Ghost Town
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 10:05AM 
I needed this photograph to tell a story. It was taken at a place in the middle of desert that is just so isolated and yet was once a town of 4000 people, with schools, shops and even a post office. Eagle Mountain as it is known was run by Kaiser Corporation and supplied iron ore to Kaiser's Fontana steel works near to Los Angeles. It is located about 20 miles north of the 10 freeway between Indio and Blythe.The first time I went to Kaiser mine I could not believe what I saw. It reminded me of one of those towns in Nevada that you see in films where nuclear tests were conducted in the 1950's. Everything was there, all the shops, houses and even the gas station, it was just missing one vital element, people. It was like someone had just vaporized all of the life from the town. On a side note to that I have a very good friend in Big Bear that I had no idea until after my first visit to Eagle Mountain, that he lived and worked there for a number of years. The mine closed in 1983 and just left everything where it stood, buildings, vehicles and even locomotives. It still gets used to make films and commercials though. Well now we are building a new radio site on the mines property so I hope to visit there soon and take some better photographs of this ghost town and post them on here.
Reader Comments (2)
Beautiful pic Martin!
Keep 'em coming!!
I would have loved to visit that ghost town while in Riverside!!
Hey...its Barstow!
LOL!
=)