Tom Schweich  

This road junction is just south of Lone Pine. There is an inter-agency information center here with books, maps, and general information. California Highway 136 provides a short cut from Lone Pine to the Death Valley highway, California Highway 190.

Owens River

Owens Lake

Field Trip Day 3

Field Trip Stop 3-7 of the 2009 Desert Symposium (Reynolds and Jessey, 2009).

From 1870 to 1897, silver ore from the Cerro Gordo mines was shipped downhill to the Swansea smelter on the east side of Owens Lake. Timber was “roasted” with minimum oxygen at the Cottonwood charcoal kilns to produce charcoal, which was shipped on the Molly Stevens paddle-wheeled steam ship to Swansea for smelting lead–silver ore from the Cerro Gordo nines. The Molly Stevens picked up ingots, dropped them at Cartago, and then went north to the Cottonwood kilns to get more charcoal. When the Molly Stevens burned, the Bessy Brady steam paddle-wheeler continued running silver ingots from Keeler and Swansea to Cartago. The smelter produced silver ingots faster than Remi Nedeau’s nine mule teams could carry them on the route to Mojave. By 1873, over 30,000 ingots were stockpiled. Enterprising miners stacked the ingots, stretched canvas over them, and lived in shelters made of silver bars.

Swansea

Owens Lake Desiccation Monument

Owens Lake to the south has been the southern terminus for the Owens River for the last 800,000 years. Owens Lake surface water has been claimed and diverted for human use. Ground water is now tapped for the water supply. Arid-land surfaces that were previously stabilized by vegetation are increasingly susceptible to wind erosion, causing deflation and dust storms. Since desiccation, wind-blown dust and salt have created visibility problems for residents of Owens Valley and military research at China Lake in Indian Wells Valley.

Keeler

Field Trip Stop 3-9 of the 2009 Desert Symposium (Reynolds and Jessey, 2009).

Cerro Gordo Mines are to the east of the Point of Historical Interest. The ore tram from the Cerro Gordo mines and townsite at el. 8,600 ft ran downslope to deposit ore at Keeler (el. 3,600 ft). This mining district is near the summit of the Inyo Range, 8 miles by mountain road from Keeler. Discovered early in the 1860s, production started in 1869, and reached between $6.5 to $20 million of silver and lead. Mssissippian and Pennsylvanian limestones cut by intrusive diorite and monzonite dikes serve as host rocks for the ore bodies. Initial sulfide ores were argentiferous galena and sphalerite. Tetrahedrite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite were prominent accessories in the primary sulfide vein. Oxidized lead ore in limestone consisted of lenses of cerussite to 6 feet diameter around a core of galena. Zinc carbonate ore (smithsonite) was encountered in 1911. Tenorite and the lead oxides bindheimite, caledonite, linarite, and leadhillite are also present. The Ignacio and Ventura mines in the district are southwest of the main mining camp at Cerro Gordo.