Death Valley Historic Resource Study A History of Mining

B. Emigrant Wash and Wildrose Canyon (continued)

2. Wild Rose Mining District (continued)

i) Sites (continued)

(14) Mill Site North of Journigan's Mill

(a) History

This small mill site alongside the Wild rose- Emigrant Canyon Road was operated during the mid-1930s. Walter M. Hoover, who has owned several pieces of Death Valley mining property, and a man named Starr ran the small cyanide plant here on ore hauled from Nemo Canyon about 1935. After the partners split up, Starr continued to operate the mill until sometime in the fall when he left California. The area was subsequently cleaned up by monument personnel and a small amount of pipes and fittings removed. [183]

(b) Present Status

The mill straddles a rocky outcropping on the west side of the Emigrant Canyon Road about one mile north of Journigan's Mill. Four cement-lined masonry tanks connected with the cyanide process' are still present, one being at least twenty feet in diameter and still containing remains of the wooden grid that once covered the bottom. Stone dry-wall foundations and concrete machinery pilings are also in evidence. Southwest of the mill and along the, edge of the ridge are what appear to be small adits or holes of some kind in the rock face. Some low stone walls are associated with them.

(c) Evaluation and Recommendations

This site is not historically significant. The mill operated for only a short period during the 1930s, but the ruins are interesting and have interpretive value. No stabilization work is thought necessary. The" remaining foundations should be left to benign neglect and an interpretive marker erected identifying the area as the site of a 1930s cyanide milling operation. The purpose of the low walls southwest along the hillside is unknown, the writer having been unable to examine them closely. They and the nearby, caves (?) should be examined for archeological significance.

Illustration 161. Cyanide mill ruins on west side of Emigrant Canyon Road 1 to 1-1/2 miles north of Journigan's Mill. Photo by Linda W. Greene, 1978.

Illustration 162. Cyanide tank on mill site. Note wooden slats remaining. Photo by Linda W. Greene, 1978.