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CERRO
GORDO UPDATE
7/23/12 |
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Cerro Gordo
officially
CLOSED to VISITORS
as of July 25, 2012
Please phone
Sean Patterson (661-303-3692) or Cerro Gordo (760-876-5030)
for additional information.
Caretakers are still on
site to prevent vandalism.
Contact us through email at:
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Now Available
Cerro Gordo
A
Ghost Town
Caught Between
Centuries |
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Cecile
Page Vargo's collection of Cerro Gordo stories, true, farce
and somewhere in between, is being published in a new book,
Cerro Gordo A Ghost Town Caught Between Centuries.
ISBN: 978-0970025869
The book
gives glimpses of Cerro Gordo from the silver and lead
mining days through the early twentieth century zinc era to
its modern place as, according to author Phil Varney,
"Southern California's best, true, ghost town." There's even
a possible solution to the location of the fabled "Lost
Gunsight
Mine" that former Cerro Gordo owner Mike Patterson
once suggested.
We are
proud to team with the Historical Society of the Upper
Mojave Desert (HSUMD) in Ridgecrest, Calif., to bring Cerro Gordo
A Ghost Town Caught Between Centuries to print. This is
their first major publishing venture. The book is
available for sale directly from HSUMD or through selected
book sellers.
Contact
HSUMD directly to order:
P.O. Box 2001, Ridgecrest, CA. 93556-2001.
Phone: 760 375-8456
Email: hsumd@ridgenet.net
Announcing our Arcadia Publishing Book:
Cerro Gordo
by
Cecile
Page Vargo and Roger W. Vargo
ISBN: 9780738595207
Arcadia Publishing Images of
America series
Price: $21.99
128 pages/ softcover
Available
now!
(Click the cover image for ordering information)
Available
at area bookstores, independent retailers, and
online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at
(888)-313-2665 or
online.
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Mules can
taste the difference--so can you |
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Friends
of Last Chance Canyon is a new organization interested in
sustaining and protecting areas within the El Paso
Mountains, near Ridgecrest, California. The main focus is
preserving and protecting historic sites like Burro
Schmidt's tunnel and the Walt Bickel Camp.
Please click
on either logo to visit the FLCC site. |
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We
support |
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Bodie Foundation
"Protecting Bodie's Future by Preserving Its Past |
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Click on Room 8's
photo or phone
951-361-2205
for more information. |
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The Panamint Breeze is a newsletter for people who
love the rough and rugged deserts and mountains of
California and beyond.
Published by Ruth and Emmett Harder, it is for people who
are interested in the history of mining in the western
states; and the people who had the fortitude to withstand
the harsh elements.
It contains stories of the past and the present; stories of
mining towns and the colorful residents who lived in them;
and of present day adventurers.
Subscriptions are $20 per year (published quarterly –
March, June, September & December) Subscriptions outside the
USA are $25 per year. All previous issues are available.
Gift certificates are available also.
To subscribe mail check (made payable to Real Adventure
Publishing) along with name, address, phone number & e-mail
address to: Real Adventure Publishing, 18201 Muriel Avenue,
San Bernardino, CA 92407.
For more information about the
Panamint Breeze e-mail Ruth at: echco@msn.com |
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It's always FIRE
SEASON! Click the NIFC logo above to see what's burning. |
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Visit Michael
Piatt's site,
www.bodiehistory.com, for the truth behind some of
Bodie's myths. |
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Credo Quia Absurdum |
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Explore Historic California! |
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Not too many years ago, the family station wagon was the
magic carpet to adventure. Today, that family station wagon is likely to
be a four wheel drive sport utility vehicle or pick up truck. SUV's and
other 4x4's are one of the best selling classes of vehicles. Ironically,
industry statistics show that once purchased, few owners will dare to
drive their vehicles off the paved highway.
Click your mouse through
the
website and enjoy our armchair adventures and the histories behind them.
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Wishing you a
High-grade Holiday Season
and a Joyous New
Year
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Cecile and Roger Vargo pose in the guise of
nineteenth century visitors to Cerro Gordo Mines.
The idea was derived from an image from the
L. D. Gordon Collection (courtesy Doug Gordon) that
was used on page 80 of the Images of America
CERRO GORDO book from Arcadia
Publishing. Below are Roger and Cecile in the twenty
first century. |
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Cerro Gordo: A Ghost Town Caught Between Centuries,
by Cecile Page Vargo is now in its' second printing
from the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave
Desert (and selected booksellers).
ISBN:
978-0970025869. |
Cerro Gordo in Arcadia Publishing Images of
America Series, by Cecile Page Vargo and Roger W.
Vargo is available direct from Arcadia Publishing
and Amazon and at selected booksellers.
ISBN: 9780738595207. |
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Cerro Gordo: A
Ghost Town Caught Between Centuries
Review by Sheila Finch
In the aftermath of my
divorce, I worked busily at reinventing my life, going
places, doing things I’d never done before. One of the great
changes I made was the purchase of a Jeep Wrangler 4WD. That
soon necessitated taking it off road, so I signed up for a
series of guided, four-wheel expeditions in Southern
California’s Mojave Desert. One of the most enjoyable was to
a dusty ghost town, 8500 feet up in the Inyo Mountains north
of Los Angeles, called Cerro Gordo, where the mines once
knew a silver bonanza.
Cerro Gordo: A Ghost Town Caught Between Centuries is
historian Cecile Page Vargo’s account of the founding of the
little mining town, its heyday and its new life as a tourist
attraction. (Cecile and husband Roger Vargo were the guides
on some of my early four-wheel adventures.) It’s a
fascinating story of boom and bust, friendship, loyalty,
ingenuity, good times and bad droughts, the girls of Lola’s
“Palace of Pleasure,” bandito raids in the 1870s, hotels,
pool halls and dance halls, but no church. I enjoyed the mix
of historical documents and contemporary anecdotes, accounts
of how the ore was mined or water brought to a thirsty town,
balanced by stories of the few, brave women who struggled to
make a decent life in the desert for their menfolk and
children.
The Mojave, a place of breathtaking beauty and ever-present
danger, boasts many ghost mining towns like Cerro Gordo,
some so dilapidated and wind-blown few even know about their
existence any more. If you, like me, are drawn to such
glimpses of California’s history, you’ll enjoy this
well-written little book about one of the small,
out-of-the-way places that played such an important role and
survived to greet the new influx of weekend four-wheelers.
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