EPISODE 77: 10 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GHOST TOWNS THAT CONNECT US TO THE GOLDEN STATE'S PAST

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 Southern California ghost towns that connect us to the Golden State's past. His list includes: Manzanita, La Panza, Allensworth, Darwin, Keeler, Eagle Mountain, Ballarat, Kelso, Amboy and Calico.

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Transcript

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Hello listeners and fellow explorers. This is living in the sprawls lovely and talented producer slash wife, Lisa Steinberg. I wanted to thank all of you for your continuous support of the show. As a new podcast on the scene, John and I self-support the logistics and research that go into the show. The number one way to support the show is to rate, review and share this podcast with everyone, you know, Many of you have been doing this and it has helped immensely. I also invite you to check out our website and the show notes for other ways to support the show. We are currently working with companies. We currently use ourselves. To get discount codes for our listeners and support the show in the process. These companies include. Every table, just CBD store, gold belly cats, botanicals, and so much more. By using the links on our website, you are letting them know we sent you an intern, supporting the show. You can also support us on Patrion and pod fan. Please check out the website@livinginthesprawlpodcast.com. For updates on companies we are working with our testimonies links codes and new living in the sprawl merchandise Again thank you to all of you our lovely listeners for tuning in every week and allowing us to do what we love Without further ado you're humble correspondent John steinberg Hello, and welcome to another installment of living in the sprawl. So the California's most adventurous podcast, I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg. Joined by my lovely, an extraordinarily talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. We are the team here at sprawl enterprises. Ready to bring you yet? Another exciting foray into the vast expansive, sometimes daunting. Never intimidating. Terrain that we have lovingly dubbed the sprawl. On the show today. Ghost towns. We have a plethora of them. Throughout our. The scope of influence. From the high desert to the Sierras. And all the way down south to the border. Our beloved sprawl. Is littered with towns that once were. When I was at college at the university of Arizona. My best friend and I took a trip. Uh, to tombstone maybe 25 miles outside. Of Tucson proper. It was. Well, It wasn't the Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer film. Shall we say? No instead. Of the gunfight at the OK. Corral. What we saw was a. Pastiche. A kind of makeshift. Town in quotes. Dad had reconfigured structures dating back to the old west. Though. It seemed a little cheap and underwhelming. In my humble opinion. I was nevertheless quite taken. With the idea. Of what once had stood. Where I was standing. I was walking on hallowed ground, if you will, or at least that's how I saw it. And when I found out. That Southern California in the whole state. In general. He happens to have. Well over a hundred. Of these ghost towns. I was dutifully intrigued. Sometimes as we look at. The history of the towns that we're going to be discussing. Well, we find different reasons as to why once prosperous. Communities. Ultimately became no more. Sometimes. It was a simple matter of. Over mining or region. Taking every last kernel of valuable. Extract. From a rock formation. And other cases. Transportation. Play the large role. Still sometimes. Natural disasters. Reared their ugly head into the discussion. While these. Ghost towns. have all dried up for one reason or another. And those reasons as we've just outlined. Can vary quite a bit. It's undisputable that Southern California. Is. A veritable hub. For once thriving communities that no longer exist. So let's take a look at some of them. As we count down. The 10 must see ghost towns. To check out in the Southern half. Of the golden state. I number 10. The. Manzanita. Ghost town. This is in. In Iowa county. Just. On the outskirts of. Our famed Sierra Nevada's. Think Northeast, if Los Angeles is your point. Of reference. Ne with a capital and the capital. IE. A little bit of an outlier from the other places that we're going to be surveying over the course of this episode. This town. Was originally. Founded by George Chaffey. Whose name is all over some of the colleges and buildings. In the inland empire. Resources. We're plentiful. Around the turn of the century, the first decade. Of the 20th century. And initially. People such as Mr. Chaffey. Made a killing. Taking all those resources out of the town and exporting them to. Much wider population centers in the Southern half of the state. When iron. Exporting. Dried up. Many of the towns, folk. Looked for work. And life elsewhere. And this once. Quite promising town. Really sort of dried up. Flash forward. To world war II. When nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans. We're stripped of their property. Removed from society. And sent away to internment camps. Here at Manzanita. 120,000 Japanese American. People were housed in the fairly infamous internment camp. This is where they lived. This is where their children. Learned and studied. This was the beginning in the end. Of the sentence. From 1942 through November of 1945. If you go. Today. You'll see vestiges of the areas. Awful past. I've been to a couple of different. Places like this over the course of my life. Seeing it with your own eyes experiencing. How densely. Populated. A place such as this. Might've been. It really brings home. The struggle. The injustice. And brings to life. One of the greatest pockmarks. On American. Culture. In the entire history of. This country. And number 10. Man And number nine. Ponza. This is in San Luis Obispo county. And for those of you thinking, wow. A ghost town. Along the central coast, San Luis Obispo county. Surely that can't be a thing. I'm here to tell you that it is. This area. Was once home. To over a thousand. Men women and children. Who were there in search of gold gold. As so often was the case. In the 19th century. It was found in nearby mountains. And whenever. That transpired. Uh, town, when you know, it came into fruition. Uh, post office once stood here. Schoolhouses the general store. Of course, of course, a saloon or But when gold. No longer flowed. From the mountains. Interest in the town. Came to a halt. And folks. Found better prospects. Elsewhere. There's really only a single building, still standing from. The gold rush period. It's still The type of building where by the time. This podcast goes out into the world. It may no longer be there. It's a very perilous situation with respect to the loan surviving building from the gold rush period. But as of this recording, It is still there. You can see with your own eyes and even by the time it's no longer there, you can visit the former Lebanza settlement. To know. Then even in the most unlikely places within the Southern California sprawl. There has. To be a ghost town. Number eight Alan's worth. This is outside of Visalia in the central valley, roughly 45 miles north of Bakersfield. This town. Or former town. Bears. Reference. As it's one of the earliest examples of. African-Americans banding together. And making a go of it. In 1908. General Allen. Allensworth a. Former slave turned. Civil war leader. Decided to rest his weary head. Along. With a number of others. Evelyn's worth helped to turn. This little piece of heaven outside Visalia. Into the town that would come to bear his name. Though the town. Has long since gone by the wayside. Preservationists. Banded together. To create. A state park. Out of the terrain. Including. Replicas of a number of the notable buildings from the period. The town in earnest really only existed from 1908 through 1914. At that point. Alan's worth. Had difficulty. Gaining access to clean water and it was the water crisis. That provoked townspeople to look for opportunities elsewhere. Alan's worth. Died in a tragic. Automobile accident in Monrovia in Los Angeles county. Of all places. But the re-imagined. Alan's worth, which you can visit at the Colonel Allen J Allensworth state historic park. Is there to be visited. You can learn about. This period in California history, the contributions of African-Americans to the creation. Of. The town of Allensworth. And if you'd like to pay your respects to Colonel Allensworth yourself. This is one of those folks where you read about him in your mind automatically goes to, oh wow. That guy was a hero. If you read his biography. A lot of information about Colonel Allensworth. I believe you'll come to the same conclusion. And if you'd like to pay your respects to him, he is actually buried in Los Angeles at the Angeles Rose Dale cemetery. Which is. Maybe two and a half miles away from the staple center. But if you, can you find yourself in that part of the state? Definitely. Make an effort to check out the once thriving. Town of allensworth Number seven Darwin. Now we're in NAU county. Think Northeast again, I'll go back to that. Ne with a capital N and a capital E. Just outside the Sierras. Also relatively close to death valley. Darwin. Which currently has a population of about 40. Resident's give or take. Was once. Home to. An explosion of. Iron mining. Iron would be. Transported. From the area. Down to concentrations. Places where the population figures were significantly larger. At one point there were over. 500 people in the town. And at the turn of the century. You could be forgiven. For believing. That the resources were never going to run Unfortunately for Darwin. The resources basically did run And. Excitement about the town and its prospects round to a screeching halt. There was a documentary. From a Swiss filmmaker that came out in 2011, simply called Darwin. That you can find. Which is clearly a European person. Who's fascinated that people are still holding To life in Darwin, even if it's just the 40 people who decided to get out of camera and document his adventures. It's a fascinating documentary. If you happen to be interested in that kind of thing. But if you find yourself in the area, Darwin. Is a great place to see. The remnants of a society that believed. It was a mortal and found out depressingly that it wasn't. Number six. Keeler. This is also in Nao county. What do you kind of realize here when you study the state of California, is that different regions have their specialties? Fish tacos and San Diego. Regular. Non fish tacos in Los Angeles, et cetera, et cetera, places have their thing with an IO county it's ghost towns, without question. So here, we're talking about Keeler. Which is south of lone pine. And probably is. Really pushing the bounds of our geographical. Focus on this year podcast. But in any case, We have another example of a town. That's subsisted. On natural resources that were to be found within its boundaries. It's that age, old story. There's a silver explosion. Everyone goes nuts for the product. Mining operations begin in earnest. People who are doing the mining? Well, they need places to sleep. Stuff to eat. Oh, things to drink. And a town Springs to life. Out of seemingly nowhere. But as is also the case. With the majority of the ghost towns. To be visited in the Southern California area. Those resources. We're not limitless. The price of silver. Dropped dramatically. When basically the us government took control of it. And so silver mining was no longer profitable. And people took their collective business. And travel elsewhere. At Keeler, you've got over 10 examples. Uh, buildings that date back over a hundred years. Not all of them are in great condition. In fact, basically, Most of them are. In less than desirable condition. But an interesting. Time capsule. Of an era. Uh, time and place that decidedly no longer exist. Number five Eagle mountain. This is in Riverside county. Maybe 60 miles outside of India. It's not that close to life. Not particularly close to the Coachella valley. It's really not close to anything. And that is. At least partially why the town is no more. This one has a little bit of a different backstory. Henry J Kaiser of Kaiser Permanente fame. Sot too. Mine the area. For all it was worth. After the conclusion of the second world war. He needed places to house. The minors, the employees who were working on his behalf. And the town grew up. Around this activity as a result. There once stood. Eagle mountain high school. Which last had a graduating class in the year of our Lord, 1983. There were once two. Elementary schools and a middle school. A shopping center. All the trappings that you'd come to expect from a well, a town. Unfortunately. Production as it tends to do dried up. And Henry J Kaiser. Put his energy in focus. Into the. Steel. Plant located in Fontana. Which was ultimately. Also eradicated from the planet. And, uh, this is where the. California motor Speedway now stands. But talking about Eagle mountain. Efforts were made to try to revive the town to try and. Turn. That once quite active shopping center. Into something else. Proposals. We're made some want to take. That plot of land and turn it into a landfill. But they seem to have settled upon. A green energy facility. That. It's supposed to be open within the next couple of years. So while. School children are no longer. Playing. Kickball in the street. It is comforting to know. That rather than just have this. Massive. Mining area. Turned into a landfill. Efforts are underway to try and. Make a contribution. From what once stood and was known as Eagle mountain. Number four. Ballarat's, this is within the bounds of death valley national park. I mentioned it on our death valley episode. But I thought it bared, repeating. And inclusion on our list of ghost towns. There is a quite ghostly feeling in Ballarat. Where once stood. Seven different saloons. Uh, church. Uh, jail. Well, now the jail is actually still there. There's a convenience store. I put the word convenience in quotes because. Well, it's not a seven 11, shall we say? Also, you have. A makeshift history museum in the town. And in general, when you get this far out into the death valley, national park, Mostly everything seems a bit ghostly. A scene from the iconic. 1960s, counterculture film, easy rider was shot here. It's maybe. 30 miles. Away from Barker ranch. We're members of the Manson family fled after. They're compound at Spahn ranch was rated. And that. Jail. I mentioned. If you happen to make it out to Ballarat. I recommend. Stepping foot inside that jail. Thinking about. The intoxicated folks who were most likely sent there on overnight trips. And then ask yourself where exactly did these folks use the restroom? I'll leave it there. It's Ballarat at number four. And number three Kelso. Like the Ashton Kutcher character from that seventies show. This is. Way out in the Mojave desert. This is actually located inside the. Mojave valley nature preserve. This once acted as a train Depot. A stop. Along the actress in Topeka. Santa Fe. Railway stop or they're blind between Utah and Kingman, Arizona. Engineers and. The city planners. Figured, this was probably a good stopping point, a good resting place for folks to exit the train for a little while, grab something to eat. Stretch their legs before resuming their travels. But as. The automobile came into Vogue. And passenger trains. We're not used quite as frequently as they once had been oh, business dried up. Isn't that a common theme about business drying up and then the location become a ghost town. Strange how that works. But here. You do have the opportunity to see the old Kelso Depot. Pretty well-preserved, uh, there's a visitor center there. A gift shop. And of course a restaurant. Nearby. We recommend exploring. The awesome Kelso, sand dunes. And staying within. The Mojave nature preserve. To check out all the wonderful desert creatures that zoos tend to overlook. And number two, the town of Amboy. This is located. Surprise surprise. In the Eastern region of the state. Outside of needles outside of Barstow. And boy, it was also discussed on a prior episode of living in the sprawl. It was mentioned when we talked about the movie, the Hitcher from 1986 with Rutger Hauer. Majority of the film was shot in Amboy. In and around. The iconic Roy's motel and cafe. And boy. Was a route 66. Town. When route 66. Came into fruition in the 1930s. A whole crop. Or series of businesses. Came into existence to cater to travelers exploring. The famed. Passageway. Taking. Drivers. Through California and into. Nevada or Arizona. The need. For places like Amboy to exist was directly born. Out of the creation of route 66. Unfortunately. When the 40 freeway. Was built in the 1970s and route 66 was essentially phased out of existence. There weren't. Nearly as many travelers. Passing by the town of Amboy. So as of this recording, Roy's. Motel and cafe does still exist. And it's got autographed pictures on the wall from people like Anthony Hopkins and Harrison Ford. And according to Yelp reviews, some really lovely. And helpful staff members. You can stop. At Roy's motel and cafe for yourself. Imagine you're a young C Thomas Howell. Chatting it up with. Jennifer, Jason Leigh's waitress. As you both try to avoid. Being snared in. By that dastardly Hitcher. Or just what life was probably like when route 66 was a major thing in the United States. In any case, and boy. Offers. Not only a trip to the past. But something a little bit extra nearby. There are two. Really phenomenal craters that you should check out. The Amboy crater. Is really a sight to behold. You can get right in. Where Labo once poured out. You don't have to go all the way to Hawaii to get this experience. You can get it. In the middle of the Mojave desert in. The former town now, ghost Called ambush. I never one on our list of the 10 must-see ghost towns to be found in the Southern half of the golden state. Calico. Located just outside. Of your Mo. This is the best preserved ghost town to be found anywhere in the Southern California sprawl. Uh, great. Way to experience it. Without having to plan an entire day around driving to the middle of the desert to check out a ghost Would be to incorporate it. On a drive. From Southern California. Into Nevada. Las Vegas. In 1881. reserve of silver was uncovered in the nearby mountains, which were named. Calico. As their appearance. Their color. Appeared. Too early. Visitors. In the vein of. A Calico cat. When silver was found. As so often the tale a town came shortly afterward. Over 3,500 people once lived in Calico. And at the height. Of its heyday. Calico really was the epicenter of. Silver mining in the state of California. Actually. Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger declared Calico as the official silver ghost town. Of California. Because booty was already declared the official ghost town. So. The governor had to include a modifying word. In order to distinguish Calico. From other ghost towns. Here visitors. Can interact with the past. They could pan. For fool's gold. Head into a saloon. Or just survey the grounds and walk from one end of the town, to the other, all the while. Imagining what life was like around at the turn of the century. It was also in Calico. That Walter knot was inspired. To create Knott's Berry farm. Walter not actually literally bought the town of Calico. At one point before his death, he did bequeath Calico back. To the county of San Bernardino. But he literally owned the town of Calico for a number of years. And this gave him the idea. Four. The motif and a lot of the themes. That would come to define his theme park. Knott's Berry Calico has the. Chotchkies souvenirs. It has all of the things that you might expect from a ghost town trafficking in. Memories of a completely bygone era. But it does. So with a charming. A truly authentic. Veneer. Calico's a special place. It's not everywhere in the United States that you can visit. The town. That gave. Someone, the idea for an immensely successful amusement park. And that's going to do it for another. Episode of the show. We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support. If you hop on apple iTunes or wherever you happen to be listening to the show. Leave us a five star rating and a kinder view, that stuff really helps us out. A great deal on the business end. If you'd like to follow us on Instagram, the handle is living in the sprawl podcast. Drop us a line. Right us. With any and all commentary@livinginthesprawlpodcastatgmail.com. I'd like to draw your attention to our phenomenal website where you can. Get your hands on living in the sprawl merchandise. If you can think of it. We can make it. It's also here that you can get your copy of the living and the sprawl guide so that you don't have to go scouring through old archived episodes of the show for that specific recommendation that you vaguely remember from like a year ago. We'd also like to remind our wonderful listeners about our. Apple subscriptions, Patrion page. Where. We've got exclusive bonus content. If you want to hear us talk about the best burgers in the sprawl. Best pancakes, fish markets and so on and so forth. That's where you will have access to all of that wonderful content. On behalf of, uh, my self. I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg. Joined by my lovely and talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. Thinking you from the bottom of our hearts for listening to another episode of living in the sprawl southern california is most adventurous podcast until next time