RESN&GB4x4 - Death Valley Journal Series

WHAT IS IT?	A ghost town in extreme Death Valley National Park. It is situated at the crest of the Funeral Range northeast of the main tourist facilities at Furnace Creek.
WHEN DID IT COME ABOUT	Echo was founded in 1905.
HOW LONG DID IT LAST?	About a year.
WHAT'S LEFT?	Not much. It takes a sharp eye to spot Echo.
HOW DO YOU GET THERE?	With difficulty. Either walk, or a modified 4WD vehicle. From the west, traveling up Echo Canyon Road is a good road until it drops into the north fork near the Inyo Mine. From there, there are sections of dry bedrock falls that present a challenge to the off roader and his vehicle. From the east, continue past Lee ghost town. Immediately entering the mouth of the canyon at the foot of the Funeral Range, dry bedrock falls present a challenge to the off roader and his vehicle. Above this short section, the road is much better for the remaining distance to Echo.

With the rush to nearby Lee, prospectors soon began to climb into the Funeral Range to look for promising outcrops. Primarily most of the focus centered in the lower reaches of Echo Canyon on the new camps of Schwab and that of the Inyo Gold Mining Company nearby. But a few decided to plat a townsite at the head of Echo Canyon on a saddle overlooking the Amargosa Valley and the Bullfrog region, which they named Echo.

Echo never amounted to anything. Only a few tents were put down, a few prospects opened up. Other than an easier climate afforded to the fairly high altitude of Echo (approximately 4,800 feet), there was nothing to recommend Echo. There was no water, no wood, no electricity, no paydirt. The telephone line between Lee and Schwab did pass through here, but that was not enough to sustain a camp. After the curiosity of its founders were satisfied and no good ore was found, Echo died a quick and painless death.

It's a good thing Echo's founders set up tents to establish the town, as these were easy to disassemble when it came time to exit. The name did continue to exist on the maps as the general area was part of the Echo Mining District, which included the longer lasting townsite of Lee and the Inyo Mine complex and camp that's still standing today for visitors to view. Today it takes a very sharp eye, however, and a determination to stand on historical ground to find Echo.

Echo today is best reached either on foot or with a modified 4WD vehicle capable of driving over dry falls found in the narrow canyon portions of either side of the Funeral Range. I hiked into Echo in 1999 with my friend Alan Patera, author and publisher of the WESTERN PLACES series of books; and George Huxtable, then president of the Death Valley Hiker's Association. We walked in from the eastern side of the range, for at the time, my 4WD pickup wasn't capable of such roads, nor was Alan's.

CLICK TO OPEN FULL SIZE Echo and surrounding area.	Shallow depression, usually ringed with larger rocks, indicate tent sites at Echo. It takes a sharp eye to detect these.
A corner foundation post that once held up a miner's tent; generally a wooden floor with wooden lower walls, with canvas walls and roof.	More tent sites at Echo. The view is northerly into Nevada.
The road to Echo looking north. Tent sites and can dumps are found on both sides of this road, which runs down to near Furnace Creek to the west, down to Amargosa Valley, Nevada to the east.	An Echo can dump.
Alan Patera and his dog Charlie make their way to a cabin near the Echo townsite. It is thought that this cabin was built long after the last echo of Echo faded away.

On April 10, 1999, Alan Patera, George Huxtable and I hiked into Echo townsite. We came up from the Amargosa Valley side, passing through Lee ghost town. After visiting Echo, we camped the night at Lee.

On all my trips I carry a microcassette recorder, on which I make comments on my thoughts and observations. This trip was no different. After my trips, I then transcribe verbatim my words from tape into a Microsoft Word file for each year. Each verbal entry is transcribed in a separate paragraph, automatically numbered as I transcribe.

Below is that portion of our walk to Echo and return. Explanatory footnotes will be added, clicking on the hyperlinked footnote number will take you to the footnote; clicking on the number next to the footnote will return you to the main text where you left off.

125) I’m going to make the trip saddled down with my camcorder over one shoulder. Carrying the Mavica ¹ in the case. Canteen on the other shoulder.

128) Well, camcorder ... stinking strap came undone, and the camcorder fell. The ... can’t get the thing to eject. I turn the thing on and I get a flashing triangle. Although the zoom works, the thing inside works. Sounds like I broke another one.

129) Well, the camcorder seems to work all right now. [Alan’s voice in background – indecipherable ⁴] I haven’t tried opening it yet, but I got it to work and it recorded, so ... [Alan: “Cursing at it helps sometimes.”] ... Yeah! Cursing at it helps sometimes, Alan said.

130) We’re backtracking. We came to a point where the canyon split. There was rocks ... uh small rocks placed across the entrance to this road we’re on. We pushed ahead, but I think we come into a small side canyon. We’re backtracking to the main canyon.

131) So far we could have driven this road. It’s better than the one we came into Lee on. I wish I did go back and get the truck now. [Alan: “Me too!”] [To Alan - chuckling while talking]: -- Well, it’s a little too far now! It’s probably over a mile. We could ... put that mile into the trip up ... and back. -- The canyon’s pretty wide at this point. It’s widened out considerably. It’s broad. Several hundred yards wide. More gentle. It’s a gentle face to the slope.

132) At this point the uh ... Explorer’s Guide ⁵ has erred on the side of caution. Just as they did the Chloride City road.

134) It’s five minutes until 2:00 o’clock. And again, we’ve turned around.

136) ⁶ It’s twenty minutes after 2:00, and we’re back the truck. We’re going to take Alan’s Explorer up.

137) Onward we go. [To Alan]: -- Four point six you said was the mileage? -- [Alan: “Six point nine.”] Six point nine. So where we stop we’ll get a mileage reading.

138) So far this road reminds me of the middle portion of Goler Canyon ⁷. Around the Keystone ⁸. About that type of consistency of the road. It’s better than the road we came into Lee on. Because there’s no large rocks that require stepping over. Or threat to thump the chassis or something.

139) The fork where we took the wrong ... turn, is at nine-tenths. So we probably walked a mile and a third. Maybe a mile and a half, then.

141) At uh ... 2.0 miles, the canyon really starts narrowing in considerably. But I don’t see no outlet. I see a saddle up above. Kind of a gentle slope to the saddle. But I’m not sure which way the Echo townsite would be. So far we haven’t reached the forks. There’s been no fork in the road whatsoever.

143) Once you get to that chasm, it turns into a gentler topography. The canyon is a lot lower. It looks like it’s starting to open up a little bit.

144) Alan was saying that the ... [to Alan]: -- It’s a cairn. -- Alan was saying that the telephone line from Rhyolite to Greenwater passed through here. I haven’t seen anything to the ... left of the fact ... but it could be like ... those in Boundary Canyon for the Skidoo ... Rhyolite. Short 4”x4” posts.

145) Come to a place in the canyon in the canyon where somebody’s clawed out the side going up. And there’s a road going down the canyon bottom. Alan’s going to take the low road, I’ll take the high road. See if they come back together. I don’t think it’s our road division, because George was going to leave us a rock cairn ... to indicate where he turned off. Some ... [To Alan]: -- Huh?! -- [Alan’s voice in background - indecipherable] [To Alan]: -- Yeah! -- Alan was saying that it’s a major convex the way that the ... rocks ... circle over the top of the ... highway. [Alan’s voice in background - indecipherable] [To Alan]: -- Yeah! It looked better than this one! -- Yeah, they ... somebody climbed straight up the side.

146) Yeah, back about where we parked, was the best spot. This uh road begins to take on a Surprise Canyon ⁹ appearance here at this point. A lot like Goler Canyon was after El Niño. Rod ... might try this in his Jeep ¹⁰. I wouldn’t want to do it in my truck.

147) Came up into a high, open valley here. And I see a road ... going on a facing hill. Diagonalling up and to the right ... westward. It’s probably our road. It’s also embanked up with mortarless rock ... part way up. There’s an outcropping that it must go around. It don’t look like it climbs too awfully high before it would leave the canyon bottom. So hopefully ... we have a quarter mile or so after that point. [To Alan]: -- How far does it look like on the map to you?

148) A sign up here stating that it is a mine hazard area. We’re almost to the forks.

149) Actually the road alternates between bad and good all up through here. Bad spots are bad. About like what Rod got with in Goler Canyon. And uh ... that’s about it. I don’t think Rod would have any trouble getting up here at all.

150) I think I have the tape in there that locked up once before. ¹¹ That’s what I get this uh message for. And uh ... this thing could have definitely jammed when it fell, because it landed right on that ... where it opens. So I’ll probably have to spend a little time to uh .. pry it open. To release the tape.

151) We tried to open it up, but it’s not popping ... going up far enough, nor is it popping out like it’s supposed to.

152) It’s maddening that now this is the second camcorder that I’ve uh ... damaged. First one was to the failure of the tripod. And the second was uh ... the strap came undone. Which is strange.

153) Here’s George’s cairn right next to the sign that says “MINE HAZARD AREA.” ¹²

154) We can begin to see out over the top of the range, out into the ... high country in the Grapevines.

155) This road has had rock work ... to support it. Some places about five feet high. Flat, shale-like rocks stacked ... over the areas to keep the roadbed level.

156) Now that I think of it, that display that the ... camera was giving me that I interpreted as a fault ... is a end of tape display. This tape’s only about half used, but this is the one that did this before. I don’t know why I didn’t mark it, or simply toss it. ¹³

157) Going through some real shale country here. I can see where they used shale ... [To Alan]: -- What’s that? -- [Alan’s voice in background - indecipherable] [To Alan]: -- Uh ... um ... yeah ... I think that one is. Yeah. ¹⁴

158) Getting pretty close to the top of this saddle now. [Alan’s voice in background - indecipherable] It’s 3:31 right now.

159) We’re walking up on top of a saddle ... er ... yeah. A divide. The road just skirts the west side of the summit of that divide. I can just barely peek over the top at head high. Into the canyon that we turned out of. We’re almost to the head of this canyon. And then hopefully it’ll be ... relatively gentle country beyond. The vegetation has definitely changed. It was creosote, but ... we have uh ... more of the transitional ... vegetation as we’re gaining altitude.

160) We have a nice vista here look up at uh Bullfrog. Uh ... the Grapevines. Over at Bare Mountain. The mountains beyond. It looks like around Montezuma ... mountain. Up by Goldfield. You can see Bullfrog. You can see where we camped out uh last night ... actually ... we looking sort of ... angling across the back and over. ¹⁵

162) Actually that might be the ... back of the Inyo Range we’re looking at. Because now we’re getting to another spot where you can see the Panamint. It’s clear. Well, we’re coming into a ... fairly broad valley. The road is going to go up and angle around. I see some mine ... tailings over against the far ... far part of the valley. The road is taking another swing to the south. But I see over ... directly to the west.

163) It’s five minutes until four now. We’re up in an area on top of the saddle. Actually starting to drop down on the other side. Into a canyon on the other side of the crest. I see some mines to the south. Even see a road of sorts. [To Alan]: -- Looks like a road trav ... traversing there, Alan. Above those mine dumps. -- I see a line going from the saddle over there and across the face of that mountain. Not sure where we are at, as far as ... Echo is, but I can’t see we’re that far away.

164) Found a small ... square sheet metal shack. Rusted dark reddish brown. Just happened to turn around and realized it was back there. Off the road and about 200 feet to the south. [To Alan]: Huh?! [Alan’s voice in background – indecipherable]

165) [Alan’s voice in background - indecipherable] Oh, there’s George. He’s coming back at us now. He’s a ways off from us, but we see him.

166) Ok, we’re going to walk up this ... the road right now is dropping down into the canyon bottom here. And we’ll crawl out the other side, a short distance. And then the road will make a strong loop to the south. And at that point he [note: George Huxtable] noted on his maps foundations ... and those type of things. He said they’re very faint. So ... there’s a couple of mines up further up, but he said that most every ... all the action, as he put it, is between the turn ... immediately after making that turn, and uh ... those two mines. So, actually from our standpoint, it’s straight ahead, and up and over about uh ... 150 foot tall ... other side of the canyon there. And we’ll be there, in Echo townsite.

167) On top now. Yeah, here we go. A level tent site. Just made the bend. It’s an open ... topped saddle. We ... we gone through a ... valley, heading into another canyon’s headwaters. A broad view up through ... Timber Mountain area and ... and Area 51. Nellis. Bare Mountain. Rhyolite is ... is just out of the picture now because of a small hill. Found a level tent site. Some cans.

168) Desert pavement type gravel up here. Very smooth. Larger rocks scattered around.

169) I see a few scattered cans up here. George mentioned that there was a number of can dumps.

170) I decided to sacrifice some of my videotape on the way up. Which was kind of redundant anyway. I stopped it where ... I ran it back to where George was kneeling on the ground, consulting his map. I cut out all the canyon scenes so I could at least a minute of video of Echo. It jammed up about an hour and seven minutes into it. And I ran it back to about one minute, five seconds, thirty ... or one minute ... one hour ... [sigh] ... one hour, five minutes, thirty seconds into it, so I can get about a minute of tape up here. Make it all worth while, I hope. I ran back uh ... some video I shot after I dropped the camera, and I can see some uh ... uh ... bursts in there, going across the screen, so, I probably have whacked the head pretty good when it fell. Because it did land on the tape side, so it might have whacked the video head on it.

171) What bursts there were is acceptable. It wasn’t uh just a streak down the middle. And it was intermittent.

172) [To Alan]: -- I don’t know. I’m going to walk along the road here, because he had all of his by the road. And there’s where he said it narrowed, down over there.

173) Alan’s going to wander down by the wash, and I’m heading back over to the road. It’s kind of a nice tableland up here. A nice spot for a townsite. Again, a lot of uh ... I found two so far, leveled tent sites ...

174) Tape 2, side B. Cut off by the end of the tape. Walking along the road here. Alan’s over into the draw over to the west. Looking for whatever. George’s map showed three or four tent ... leveled tent sites. He called them foundations. So far what I’ve seen is leveled out tent sites. Square, with a rock perimeter. It’s a nice spot. Definitely a two-wheel-drive road here through this part. Uh ... looks like it might go over another saddle and into another canyon to the south. Looking through a notch to the west, I see uh ... probably the Panamint. I’m not sure where I’m looking at. There’s not enough of it visible to determine. I’m probably south of uh ... well, no. Telescope Peak would be south of me. Because we’re about due west of Furnace Creek, so ... probably looking at Tucki Mountain, because it’s just a very gentle, broad uh ... rounded top mountain. So I’m probably looking a bit northwest at Tucki. Alan’s about 500 feet away from me. Westward. Walking south. I’m walking south along the road. The road was uh driveable by anything ... four-wheel-drive, once the road turned out of the canyon bottom. The canyon bottom presented three ... or four short ... areas of concern. Nothing that would stop a modified Jeep ... with uh ... what I mean modified with larger than stock tires, and a lift kit on a stock Wrangler. A three inch lift and 32” tires. That would ... that would be all that is necessary to get through. I don’t see a winch being necessary at any point along there. Because nothing was as bad as Goler Canyon. And Goler Canyon’s area of concern were quite lengthy, and these were short hops of uh ... little elevation gain. My truck would have probably slammed its frame down at a couple of points, but otherwise I don’t think I would have had trouble with it. If I had skid plates on my truck, I might have been tempted to try it. It’s a nice, open view northward. Looking across at Beatty, Bare Mountain and Bullfrog Hills. It looks like Montezuma Peak beyond. Uh might be the Lida Range I’m looking at over the Bullfrog Hills. Uh ... northward into Nellis. In the area east of Bare Mountain, probably Timber Mountain region. Uh ... it’s uh ... quite a nice uh view up here.

175) I’m walking to uh where the valley kind of pinches in. The valley is probably uh ... a quarter mile long. The road just makes a slow arc. I can see it climb to make that saddle. A short distance. The saddle is probably only about 75 vertical feet higher. I think George says that the area he found everything is this side where it pinches. He went in around ... probably on top of that saddle to those two mine shafts.

177) At twenty ... actually eighteen minutes until five, we’re turning around and heading back. We got to the area where it pinched down. It’s awfully rough and rugged, and there’s nothing to indicate anything here. So we’ll probably wander up to that tin shack, film that and uh ... head on down to the truck.

178) Took a photo of a rock cairn here where it opens up. This one I didn’t have to hike all over hill and dale to photograph. They’re everywhere along this route. Stone cairns from the time ... actually before you get to Lee ... townsite, while you’re still in Nevada, all the way to the crest ... the hill is uh ... totally covered. They sprout up like little tin soldiers everywhere.

179) I found some scattered cans on the east, northeast side of the road. We’re investigating now. Alan’s found some kind of a rod. Looks almost like a ... [Alan: “Rod H.”] [Me laughing] Rod H.! ¹⁶ [To Alan]: -- Uh ... looks like something to pick up something, doesn’t it? Maybe a poker, stove poker? -- [Alan: “... these rocks here, something to do with a structure.”] [To Alan]: -- Yeah. They’re uh ... unnatural. -- [Alan: “There’s some porcelain here.”] Yeah, we’ve got broken porcelain. [Alan: “Odd to find porcelain here.”] [To Alan:] -- We got some square cans. [Alan talking in background - indecipherable] -- Round can ... there’s a can dump. Yeah! We got a can dump now. A regular dump, dump.

180) Found two fair sized can dumps uh ... [To Alan]: -- Hey! Here’s some beer! A can of Keystone. [Laughing] Yeah, it’s open. -- Actually, it’s not tea ... Keystone. What is it? It’s iced tea. Tetley’s. T.E.T.L.E.Y. -- Well, we’re right just right here at the curve. About ready to walk down towards that cabin. [To Alan]: -- Here’s some cans right at the apex of the curb. So there might be some sites right here.

181) Just uh downhill from the apex of the curve there’s some more cans rolled down. There’s a flattened one-gallon can right on the side of the road. Walked right by it.

182) The Mavica is doing wonderful on this trip. It had a full charge when I started. And I shot ... I’m on my fourth disk now. I’ve got 60 minutes left of battery time in it. So what I think I’ll do is shoot the important things of Lee tomorrow and uh ... be conservative with the pictures. And then when we leave to go to Goodsprings ... we’ll uh ... I’ll charge it ... as I’m driving. Charged one of the batteries on the uh ... camcorder on the way down here.

183) Alan walked over to look at the cabin. I stayed over here on the road. And uh ... I’m ... tired. With a capital “T”. But uh ... I’m glad I made it to Echo. It’s one of those things where ... as I’m walking I’m starting to loose focus and wonder what the heck I’m doing ... this for. But now that I’ve been there, I can say I did it. From this point forward.

184) It’s 5:15 and we’re continuing onward now from that cabin. Alan’s almost back to the road. Getting up to meet him further up the road here. He’s walking up another road ... that goes to that cabin. ¹⁷

186) Still a stove in that building. And he said that there was the foundation of the other building there.

188) The Amargosa Valley is starting to take on the evening hues. It’s very pretty ... view over here. We’re about ready to drop into that canyon. [Alan: “It’s not quite yet.”] It’s not quite yet, but we’re on our way down there. We can see the deep chasm that ... came in ... uh we’re parked on the other side.

189) Alan found a fairly decent looking pocket knife. It’s a little rusty. It’s kind of like in a turned aluminum cover.

190) Well, we’re back down at the forks of the road. And uh here at the forks of the road, it’s twenty minutes until six.

191) It looks like we’re getting ready to enter the deep chasm now. A nice think knowing is that on the other side is Alan’s Explorer.

192) Crickets are chirping and echoing off the canyon walls. We’re down in the chasm now.

193) One thing I do notice, there are tire tracks leading to this area. So Jeepers do get up in here. They’re fairly recent. Within the last week or two.

194) Four minutes after six, and we’re back at Alan’s truck. God these seats feel like thrones!

195) George left a note on the windshield. He was here at 5:30 ... [loud thump] ... ooooh!! [To Alan]: -- I think you just backed into that rock! -- [Alan: “Yup. I felt it.”] Uh ... anyway, we uh ... he’s on his way down. So we’ll probably meet him at my truck, I’m sure.

1My camera at the time was a Sony Mavica FD5 digital camera. It was among the early digital cameras and had a low resolution of 640x480 pixels. I chose the Mavica because it stored its images on cheap and easily obtainable floppy disks, instead of the then very expensive forms of other digital media at the time.

2George Huxtable, the avid hiker and far quicker, went on ahead of us. We made arrangements to meet him back at the vehicles of Alan and myself (George had come to the area in a rented car and we left it parked in a safe place in Amargosa Valley).

3Cairns, generally of native stone, were used to mark the boundary corners of mining claims.

4Anyone speaking in the background I transcribe their words if I can understand it when transcribing. If I can hear the voice but not understand what is said, I indicate it as being inaudible.

5A book, “EXPLORER'S GUIDE TO DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK”, published in 1995 by Bryan, T. Scott & Bryan, Betty Tucker. It should be available in all book outlets within Death Valley National Park, in the region nearby and online.

6I left out entry #135 as it was a personal reminder note.

7Goler Canyon and the road through it are in the southern Panamint Range, draining into Panamint Valley. I have often driven that road and was using it as a benchmark to compare the road up to Echo by it.

8The Keystone Mine, in Goler Canyon, often shown on maps as the Lotus Mine.

9Surprise Canyon is in the central Panamint Range, draining west into Panamint Valley. The ghost town of Panamint City lay in the upper reaches of the canyon. The canyon's road was destroyed by a series of flashfloods during the summer of 1984 and was a torture test for extreme four-wheelers until the road was closed by law in 2000. Alan Patera and I hiked into Panamint City in 1997.

10Rod, mentioned from this point forward several times, was a friend who drove a modified 1997 Jeep Wrangler and was fearless when it came to tackling extreme rock crawling sections of trail. Whenever we visited places that I knew my truck at the time wouldn't be able to tackle without damage, I'd go with Rod.

11I was referring to my video camera, a Sony unit.

12George was familiar with the area and told us before he left us that he'd build small rock cairns in the roadway to guide us at forks in the road.

13That particular video tape was usable for only about half its length, then it would jam to a stop.

14?? I don't know what it was we were referring to now.

15We had camped the night before farther north in the Funeral Range at the Capricorn Mine. For details of this trip, including that of Echo and beyond, see my Trip 1999 trip account.

16I removed Rod's last name to protect his privacy.

17Both Alan and George believe the cabin is of a later construction than during the Echo boom.