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Barnwell, originally a rail camp named Summit, then Manvel, was a former
railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...
serving local mining camps, now a
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'' ...
, in
San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the ...
. It lies at an elevation 4806 feet in the
New York Mountains The New York Mountains are a small mountain range found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA. The range's northeastern area lies in southeastern Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north ...
.


History


Manvel

A mining magnate from Denver, Isaac G. Blake, in April 1892, with an interest in the silver mines in Sagamore Canyon in the New York Mountains, built the Needles Reduction Company mill, in the town of Needles and then in December 1892 began building the Nevada Southern Railway, toward those silver mines and the gold mining town of Vanderbilt from the Santa Fe Railroad station at Goffs, completing it to a rail camp with a post office, named Manvel, then later built it some miles on up nearer the mines, to a rail camp named Summit which was renamed Manvel when the post office relocated there, in July 1893. Vredenburgh, L.M.; Shumway, G.L.; Hartill, R.D. (1981), Desert Fever, an overview of mining in the California Desert, living West Press: Canoga Park, CA
/ref> Manvel was the nearest railhead for nearby mining camps, including Vanderbilt, Goodsprings, Crescent, and Montgomery. However Blake's silver mines, mill and railroad empire was bankrupted by the crash of 1893 and tied up in litigation until after 1907. The gold mines at Vanderbilt and those discovered to the east at
Searchlight, Nevada Searchlight is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, at the topographic saddle between two mountain ranges. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census i ...
in the later 1890s, helped to sustain Manvel. Manvel supported a flour, grain, and lumber dealer, a general store, a hotel, a blacksmith, the post office, and a stage line running to Montgomery in 1898 and a school district in January 1900. In early 1902, the Nevada Southern completed a 15-mile extension into the
Ivanpah Valley The Ivanpah Valley is in southeastern California and southern Nevada in the United States. The valley is between the New York Mountains and the Ivanpah Mountains in San Bernardino County on the California side, and in Clark County on the Nevada ...
, to a new railhead at Ivanpah, to serve as the shipping point for the nearby Copper World Mine.Hensher, Alan, 2005, The Historical Mining Towns of the Eastern Mojave Desert in Robert E. Reynolds editor, Old Ores, Mining History in the Eastern Mojave Desert: California State University, Desert Studies Consortium and LSA Associates, Inc. pp. 22-27 At Searchlight, as production steadily increased, Manvel as its main rail shipping point for Searchlight, had a depot, telegraph office, a freight-forwarding house, and an agency of Wells, Fargo & Company. T. A. Brown, the co-founder of the Brown-Gosney Company store, largest in town, organized a telephone system; started several freight lines and a stage line; and opened branches in several nearby camps and towns.


Barnwell

In early 1905, the
San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via Las Ve ...
was completed. The line passed only 20 miles from Searchlight and 15 miles from the Copper World Mine. With this competition in early 1907, the Santa Fé railroad completed a 23-mile extension to Searchlight, the Barnwell and Searchlight Railway. To prevent confusion with a town in Texas, Manvel was renamed Barnwell. The rail line was finished just as Searchlight’s production began to plunge. A depression followed in October. When blue pieces of scrip were introduced in Barnwell as money, families began to leave. In September 1908, a fire destroyed most of Barnwell’s business district, including the depot and the Brown-Gosney Company’s store. The depot never reopened and the Brown-Gosney Company which had earlier moved its headquarters to Searchlight, closed its store in Barnwell in February, 1910 and the town had another fire in May. After production at Searchlight fell drastically in 1911, T. A. Brown moved his family away in 1912. The railroad closed its agency in 1914. The post office was discontinued in April, 1915. The school district was abolished in 1918. All train service was discontinued in late 1923, and the rails were torn up.


Barnwell today

There is a homestead and water tank at the former location of Barnwell. The railroad bed is still there and is still good in many places. Barnwell Siding, (Manvel) California!
from robertwynn.com accessed July 12, 2015.


References

{{San Bernardino County, California Ghost towns in California Former settlements in San Bernardino County, California