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All the United States California Yermo Calico Ghost Town
AO Edited

Calico Ghost Town

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

Yermo, California

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Jeff
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Calico Ghost Town from an overlook   Justin Ennis on Flickr
Early photograph of Calico in the 1880s   Orange County Archives on Flickr
Restored Main Street of Calico   Pierre Andres LeClercq on Wikimedia
Main Street Calico sometime before 1883   Orange County Archives on Flickr
Some of the restored Calico   Tracy on Flickr
The Fire Station   Pierre Andres LeClercq on Wikimedia
The rebuilt Calico school house   CGP Grey on Flickr
Calico Ghost Town, 10/2020   Keri Kilgo / Atlas Obscura User
Calico Ghost Town, 10/2020   Keri Kilgo / Atlas Obscura User
Calico Ghost Town, 10/2020   Keri Kilgo / Atlas Obscura User
Stagecoaches 09.05.2005   Raven Traveler / Atlas Obscura User
Chukar partridge by the parking lot. Introduced in the 1930s, these birds are now found throughout the West.   slgwv / Atlas Obscura User
Stamp mill. Common 19th century ore-crushing device. The rotating cams would lift and drop pistons (“stamps”) onto the ore.   slgwv / Atlas Obscura User
Main Street   jodyraelphotography / Atlas Obscura User
Steampunk hats at Merchantile   jodyraelphotography / Atlas Obscura User
Population   jodyraelphotography / Atlas Obscura User
Info about town   jodyraelphotography / Atlas Obscura User
Mr. Knott reconstructed   jodyraelphotography / Atlas Obscura User
  stephagoogle / Atlas Obscura User
  stephagoogle / Atlas Obscura User
  stephagoogle / Atlas Obscura User
  stephagoogle / Atlas Obscura User
  amandams1147 / Atlas Obscura User
Calico & Odessa R.R.   FraeuleinS / Atlas Obscura User
Calico   elviajebarato / Atlas Obscura User
Calico   ccesare / Atlas Obscura User
Calico   ccesare / Atlas Obscura User
  Avoiding Regret
  Avoiding Regret
  Avoiding Regret
  Avoiding Regret
  Dr Alan P Newman / Atlas Obscura User
  Avoiding Regret
  Dr Alan P Newman / Atlas Obscura User
Calico Ghost Town, Summer 2020 by factory_girl   hoursvary / Atlas Obscura User
View of Calico Ghost Town from the top of the ‘lookout’ by @factory_girl   hoursvary / Atlas Obscura User
  Lampshade1660 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Calico in Southern California is the ghost of an Old West mining town that boomed in the 1880s, and went bust only 12 years later when the price of silver plummeted. At its height, this town in the Mojave Desert had 3,500 residents, over 500 silver mines, and produced over $20 million in silver. That’s well over half a billion dollars in today’s dollars.

The name of Calico came from the patchwork of colors in the surrounding mountains. The town was established deep in the Mojave Desert with the opening of a post office in 1881. Silver was the name of the game in this boomtown, and boom it did – boasting at one time three hotels, five general stores, butchers, bars, at least three restaurants, and a boarding house. There was a newspaper, a schoolhouse, a Wells Fargo office, a sheriff, lawyers, and doctors. And lest they feel cut off from the rest of the world, Calico was bustling enough to have its own telephone and telegraph service.

But the boom-times didn’t last long, and after only 12 years, as the bottom fell out of the price of silver, the bottom fell out of Calico too. They tried to hold on, and borax for a time substituted for the shiny metal that had made Calico’s fortunes. But the Borax also gave out eventually, and by the turn of the 20th century the town was completely deserted. Several of the buildings were moved to nearby Barstow, and for several decades not much happened. But in the 1950s along came a man with a vision for Calico, and Walter Knott (of Knott’s Berry Farm fame) bought up the whole place. He restored the town to mostly how it was, in certain cases rebuilding some of the old structures as they were back in the 1880s.

Since the rebuild by Knott, the old ghost town has been open to the public as a county park and museum of the Old West, frozen in time as it once was. Now a registered Historical Landmark, and a reminder of the hope of people who once followed their dreams to the frontier.  

Related Tags

Ghost Towns Mines Deserts Wild West

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Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.Cost: $8 per car.

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pushstart143

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splamo, mrhis, hoursvary, Avoiding Regret...

  • splamo
  • mrhis
  • hoursvary
  • Avoiding Regret
  • Raven Traveler
  • FraeuleinS
  • Dr Alan P Newman
  • stephagoogle
  • Keri Kilgo
  • Lampshade1660
  • ccesare
  • elviajebarato
  • amandams1147
  • slgwv
  • jodyraelphotography
  • kakafujita

Published

December 18, 2015

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico,_San_Bernardino_County,_California
  • http://cms.sbcounty.gov/parks/Parks/CalicoGhostTown.aspx
  • https://www.elviajebarato.com/costa-oeste-estados-unidos/de-barstow-a-williams-por-la-ruta-66-dia-2/
Calico Ghost Town
36600 Ghost Town Rd
Yermo, California, 92398
United States
34.947452, -116.863945
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