During the 1870's Lone Pine was an active supply town, furnishing goods
and services to the surrounding mining communities of Kearsarge, Cerro
Gordo, Keeler, Swansea, and Darwin.
Cerro Gordo
The
large mine at Cerro Gordo, 9,000 feet high
in the Inyo Mountains, was one of the greatest silver mines in California.
Silver, lead and zinc were carried in ore buckets on a strong cable to
the town of Keeler. From Keeler, the ore was transported 4 miles northwest
to Swansea's smelter oven. To fulfill the need for building materials
and fuel a sawmill was built near Horseshoe Meadows to provide wood for
the smelters and the mines, by Colonel Sherman Stevens.
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns
Lumber was transported by flume to the valley, burned in adobe kilns to
make charcoal, which was then shipped across the 30 foot deep Owens Lake
by steamships to the smelters at Swansea. Located about 12 miles south
of Lone Pine just east of Hwy. 395 are the deteriorating ruins of two adobe
charcoal kilns.
After the metal was extracted from its matrix, silver ingots were loaded
aboard steamships and transported to Cartago, on the west side of Owens
Lake. From there the silver was carried across land by mule train to the
then small city of Los Angeles.
Dolomite (a marble) was taken from tunnel in the Inyo Mountains. You
can see one of these tunnels at the north end of the Owens Dry Lake, north
of Hwy. 136. Dolomite is still mined in the area, as are talc, pumice,
and clay.
Learn about the Ghost Towns
