Calico Ghost Town

We left San Diego on Sunday 02nd January and headed for Las Vegas by road.   A very long road… A very long, very straight and very boring road… through the Mojave Desert.  Very long… and very boring…  Sorry Interstate 15 but I really would appreciate the occasional turn next time.  Left, or right, I don’t mind… but 134 miles in a straight line, on one stretch, with nothing to see other than the occasional cactus and the back end of another 18 wheeler is enough to drive a boy mad!  

Anyway….

So, after a few hours of driving we decided to take a break and Linda directed us to Calico Ghost town for a stroll and, hopefully, a bite.

 

Calico is an old silver mining town built on the side of King Mountain in San Bernadino County and dates back to 1881 where it boomed during the American silver rush.  Within less than 25 years it had been completely abandoned with its oldest resident, Miss Lucy Bell Lane, passing away in her 60’s.  Over 500 mines were active at its peak and more than 1200 residents lived among the saloon bars, brothels, gambling houses and, of course, churches.

 

It’s an interesting place and really feels like going back in time to the wild west that we’ve all seen in films and on TV.

       

Easy to imagine horses tied up outside the buildings, boots and spurs clopping and clinking along the wooden boardwalks and the sound of a slightly detuned piano playing behind the crack of occasional gunfire and dynamite explosions.

 

The site lay empty for many years until the Knotts Berry Farm company bought it in the 1950’s, restored it as originally as they could from old documents and photographs and gave it back to the county as a historic monument.

 

It’s only about a third of it’s original size but all the right ingredients are there like the fire house, the blacksmiths shop, saddlery and the explosives store.

There’s even an undertaker with an original horse drawn hearse.  Behind the main street there's a railway ride on the Calico & Odessa Railroad.

 

During the warmer months the town is full of actors dressed up in period clothing and all of the shops, shacks and buildings are open and busy.   They do re-enactments of gun fights and even a Civil War  display during many festivals in the town.

Camp grounds are available too!  If you’re not afraid of rattlesnakes and coyotes… and vultures... 

The old school is used during education days and stands slightly removed from the high street looking very sweet indeed!  If you ever happen to be passing by and in need of a break from the endless miles of I15 straightness I would highly recommend a visit to Calico.  I’d love to go back in the summer and witness some of the celebratory historical enactments.

      

I’d never been out in the middle of the desert before and crikey it was so….  freezing!!   We couldn’t believe just how cold it was and the breeze made it even more unbearable. 

It wasn’t all bad though.  Before returning to the car and the I15 we called into the old miners cafe for lunch and as well as that old detuned piano they had waitresses dressed up in period costume, buckets of peanuts on the tables of which it is encouraged to discard the shells onto the floor!

and good old fashioned vittles just like Granny used ter make.  Corn bread, ham hock, all served up in miners tin cups :-)