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RECONNOITERING
IN THE EASTERN SIERRA NEVADA & GREAT BASIN |
Reilly
Ghost Town Site
May,
2000
In 1998 and 1999, I started getting some sporadic requests from individuals about a certain spot called Reilly. Previous to these requests, I had not heard of such a place, nor any details about it, nor did those asking have much information to offer in return. On New Years Day, January 1, 2000, an email query came to me regarding Reilly. It read:
Dear Mr. Wright:
I found your e-mail on the ghosttowns.com web page, and I hope that you don't mind me writing to you. You seem to be very knowledgeable about historic mining towns in the Great Basin, and I was wondering if you know anything about a nineteenth-century mining operation and community called Anthony Mill Ruins and Reilly located not far from Ballarat in Panamint Valley, California? I'm planning to study the site archaeologically as part of my thesis research at California State University, Sonoma.
The email was sent by James Barnes, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, who was researching the site for his thesis. On January 16th, I met with Mr. Barnes at Denny's in Ridgecrest to enlighten myself with Reilly and Mr. Barnes' attraction to it. After this meeting and through subsequent research for him, as well as his invitation for me to join an archaeological study of Reilly, my knowledge of the site began to grow.
Mr. Barnes and I planned to go to Reilly the day following our January 16 meeting, but it was canceled. I did not personally get to Reilly until May 1, 2000, when fellow researchers and authors Alan Patera, Alan Hensher and myself visited Reilly as part of a three day exploration and photo trip in Death Valley.
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We really didn't know how to get to Reilly, only a vague idea of where it was, so took a number of dirt trails up the aluvium of several Argus Range canyons until I found the mill ruins of the Anthony Mill site. I had seen several photos of Reilly on other websites, so knew we were in the right place. We were amazed at the size of the site of Reilly. We counted nearly 30 stone ruins, plus found many square nails, glass shards, iron scrap and other small items. |
Alan Hensher decided to insert his business card into a crevasse in the rockwork of the Anthony Mill, to see if archaeologists find it. Alan Patera dryly quipped:
"Oh, don’t go doing that, it will disturb the context of area archaeology and screw up the archaeologists!"
Three weeks later, on May 20 and 21, I enjoyed being a very small part of the archaeological dig at Reilly. [Note: I had put into the following images the wrong dates when enhancing them and storing them.]
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On Sunday, May 20th, I drove down in the early afternoon to Reilly. Not sure of where to go I drove into the townsite and parked next to some other BLM vehicles. I found a number of vehicles parked around the site, and approximately 35-40 people, young and elderly, working about Reilly. I was looking for two people in particular - James Barnes and Graham C., who I had been corresponding with by email, but had not yet met in person. I found both quickly after arriving at Reilly. |
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It was a very hot day, well above 100º and one volunteer had already been treated for heat exhaustion. After I arrived, several people quickly took an interest in me. James explained that they were concerned by photos of Reilly posted on a certain website, which were taken by a volunteer on an earlier digging and who had been asked not to post any of photos he had taken. It was thought by some that I was the one who did so. After that misunderstanding was cleared, James gave me my assignment, to use a government issued GPS unit and mark the UTM coordinates for several nearby ruins. |
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Graham went along with me to help out. We used the GPS to deliniate each ruin's dimensions, as well as central location within a marked off quadrant along the north-central part of the Reilly townsite. We did find one faint ruin that was not seen before by James or by others, and so we scrutinized that ruin with the aid of the GPS, feeling proud of ourselves to have been a part of the greater understanding of Reilly. After 3:00 o'clock, the call was given to return to Ballarat and the base camp. Everyone was agreeable to that idea and it was Ho! for Ballarat! |
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The base camp at Ballarat was set up in a large clearing west of the General Store. Several tents were set up, chairs and tables were accompanied by large barrels filled with the necessities - ice, water and beer. Good thing, too, for the thermometer at Ballarat sat at 115º. I parked my truck next to Graham's rig, which was parked by itself near the Indian Ranch Road at the far northeastern corner of the clearing, well away from those of the rest of the group. At the base camp I was given a package with some neat mementos of the digging project. |
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Graham and I enjoyed the shade and beer to get better aquainted and meet others of the group. A scrumptious meal was whipped up and was relished. Afterward, at dusk, James Barnes asked me to speak the group. Alan Patera and I had just published our joint effort on Skidoo and so I gave a talk on the lynching and aftermath of Joe Simpson, the infamous Skidoo lynchee. It was still very hot in Ballarat at nearly 11:00 PM when I went back to my truck, I noted into my microcassette recorder:
"To give an idea of how hot and dry it was today, I drank nine cans of beer and immeasurable amounts of water, and never once did I have to stop and take a piss."
That night was sleepless. It was hot in the back of my truck, even with tailgate down and windows open. Not a breath of a breeze stirred the air. I spent the night tossing, turning and sweating. I muttered frustrated notes on my microcassette recorder. I longed for dawn so I could get out and do something instead of feeling like a prisoner of the night.
At dawn, I got out and began making coffee. It wasn't necessary, as BLM had thought of that too, breakfast and coffee was being served to those few that were up at 5:00 AM at the tent about a hundred yards away. But I wanted my own company at that hour, and so drank my own coffee and ate my own oatmeal. Graham joined me after he got up.
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At 6:48 sharp, Graham and I left in my truck for Reilly. Our business for the day was to walk the water line from Reilly down to the point it makes a curve around a small lateral ridge at the foot of the Argus Range and up Water Canyon, which is located a couple miles south of Reilly. Upon arriving at Reilly, we parked north of the Anthony Mill ruin, as those in charge didn't especially like me parking in the middle of the townsite as I had done the day before. We found that Alan Hensher's business card was indeed found where it was stuck in the Anthony Mill ruin. |
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I again took a GPS unit and a notebook, Graham took a metal detector. We walked about a mile down the pipeline, for we figured going any further could be very uncomfortable in the increasing heat. The pipeline end point and our start point was at its terminus at the Anthony Mill ruin. A discarded coupling lay on top of the pipeline, which was tagged by archaeologists. Graham and I began following the pipeline downhill. We noted that the pipeline was carefully laid, traversing gullies supported by stonework and burrowed deep where the topography warranted it. |
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Our probing along the pipeline route didn't turn up much. Graham pointed to me what archaeologists speculate is an Indian blind. All I found was a packrat nest with one old metal can. Graham found a piece of metal that appeared to be thick wire.
Graham and I returned to Reilly. It was getting pretty warm by then. Our next focus was on a stone corral, in which several people and one archaeologist were scouring for clues of yesterday. Numerous metal grommets were found, indicating canvas tarps. Also present were horseshoe nails by the handful.
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Our attention was turned to a large unit of electronics, a long orange unit taking magnetic readings. Also present and being set up to use behind the building believed to be the post office was a ground penetrating radar unit. A persistant legend about Reilly relates that 300 Mormons were ambushed by Indians and were buried at Reilly. Archaeologists doubted the theory, as the Mormon faith carefully records the birth and death of its members. But the rumor refuses to die and thus the radar unit was brought in to determine if the bones of Mormons or anyone else was buried at Reilly. The radar unit can detect down to about three feet below the surface.
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At 2:00 PM, it was decided for the volunteer group to regroup and head back down to Ballarat, as it was setting up to be hotter than the day previously. Graham and I mutually decided to go along with the crowd and jumped into my air conditioned truck, another man also rode shotgun with us, sitting squashed in the little jump seats in the rear of my cab. As a treat for the group, James asked me to lead the pack up to the Wildrose Charcoal kilns and Mahogany Flat on the crest of the Panamints. Turning up lower Wildrose Canyon, I switched off the air conditioner on my truck, as is my practice, |
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so as not to overheat. It was quite hot, but we noted how swiftly the air cooled as we climbed. I pointed out to Graham the Panamint Daisy, which grows only in Wildrose and a couple of adjacent canyons and which blooms very irregularly. If the daisy bloomed at all this year, I thought, the bloom would be gone by now. Or so I thought. We found one plant still in bloom in among several daisies. I did not stop the truck to take Graham to it, for fear of shutting down the truck, which had been running a bit above normal due to running with the hot wind uphill, would blow a hose. |
Leaving
the blast furnace of Panamint Valley behind, it was paradoxal that we
found patches of snow on northern facing slopes just above the road
to the kilns. Graham and I pulled into the charcoal kilns parking
area and spun the truck's nose up wind, running it for a few minutes
to cool it down before shutting it off.
At the parking area we waited for the group to arrive. I had last viewed them as we entered the lower canyon. The first to arrive was a Dodge pickup from the Forest Service. The truck had been driven with the air conditioner on and it was obvious that the truck was very hot. I inquired of the occupants where James Barnes was, the reply was that he was down at the Skidoo pipeline display with a disabled vehicle that overheated and stalled. A few other vehicles made it to the charcoal kilns within a few minutes, so I gave a discourse on the kilns and their history.
After the visit to the kilns we head up to the crest of the Panamint Range at Mahogany Flat. The air and breeze were wonderful, with temperatures in the high 70s. A member of the group found a partial arrowhead point, which was left where it was. Then it was time to leave the cool heights of the Panamints and head back for the lowlands and Ballarat. As I pulled away from Mahogany Flat, I uttered into my microcassette: "It’s 5:23. We’re leaving Mahogany Flat, and we’re going to go fill our bellies at Ballarat. Hey, that rhymes!", to which Graham gave a hearty reply in the affirmative. And as a plus, we could have the air conditioner on going down.
Reaching Ballarat, I was sitting and chatting with Graham over a cold brew and noticed an '80s Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to another buddy and desert rat, Tom B., who hails from the southern California area. He had popped in after spending the last few days poking about the Panamint Range. And he had a tire going flat.
After changing Tom's tire and a hearty supper, it was time for me to say goodbye to Ballarat, Reilly, James, Graham and Tom. I was tired and sunburned, but I was happy to participate. Driving home I began to notice a definite cologne smell in the cab. I tried to find the source while driving but couldn't. It wasn't until the next day that I found a bottle of Nautica Competition men's cologne under the seat with the cap missing. The cologne had poured out and into the truck's carpeting, a strong and super air freshener. Graham had taken his toiletries bag along in case he needed some freshening at Reilly and apparently it rolled out and lost its cap. The truck smelled great for weeks, thanks to Graham!
Reilly is now posted with interpretive displays as a result of the archaeological dig and I now know a little more about Reilly.
©2002,
2004, 2006 D.A. Wright
All Rights Reserved
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