Barker Ranch.

Myers Ranch Map

Myers Ranch Summary

NameMyers Ranch
LocationGoler Wash, Panamint Mountains, Death Valley, California
Elevation3700 Feet
Latitude, Longitude35.86162,-117.08227

References

Barker Ranch

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Thomason/Barker Ranch is a five-acre property within Death Valley National Park. This historic site is located off of Goler Wash in the southern Panamint Range in the southwestern portion of the park. Barker Ranch is commonly referenced as being the location that mass murderer Charles Manson was arrested after the Tate – La Bianca killings in 1969.

This image, taken circa 1940, shows the main residence, workshop, retaining walls, and ornamental vegetation. Note the windmill located behind the workshop. View north (DEVA collection) - NPS
This image, taken circa 1940, shows the main residence, workshop, retaining walls, and ornamental vegetation. Note the windmill located behind the workshop. View north (DEVA collection) – NPS

Thomason Era (1937 – 1956)

In 1937, Blouch Thomason, a retired Los Angeles County detective, recorded three quartz lode mining claims named
“Tommy Group,” “Tommy Group No. 2,” and “Tommy Group No. 3” and a mill site located. The original structures consisting of three tent shelters is built in 1939.

In 1940, major improvements are made to the land. Thomason built the main ranch house, windmill, workshop, chicken coop, corral, fences, entry road, fences, water conveyance system, and planted ornamental and fruit-bearing vegetation. He also built a single rock building for “shop and storage” at the ranch. Later, a guestroom and garage are added to the shop. The Thomas ranch is inhabited full time by Blouch and Helen Thomason. They ceased mining operations due to poor yield

In 1950, Blouch passes away while visiting relatives in the Trinity Alps. Following his death, Helen moves away from the ranch, but still maintained the property as a vacation retreat.

Barker Era ( 1956 – 1971 )

James and Arlene Barker, from Oklahoma, purchased the Thomason Ranch, in 1955. In 1956, the Barkers recorded the “Chespa Mill Site” with the Inyo County Recorder’s Office. The Barkers built a 5,000 gallon water reservoir ( swimming pool ) and a 14 foot by 20 foot bunkhouse, sometime during 1957.

In 1968, Arlene Barker gave Charles Manson permission to occupy the Ranch in exchange for a Beach Boys Gold Album. After Manson’s arrest, the Barkers continued to maintain the property. In 1971, the Barkers ceased filing mining reports with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the family’s mining activity. The land (and improvements) then reverted to government control. In 1976, the ranch became part of the California Desert Conservation Area.

In 1994, Barker Ranch is incorporated into Death Valley National Park.

Manson Era ( 1968 – 1969 )

Barker Ranch - The building complex was heavily vegetated with trees, with a sparsely planted understory. Note the Manson bus in the left hand side of the image. View northwest, 1969 (DEVA collection). - NPS
Barker Ranch – The building complex was heavily vegetated with trees, with a sparsely planted understory. Note the Manson bus in the left hand side of the image. View northwest, 1969 (DEVA collection). – NPS

The Thomason / Barker Ranch history was stained forever, in October 1968, when Charles Manson obtained permission from Arlene Barker to occupy the ranch. Paul Watkins, a Manson Family Member, stated the Mason agreed to watch over the place in exchange for maintenance and work on the Ranch. Manson and his band of opted to stay and Barker Ranch over the Myers Ranch which is located about .5 miles away. A total of 19 Manson followers performed a phased relocation to the property over time. Manson family members are known to drive to Los Angeles or Las Vegas to bring in supplies.

On October 10 and 12, 1969, CHP officer Jim Pursell and the INYO Sheriffs Department along with California Highway Patrol and NPS Rangers raided Barker Ranch. Actually, they raided the area around Barker Ranch. A raid is executed in search of vandals of earth moving equipment which repaired damage to the playa in Racetrack Valley. Over the coarse to several days, the task forced hunted down Family members who were scattered about the area. The diminutive Manson is arrested when found hiding under the sink in the bathroom at Barker Ranch.

To this day, Barker Ranch is the subject of investigation into the crimes of Charles Manson.

Barker Ranch Map

NPS

Barker Ranch was built by “recreational ranchers” who moved to the desert to enjoy the solitude and simplicity of living far from civilization. Bluch and Helen Thomason moved into the area the the late 1930s to try their hand at gold mining. Around 1940, the constructed a small stone cabin and outbuilding, with electricity. provided by a wind mill and generator, and drinking water from a nearby spring

In 1955, the ranch was sold to Jim and Arlene Barker, who moved to the desert from Oklahoma. To accommodate their family gatherings, the Barkers enlarged the house and constructed more building.

The ranch became infamous when Charles Manson and members of the “Manson Family” were captured at the site. Family members attracted the attention of local law enforcement when they were suspected to burning a piece of road maintenance equipment. Detectives later discovered that the vandalism suspects were responsible for a series of murders in the Los Angeles Area.

Barker Ranch became part of Death Valley National Park in 1994. Tragically, the main house and workshop were destroyed by an accidental fire in May 2009.

National Park Service – Barker Ranch

Sources

Asa Merton Russell “Panamint Russ” 

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Asa Merton Russell “Panamint Russ” (1895–1970) was a California prospector, small-scale miner, desert homesteader, and occasional writer whose four-decade presence in the Butte Valley district of the Panamint Mountains made him one of the last classic solitary operators in Death Valley country. Universally known by his nickname “Panamint Russ,” he built the stone cabin now called the Geologist’s Cabin (or Russell Camp), developed a reliable spring, planted the only locust trees and Concord grapevines for scores of miles around, and doggedly drove a horizontal tunnel into the granite of Manly Peak—all while holding down a day job in Los Angeles until his 1960 retirement. Though his claims yielded little recorded production, Russell’s wry, faith-filled 1955 Desert Magazine article “Life on the Desert” remains one of the most vivid firsthand accounts of mid-20th-century desert mining life.

Asa Merton Russell "Panamint Russ" in front of the Geologist cabin - Courtesy of Desert Magazine April 1955
Asa Russell “Panamint Russ” in front of the Geologist cabin – Courtesy of Desert Magazine April 1955

Early Life and Military Service

Born in 1895, Russell served as a sergeant (SGT) in the U.S. military, though specific details of his enlistment, branch, or conflict are not recorded in surviving sources. By the 1920s he had settled in southern California and found steady employment with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He married and had at least one son. His wife occasionally tried to break what she called his “desert habit,” complaining that he stayed too long each year in the remote Panamints.

A 1925 prospecting trip into the Redlands Canyon area of the Panamints reportedly yielded a brief but tantalizing discovery of a rich gold vein that he later “lost”—a story that foreshadowed the persistence and frustration that would define his later career.

Arrival in Butte Valley and the 1930 Strike

Russell’s serious mining career began in 1930. While exploring high on the western slope of 7,200-foot Manly Peak, he located gold-bearing quartz and immediately filed the Lucky Strike Quartz Mining Claim (March 1931) along with several others between 1933 and 1947. The claims sat in the South Park Mining District on the east side of the Panamint Range, in what is today Death Valley National Park.

That same year he began construction of a modest stone cabin at the base of Manly Peak, on the site of the old Ten Spot Mill / Last Chance Claim. The one-room structure—later known as the Geologist’s Cabin or Russell Camp—became his seasonal headquarters. Roughly a quarter-mile south of the historic Mengel/Stella cabin and at an elevation of about 4,500 feet, the camp offered commanding views across Butte Valley.

In 1929–1930 he also improved a nearby spring, creating a gravity-fed water system that supported drinking water, a small orchard, and vines. He planted locust trees (the only ones known within 125 miles) and Concord grapevines, which he proudly tended for decades. By the late 1950s or early 1960s the system included a 500-gallon storage tank.

Mining Operations and Daily Life

Russell’s principal working was a long horizontal tunnel driven into the granite of Manly Peak, reached by a steep, winding burro trail about one mile above camp. For most of the 1930s and 1940s he performed the required annual assessment work during two-week vacations from his Los Angeles job, often laboring entirely alone. Helpers were scarce and unreliable; scorpions, rattlesnakes, cloudbursts, twisters, flat tires, and pack rats nesting in dynamite all conspired against him.

In his April 1955 Desert Magazine article “Life on the Desert,” written at age 60, Russell described these hardships with humor and quiet determination. He recounted a twister that nearly tore the roof off his shack, a cloudburst that stranded him for days, a double hernia suffered while prying boulders, the theft or shooting of his beloved burro “Jubilee,” and the endless search for trustworthy labor. Through it all he returned to the theme of “Good Faith”—the inner resolve required to keep returning to the desert year after year. He closed the piece with an unshakeable optimism:

“But out here, there’s always a blue sky, good pure water filtered by Nature through lime and granite rocks, smogless air, no 50-cent parking lots, fresh sage and pinyon pine… I have Faith, and it will pay off!”

Retirement and Final Years

Russell retired from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in May 1960. That fall he moved permanently to Russell Camp, living full-time amid the Panamints. In 1962 he transferred ownership of the nearby Carl Mengel cabin and associated claims to Clinton and Stella Anderson, further establishing himself as a quiet steward of the local mining landscape. He continued sporadic work on the Lucky Strike and other claims into the early 1970s.

Death and Legacy

Asa Merton Russell died in 1970 at age 75. He is buried in a marked grave (Find A Grave Memorial #3748983).

Though his mines produced no major bonanza and left no great fortune, Russell’s legacy is written in stone and living green. The Geologist’s Cabin, the spring-fed water system, the locust trees, and the grapevines he planted still stand as testaments to one man’s determination. His camp remains a landmark for backcountry travelers in Butte Valley within Death Valley National Park. More than half a century after its publication, “Life on the Desert” continues to be read and quoted, offering later generations an intimate portrait of the isolation, frustration, beauty, and quiet faith that defined the final chapter of small-scale Panamint mining.

In the tradition of contemporaries like Pete Aguereberry, Carl Mengel, and Seldom Seen Slim, Panamint Russ proved that a man could build a meaningful life in one of America’s harshest environments—not through spectacular wealth, but through stubborn persistence, self-reliance, and an unshakable belief that the next fifty feet of tunnel might finally pay off.

The concord grapes are doing well, too. Twenty-five years ago coming through Riverside, California, I stopped at a nursery and bought a half dozen bare-root size, wrapped them in a newspaper, laid them on the running board with a wet gunny sack and today they are 20 feet of beauty.

Life on the Desert – by Panamint Russ – Desert Magazine, April, 1955

References