ballarat - e clampus vitus 2001 clampout - mike johnson

8/11/2019 Ballarat - E Clampus Vitus 2001 Clampout - Mike Johnson

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T H E A N C I E N T A N D H o N o R A B L ES L I M P R I N c E S S C H A P T E R 3 9 5 .

O R D E R o F E C L A M P U S V I T U SB I L L Y H O L C O M B C H A P T E R I O 6 9

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SLIMPRINCESS HAPTER 95ANDBILLYHOLCOMB HAPTER 069

OF THEANCIENT NDHONORABLE RDER F

E CLAMPUS ITUS

ANNOUNCEHEIR OINTSPRING LAMPOUT

HELO N BEAUTIFUL OWNTOWN

BALLARAT

ocToBER',2, 3,14,2001(INTHERECKONING F OURORDER LAMPYEAR006)ANDREQUEST HEATTENDANCE FALL

VITUSCANS NDFROLICKINGRIARSTHROUGHOUTHEKNOWNWORLD

FEATURING HEGRANDRE-ERECTION FA COMMEMORATIVELAQUEORIGINALLYLACEDN ,I963ANDSINCE OSTTO

TIMEANDTHEELEMENTS

TEXTBYMIKE OHNSON, NGH


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BALLARAT

The first recorded history ofwhat is today Panamint Valley dates backto 1849. That year marked the appearance of white mn in this part of thedesrL The intruders were members of an emigrant Party bound for theCalitornia gold fields. They were originally part of a grouP of over 100wagons ld by Jefrerson Hunt noted guide and former member of the storidMormon Battalion of the Mexican War. The party was behind schedule, andinstead of continuing westward from Salt Lake city, they traveled south ovrthe Old Spanish Trail in order to avoid a winter crossing of the SierraNevada.

Soon after departing Salt Lake City, the party began to fragment asthey sought a shortcut westward to gold country. Most soon cam to theirsenses and rejoined he main body, which reached Los Angeles without anyuntoward difficulti. Approximately 30 wagons, however, continued tostubbornly seek a route west, and Christmas of 1849 ound them lost anddiscouraged in the middle of today's Death Valley. lt became a case of "every

man or himself", and the travelers split into smaller and smaller partaes asthey searched for a way out of the valley. One such group, callingthemselvs he Jayhawkers, as well as otier unidentified ravelers, crossedthe Panamints and camped in Panamint Valley. They utilized the brackishwaters of Post Office Spring, ust south of Ballarat, before they moved onwestward. Only a year laler a United States Geological Survey party campedat the spring. Both groupe have lefr written descriptions of the spring and itsenvirong.

Post Office Spring received its name during the boom period of the187Os.Outlaws hiding out in this remote and desolate area left outgoing mailand cash n a box nailed to a meaquite ree at the spring. Stage drivers andfreighters n on the scheme would bring back mail and provisions and leavethsm atthe spring. The outlaws could hen leave heir mountain hidoub and

retrieve heir supplies after carefully scrutinizing the open plain around thespring for any would-be pursuer.

By about'1860, there were many prospectors actve in the regionaround Ballarat as a result of the tales of Goller's gold, the Lost GunsightLode and the Lost Breyfogle brought back by the 49ers who had traversed


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this country. Despite all this activity, no imPortant claims were located until1873, Early in that year, three ouUaws held up a Wells Fargo stage west ofPanamintValley. Whilehiding out in the Panamint Mountains and waiting forthings to cool down a bit, they discovered a rich silver ledge in Surprise

Canyon, worth far morethan the proceeds of the robbery. One of the

robbers was an acquaintance of William Stewart, the U.S. Senator fromNevada and namesake of Chapter 10 of E ClamPus Vitus. Stewart arrangedfor amnesty or the crooks in exchange or the return of the loot to WellsFargo. His price was to be allowed to buy a portion of the claim. John P.Jones, the other Nevada Senator, also became a Partner. The PanamintMiningObtrict was quickly formd, claiming to be'the New Comstock." InNovember of 1874, The Anaheim Gazette sl''ted of the now boom town,Panamint City, "there are 700 men, 10 women, and 4 inches of snow up atPanamint, and lively times are expected." The name of tfie town, thesurrounding mountain range, and the desert valley below derive from thename of the Shoshonean ndians living in the area.

Panamint City soon gained a reputation for lawlessness, with 50 to 60men being killed tiere during its brief existence. The town stretched formore than a mile along a steep canton too narrow for a second street Heavyfreight wagons had a hard time negotiating the steep grade, so mostsupplies came in by pack train. The population evenfually eached 5,000.

Rightfrom the beginning Wells Fargo refused to handle Panamint Citybullion because of the multitude of highwaymen in the vicinity. In a desperate

bid to foil the tfiieves, the refined silver was cast into 400found cubes aboutone oot on a side (not TsGpound cannonballs" as i3 sometimes eported),which were simply too heavy for the desperados to carry off. The loneattempt made on the wagons carrying the heavy blocks of silver resulted inno loss of bullion and one very irate group of robbrs.

A steam engine and boiler were laboriously freighted up the steepcanyon in pieces and reassembled at the toP, where a 20-stamp mill waseventually buill As a result of the mining acuvity, stage and freight linesbegan o run regu&arl1r etween San Bernardino and Panamint Cit1t, nd the

crossroads that would later become Ballarat bgan to take shape.By'1875 he silver at Panamint had pretty much Played out There wasa gradual but steady exodus o the neirv mines at Oarwin, a short distance tothe west" ln 1876 a flash flood carried away much of what remained of thetown. The mill shut down in 1877, and today only foundations and a lonebrick chimney remain. Although the post office remained until 1895, the


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boom was over.The small community at the base of the Panamints, not yet known as

Ballara dwindled but managed o hang on. lt served as a supply point and"entertainment cented' for local miners and prospectors, The Modoc and

Itlinietta ilins, across Panamint Valley n the Argus Range,were very active

during the late 1870s. The smelters there were the ultimate destination orthe charcoal manuf,acfured at the famous Wildrose charcoal kilns.Prospecting and mining in the area continued on through tho '80s, and byabout 1890 he little town sported a store, saloon, and blacksmith shop.

In 1896, gold was discovered in Pleasant Canyon, direcuy above thetown, The most important discovery was a group of claims filed by HenryRatclifi,which became hnown as Ratclifi Consolidated Gold tline3, Ltd., andthe Soutfi Parl llining District quickly sprang into existence. Also located atabout the ssme time were the Anthony, Gooper, and World Beater mines.Meanwhile, here were similar finds in nearby canyons: the Oh Be Joyful(named after a popular brand of whiskey) n Tuber Canyon, and the Gem nJail Canyon.

As a result of these finds, it was decided to lay out a proper town on lheflats at the mouth of Pleasant Canyon where, unlike Panamint City, here waslevel ground and room to grow. lt was christened Ballarat after a fumousAustralian gold city near ltlelbourne. A few months ater a post office wagestablished. By 1900 the town had reached its peak populaton of about 500,It was home to the two-story Callaway Hotel, notable for a lower floor of

adobe construclion surmounted by a wooden upper level encircled by averanda. At this time Ballarat boasted two stores, a Wells Fargo ofiice andstage depot, and a schoolhouse, as well as a red light district, ssveralsaloons, a jail and a constable and ustice of the peace. For some years itserved as the seat of government of southem Inyo Gounty. Eallarat never didlay claim to a church.

Of the saloons, hat of Chris Wicht was generally considered the mostpopular, probably because t had the town's only pool table. The table hadcom amund Cap Hom to San FrancFco, was reightsd up to Panamlnt Cltlr

during the boom, and was later acquired b1r Chris when the sllver camp died.There was always plenty of water, supplied by a well drilled out on the drylakebed and pumped by a windmill,

Ballarat's importance had alwatB stemmed from the fact that it was onthe way to gomewhere else. lt becam an important supply point for thmines in the Argus and Slate ranges, as well as the Panamints. t played a


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pivotal role in the development of the whole region. Stage and freight linegran three times a week from Johannesburg and Darwin' Originally therewere two rival camps, Pleasant City in th canyon near the mines, and PostOffice Spring one'half mile to the south, but both were quickly ecliPsed by

BallaratAlthough tat times pretended otherwise, Sallarat was a relatively

sedate place. lts only homicide occurred in'1905, when the constable shotand killed the ustice of the peace.

The biggest producer and main employer was the Ratcliff. lts bestyears were from 1898 o 1903, More than 300 miners worked here, and it isestimated hat perhaps one milliondollars n gold was extracted. At one timethere was a mill of 20 stamps at the Ratcliff, one of 't0 stamps at the Oh BeJoyful, 5 at the Anthony, and 4 at the Cooper, all operating simultaneously'The Ratcliffshut down in 1905, but between 1927 and 1942 he tailings werereworked usang he cyanide process, yielding perhaps another $250,000.

In'1901 here was a rush to tlle rich new strikes atTonopah, Nvada'For a while, Ballarat nearly disappeared, and altltough the local minesgradually esumed production, h town never really recovered. t continuedto serve local miners and prospectors, though at a much reduced Pace'Batlarat finally folded around the time of World War l, and the post officeclosed in September of 1917.

The legendary Shorty Harris, "last of the singleblanket jackassprospectors" and codiscoverer of Eullfrog and Harrisburg, ived out his lastdays at Ballarat When he died on November 10, 1934, he was buried on the

floor of Death Valley next o his old friend Jim Dayton. The site is marked bya large stone monument containing a commemorative plaque.

In later year, the population of Ballarat eventually dwindled to oneman. He was Chades Ferge, better known as Seldom Seen Slim. Since hewas seen so seldom, not a lot is known about him. H was bom on Novembr21, 1881 n Springfield, llinois.He prospected and worked at all kinds of oddjobs in such places as Tonopah, Goldfield,Bullfrog, and Rhyolite. He setledin Ballarat around 19'13. He was the self-appointed mayor, postmaster,dogcatcher, and tax collector of the town. He even set the speed limit in

Ballarat, proclaiming it to be"100

miles an hour-in low gear." Whensomeone once stated that Slim hadn't taken a bath in 40 years, hedenounced t as an outright lie, assuring his tormentor that he had had oneas recenuy as last July. He also allowed that he sometimes poured waterover his head o cool himself off.

Slim lived in various of the old adobes in town until they became oo


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dilapidated to inhabil For many years thereafter he lived in a trailer at theend of Main Streel He Udied up the Ballarat cemetery from time to ti me,perhaps in recognition of the fact that he would one day reside there.

Seldom Seen Slim died of cancer in Trona on August 17, 1968.

ApproximatelyO0 people attended his uneral n Ballarat, including an NBC

television crerw.All in all, it appears hat Slim would have been good Clampermaterial.

A year after Seldom Seen Slim's funeral, the Ballarat area saw someexcitement ot a different kind. ln the fall of 1969, shortly after the infamousTate-La Bianca murders in Los Angeles, Charles Manson and geveralmembers of his "family' were arrested a few miles south of Ballarat. Theyhad been hiding out atthe Barker and Myerc Ranches, n an ofishoot of GolerWash near Sourdough Spring. They were transported o the Inyo County Jailin lndependence, and then on to Los Angeles. This incidentwas portrayedin the television movie "Helter Skelter,"

For a long period t appeared hat large'scale mining in the Panamintswas to be found only in history books. The last few years, however, haveseen he establishment of the Briggs Mine n Redlands Canyon, a few milessouth of Ballarat This large open-pit operation is easily seen, day or night,from the Trona-Wildrose Road. Although not as picturesque as early-dayoperations, t confnues a history of mining in the Panamint Mountains andPanamintValley egion hat goe back for a century and a half. This area hasrich history, spectacular desert scenery, and the Death Valley mystique hat

will keep visitors coming back for many years to come.

WHATSAYETHTHEBRETHREN...


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Standing, eft o right: ElbridgeA. Burbank, amous westem ainter, oldingNorma he cat; GabrielMoulin, San Francisco hotographer; hrisWicht,

ownerof the most popular aloon n Ballarat; nidentified riendof Lee

Stopplpe, ho ook he picture;and Walter J. Wilson. Kneeling, eft o right:Neil Wilson and Oliver Kehrlein.AII except he elder Wilson, Chris Wicht,and Norma were active members f Yerba Buena Chapter in the earlydaysof E Clampus Vitus Redivivus. Date of photograph s l937 Photo uppliedcourtesy f Earl Schmidt, XSNGH and ormer President fthe Death Valley49ers.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Belden, L. Burr, Goodbve. Death Valley. Inland Printing, San Bernardino,'1s72.Mines of Death Valley. La Siesta Press, Glendale, 1976.

Glark, Lew and Ginny, High Mountains and Deep Vallelts. Western TrailsPublications, San Luis Obispo, 1973.

Kirk, Ruth, ErrPloring eath Valley. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA,1973.

Leadabrand, Russ, Guidebook to the Mojave Desert of California. WardRitchis Press, Los Angeles, 1970'

Lingenfelter, Richard A., Oeath Valley and the Amargosa. University ofCalifornia Press, Eerheley, 1986,

Murphy, Bob, Desert Shadows. Falcon Press, Billings, ItlT, 1986.

Murray, Tom G., Seldom Seen Slim. Seffublished, San Femando, CA, 1971.

Paher, Stanley, Death Valley GhostTowns. Nevada Publications, Las Vegas,1973.

Palmer, T. S., ed., Place Names of the Death Valley Region. SagebrushPress, lorongo Valley, CA, 1980.

Pipkin, George, Pete Aguereberry. Murchison Publications , Trona, CA,1982.

Wilson, Neill G., Silver Stampede:The Career of Death Valley's Hell-Camp.Old Panamint. Rio Grande Press, Glorieta, NM, 1987.


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ballarat - e clampus vitus 2001 clampout - mike johnson

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