Ballarat is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in
Inyo County,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
It lies at an elevation of 1079 feet (329 m).
Today, Ballarat is a virtual
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
. It was founded in 1897 as a supply point for the mines in the canyons of the
Panamint Range. A quarter-mile to the south is Post Office Springs, a reliable water source used since the 1850s. George Riggins, an immigrant from Australia, gave Ballarat its name when he proposed it should be named for
Ballarat, Victoria
Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018.
Within months of Vic ...
.
History
The town was founded in 1897.
In its heyday—from 1897 to 1905—Ballarat had 400 to 500 residents. It hosted seven
saloons, three hotels, a
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
station, post office (that opened in 1897),
school, a jail and morgue, but no churches. Ballarat was a place for miners and prospectors to resupply and relax.
The town began to decline when the Ratcliff Mine, in Pleasant Canyon east of town, suspended operations. Other mines nearby also began to play out, and in 1917 the post office closed
and all that remained were a few diehard prospectors and desert rats.
From approximately 1918 until his death at
Trona
Trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate, also sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate, Na2CO3•2NaHCO3•3H2O) is a non- marine evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replace ...
Hospital in 1968 of cancer, the sole resident of Ballarat was Seldom Seen Slim (Charles Ferge). Slim claimed not to have bathed in twenty years except for sloshing water on his naked body while standing outdoors. After the town's
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
building degraded beyond liveability, Slim lived in a
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
and house trailer. Slim was the 28th and final person to be interred at Ballarat's
boot hill. He used to say, "Just bury me where the digging's easy."
In the 1960s,
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
and the "Manson Family" of killers moved into a ranch south of Ballarat, and left graffiti in the town. The 1969 movie ''
Easy Rider'' has a scene filmed in Ballarat. After arriving in the town,
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s. Fond ...
's character, Wyatt, removes his Rolex watch and throws it away before he and
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...
's character, Billy, head east on their motorcycles towards
.
On Easter weekend, 1971, about two thousand people attended a "hippy" celebration at Ballarat.
About two hundred contracted hepatitis (A) from contaminated drinking water.
Today
Today, Ballarat has one full-time resident. As of June 2013 Rocky Novak and his dogs, Potlicker and Brownie, live in the town. Rocky runs the general store on afternoons and weekends to supply tourists, and is working on repairing the water pipes that supply the town, for which he is paid by the government. Rocky was featured in the 2018 film vignette "The Mayor of Ballarat" by Mickey Todiwala and Monika Delgado.
The five-minute character piece features a montage of various Ballarat locations with a voiceover of Rocky describing his life in town and musings on human nature.
Ballarat is used as a meeting point for four-wheel-drive expeditions into the
Panamint Range and
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth.
Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...
, and in winter up to 300 people camp in the grounds of the town. The town was recently used as a set to tell the story of the
Ballarat Bandit
George Robert Johnston (1954 – 2004), better known as the Ballarat Bandit or John Doe #39-04, was a Canadian-born burglar who gained nationwide attention as he spent the last several years of his life hiding from police in Death Valley Nationa ...
.
Ballarat was featured in an episode of
Top Gear USA
''Top Gear'' is an American driving, motoring television series, based on the Top Gear (2002 TV series), BBC series of the same name. The show's presenters were professional racing driver Tanner Foust, actor and comedian Adam Ferrara, and autom ...
and the movie
Obselidia
''Obselidia'' is a 2010 American drama film written and directed by Diane Bell, starring Michael Piccirilli, Gaynor Howe and Frank Hoyt Taylor. The film won two awards at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival: the Excellence in Cinematography award a ...
.
The town has a ZIP Code of 93592, and is inside
area codes 442 and 760
Area code 760 is a California telephone area code that was split from area code 619 on March 22, 1997. Area code 442 is an overlay of 760 that became effective on November 21, 2009. It encompasses much of the southeastern and southernmost portion ...
.
Ballarat in fiction
Ballarat has featured in
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and ...
including ''
Hellbound for Ballarat'' (1970) by
Nelson C. Nye
Nelson Coral Nye (1907–1997) was an American writer, editor, and reviewer of Western fiction, and wrote non-fiction books on quarter horses. Besides Nelson C. Nye he also wrote fiction using the pseudonyms Clem Colt and Drake C. Denver. He wrote ...
and ''
Bounty Hunt at Ballarat'' (1973) by
Clayton Matthews.
See also
*
List of ghost towns
The following is a list of ghost towns, listed by continent, then by country.
Africa
Angola
* The settlement of Saint Martin of the Tigers (in Portuguese: ''São Martinho dos Tigres''), situated on a peninsula now known as the Tigres Island ...
References
External links
GhostTowns.com: Ballarat
{{authority control
Ghost towns in Inyo County, California
Mining communities in California
Panamint Range
Populated places in the Mojave Desert
Unincorporated communities in Inyo County, California
History of the Mojave Desert region
History of Inyo County, California
Populated places established in 1897
1879 establishments in California
Unincorporated communities in California