Welcome To California’s Legendary Ghost Town!
If you’ve been following me you know that I love ghost towns! There are so many scattered around the American West, but there is one just 90 minutes from Los Angeles!
Time to go for a drive into our past!
The fastest way to Calico from Los Angeles is the 15 freeway, but I went a quieter route: highway 14 out of LA then onto the 58 – a much more serene drive – even with those threatening low clouds!
On the way, you drive past an airplane graveyard….dozens of planes grounded due to age or being outdated, parked out in the desert where the weather is good…
It’s Called An “Airplane Boneyard!”
The southwestern United States is the global hub for these operations due to its vast space, low humidity, and hard alkaline soil. The dry climate naturally prevents metal rust and corrosion, while the concrete-like dirt allows heavy jets to sit parked without sinking into the ground.
Now, onto our destination: Calico Ghost Town!
It’s impossible to miss the entrance off the highway, as signs point you the right way – until this old miner greets you:
Calico has been around since 1881 – it was an active mining town because of silver in the hills…but was abandoned in the mid-1890s after silver lost its value.
What remains is a preserved abandoned mining town that you can wander through and see lots of signs of its past.
While it is definitely a structured tourist destination rather than an abandoned, untouched ruin, it offers a great mix of real history and classic Wild West kitsch.
As you can see, the town has a lot of their abandoned equipment still there – giving it a cool retro vibe…and that includes these remains of an original stone building:
Speaking of history, here’s a bit of just that about Calico, California:
In 1881, John McBryde and Lowery Silver discovered silver ore in the dusty mountains near Wall Street Canyon. Calcium borate (borax) was found shortly after. More than 500 mines were soon in operation, producing the biggest silver load in California history. The mines had pithy names like the Bismark, the Burning Moscow, and the Waterloo. Soon, the new settlement of Calico in Wall Street Canyon sprang up, filled with young adventurers from places as disparate as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and China.
And of course, the reason that Calico even exists – the silver mines!
The $$$ “Glory Hole!”
Yes, an inquisitive school boy in 1882 led to a town that was soon swarming with miners – all seeking their own “glory hole!”
Five thousand men swarmed up the canyons and gulches from their stone huts each morning to grab with picks and blast with powder for rich silver ore.
Imagine waking up in this:
According to legend, the gaudy colors in the mineral-stained mountains above the town reminded someone of a piece of calico. So that’s what they named the place…
I walked to the top of the hill and here’s what I found:
Here’s a look down one of the mining shafts..imagine that was your full time job!
By the 1890s, silver lost much of its value as more mines were discovered, and by the mid-1930s, only four residents were left in Calico…no real need for a jail any longer…
In the 1950s, the town had an unlikely savior – it was reinvented by Walter Knott, the man who created the wild west-themed amusement park in Southern Calfornia known as Knotts Berry Farm.
Knott restored all but the five original buildings to look as they did in the 1880’s. Calico received State Historical Landmark 782 and in 2005 was proclaimed by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be California’s Silver Rush Ghost Town.
And have you been to “Empire?”
This mining town closed up for good, but they used the abandoned town for some scenes for the movie “Nomadland”…click here to see how they did it!
And if you really want to see some cool ghost towns in the wild Wild West, how about Pioneertown?
Alex and I explored here as well – then ate a great burger at a place with my name!
Click here for more history and exploration of abandoned ghost towns:
Welcome To Tombstone!
Yes, this is the REAL town of Tombstone – where the “Gunfight At The OK Corral” took place!
Click here to see the town up close and see the full reenactment of the actual OK Corral gunfight!
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Categories: Exotic Travel, Los Angeles, Memoirs, nature, Pop Culture, Real Estate, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
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