Eagle Mountain, California, is a modern-day
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 the
California desert in
Riverside County
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...
founded in 1948 by industrialist
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of ...
. The town is located at the entrance of the now-defunct Eagle Mountain iron mine, once owned by the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
, then
Kaiser Steel
Kaiser Steel was a steel mill near Fontana, California, founded by Henry J. Kaiser on December 1, 1941. The plant's first blast furnace, "Bess No. 1" (named after Kaiser's wife) was fired up on December 30, 1942, and the first steel plate was pr ...
, and located on the southeastern corner of
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to t ...
. The town's fully integrated medical care system, similar to other Kaiser operations in California, was the genesis of the modern-day
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...
health maintenance organization. Eagle Mountain is accessible by Kaiser Road (
Riverside County Route R2) from
California State Route 177
State Route 177 (SR 177) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California in Riverside County, California, Riverside County. The route runs along Rice Road, linking Interstate 10 (California), Interstate 10 (I-10) midway between the Coachella V ...
, twelve miles (19 km) north of
Desert Center, midway between Indio and the California/Arizona state line along
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
.
History
Founded in 1948 by
Kaiser Steel Corporation, Eagle Mountain is located at the entrance of the now-defunct Eagle Mountain iron mine.
As the mine expanded, Eagle Mountain grew to a peak population of 4000. It had wide, landscaped streets lined with over four hundred homes, some with as many as four bedrooms. Two hundred
trailer spaces and several
boarding houses and
dormitories
A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...
provided living space for Kaiser's itinerant workforce. Other amenities included an
auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
, a park, a shopping center, a community
swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
, lighted
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
courts, and a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
diamond. Businesses included a
bowling alley
A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a Meetinghouse, clubhous ...
, two
gas station
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gasoline ...
s, eight churches, and three schools.
![Eagle Mountain Kaiser Steel ruins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Eagle_Mountain_Kaiser_Steel_ruins.jpg)
In the late 1930s, Kaiser built the West Coast's first fully integrated
steel mill
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...
. In 1942, Kaiser built such a mill at
Fontana, California
Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It is now a regional h ...
, which is located 112 miles (180 km) west of the Eagle Mountain Mine. Today the Fontana mill site includes other successor mills and the
Auto Club Speedway
Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...
(formerly the
California Speedway
Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previ ...
). Kaiser then purchased the idle mines from the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
as a source of high-grade iron ore. This was a contingent strategy Kaiser used to utilize rail and raw materials for an industrial operation in a previously agricultural (pig farm) area.
Production at Fontana was initiated during WWII, increased iron shipments began in 1948, and a mining town was constructed below what was soon to become Southern California's largest iron mine. It connected to the Southern Pacific Railroad via a 51-mile-long (82 km) railroad branch known as the
Eagle Mountain Railroad
The Eagle Mountain Railroad (EMRR) was a private railroad in California, owned by the Kaiser Steel Corporation, and is owned today by Kaiser Steel's successor, Kaiser Ventures, Inc. of Ontario, California.
The EMRR is long and is located in Riv ...
. It ran southwest from the mine to the northeast shore of the
Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gulf o ...
, just north of the Riverside–Imperial county line. Ore shipments to the Fontana steel plant began in October, with five to eight 100-car trains running weekly. The mine's 100 millionth ton of iron ore shipped was commemorated in a ceremony on August 17, 1977.
Shutdown
Increased environmental concerns in the 1970s and stiff foreign competition led to a reduction in iron output and a drop in population to a low of 1980. In the summer of 1980, the mine shut down briefly, reopening on September 23. Only 750 workers were brought back to the town with an additional 150 (with uncertain employment futures) in
Indio Indio may refer to:
Places
* Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England
* Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States
People with the name
* Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson
* Índio ...
, some 60 miles (97 km) west.
On November 3, 1981, Kaiser Corporation announced the phasing out of half the Fontana works and the entire Eagle Mountain Mine operation over several years. The population dwindled as layoffs began. The grocery store closed in October 1982, and the post office, which had been active since 1951, closed in 1983.
In June of that year, the last official graduating class celebrated their commencement at Eagle Mountain High School, followed by the closing of both the mine and mill. The old high school is now the current site of Eagle Mountain Elementary School, which continues in operation (as of 2021).
The ZIP code was 92241 until Eagle Mountain shut down; mail is now sent to the nearby Desert Center at 92239. The community is within
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 ...
.
Resurgence
Eagle Mountain experienced a resurgence in 1986 when the
California Department of Corrections proposed placing a unique privately operated prison for low-risk inmates in the town. The shopping center was converted in 1988 into the
Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility, which operated until state budget problems and a fatal riot led to the closing of the prison in December 2003. Talks resumed in 2005 to reopen the prison facility.
1988 also saw a proposal to turn the gigantic 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) by half-mile-wide (800 m) open-pit mine into a massive, high-tech sanitary landfill. The landfill, to be operated by a partnership of two privately operated trash collection firms and the successor to Kaiser Steel, Kaiser Ventures, would ship trash by train from metropolitan Los Angeles area via the Eagle Mountain Railroad. A company subsidiary, Mine Reclamation Corp. of Palm Desert, is the landfill developer. Due to numerous lawsuits regarding the environmental effects of the landfill, the project was repeatedly delayed. The private partnership decided in late 1999 to terminate the project. Their share of the project was bought by Kaiser Ventures, making it the controlling owner of the project.
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the project in October 1992 after
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
approval of the project. In August 2000, Kaiser Ventures reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Sanitation District (LASD – a public entity comprising several public waste collection agencies), to purchase the landfill project as a replacement for the
Puente Hills Landfill
Puente Hills Landfill was the largest landfill in the United States, rising high and covering . Originally opened in 1957 in a back canyon in the Puente Hills, the landfill was made to meet the demands of urbanization and waste-disposal east ...
, which would be nearing the end of its useful life. Trash was to be shipped by rail from the Los Angeles area via the abandoned
Eagle Mountain Railroad
The Eagle Mountain Railroad (EMRR) was a private railroad in California, owned by the Kaiser Steel Corporation, and is owned today by Kaiser Steel's successor, Kaiser Ventures, Inc. of Ontario, California.
The EMRR is long and is located in Riv ...
line. The sale agreement states that all lawsuits and claims regarding the project were to be resolved. As of 2008, there was one lawsuit pending. Much has changed in the waste business since 2000. A reduction in waste generated because of recycling has reduced the urgency for the new landfill. In addition, the Los Angeles Sanitation District purchased another landfill site in
Imperial County
Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...
. In May 2013, the LASD discontinued plans to convert the Eagle Mountain mine into a landfill.
The Eagle Mountain mine is currently the location of a proposed 1300 MW
hydroelectric plant
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
by Eagle Crest Energy. The company agreed to buy the land from CIL&D (the new name of Kaiser Ventures) in July 2015. The Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Project would pump groundwater from the
Chuckwalla Valley
The Chuckwalla Valley is a large valley in eastern Riverside County, California, named for a large lizard, the chuckwalla found in the arid Southwestern United States deserts.
The region of the valley in southeast California, is the low elevat ...
aquifer into two reservoirs comprising former mining pits, where water would be pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir during low electricity demand and pumped back down through turbines during high electricity demand. In November 2016,
NextEra Energy
NextEra Energy, Inc. is an American energy company with about 58 GW of generating capacity (24 GW of which were from fossil fuel sources), revenues of over $18 billion in 2020, and about 14,900 employees throughout the US and Canada. It is the ...
announced their partnership with Eagle Crest in the project. The project is praised by supporters for the purpose of bringing more
renewable energy in California
California produces more renewable energy than any other state in the United States except Texas. In 2018, California ranked first in the nation as a producer of electricity from solar, geothermal, and biomass resources and fourth in the nation in ...
, while also being criticized by environmentalists for potential damages to plant and animal life in and around Joshua Tree National Park.
As of July 18, 2007, the town of Eagle Mountain is not openly accessible. The perimeters of both the town and mine have been fenced and gated, with a site manager appointed to handle access requests.
Schools
The
Desert Center Unified School District
Desert Center Unified School District is located in the eastern part of Riverside County in California. The district services the unincorporated areas of Eagle Mountain, Desert Center, Lake Tamarisk and Chiriaco Summit.
Schools Current Schoo ...
at one time operated four schools in the Eagle Mountain and Desert Center areas. Eagle Mountain Elementary School was located in the center of the town, Henry J. Kaiser Junior High School and Eagle Mountain High School were located on the east, and Desert Center Elementary School was located in Desert Center, 11 miles away. The class of 1983 was the last to graduate from Eagle Mountain High School. In 1983, the school district converted the high school into the Eagle Mountain Elementary School, in operation since 1983, educating students in the grades kindergarten through 8th grade.
The remaining three school sites were closed and boarded up. Local high school students are bused to Palo Verde High School in
Blythe, California
Blythe is a city in eastern Riverside County, California, United States. It is in the Palo Verde Valley of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River, approximatel ...
, making the 120-mile round trip every day. The remaining students in the school district are children of the few full-time residents of Desert Center and children of the employees of the two nearby
Metropolitan Water District
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a regional wholesaler and the largest supplier of treated water in the United States. The name is usually shortened to "Met," "Metropolitan," or "MWD." It is a cooperative of fourteen cit ...
pumping plants.
Media use
Film
A portion of the
Eagle Mountain Railroad
The Eagle Mountain Railroad (EMRR) was a private railroad in California, owned by the Kaiser Steel Corporation, and is owned today by Kaiser Steel's successor, Kaiser Ventures, Inc. of Ontario, California.
The EMRR is long and is located in Riv ...
was used in the filming of the 1986 movie ''
Tough Guys
''Tough Guys'' is a 1986 American action comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach, Charles Durning, Dana Carvey and Darlanne Fluegel. It is the eighth film of Touchstone Pictures, and the final ...
'' in a scene wherein a train is hijacked - pulled by a locomotive
Southern Pacific 4449
Southern Pacific 4449, also known as the Daylight, is the only surviving example of Southern Pacific Railroad's "GS-4" class of 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotives and one of only two GS-class locomotives surviving, the other being " GS-6" ...
- and run full throttle to the Mexican border. During the filming of the exterior shots of Southern Pacific 4449, the train was stored nightly at the Eagle Mountain rail yards. The local school children from Eagle Mountain School took a field trip in early 1986 to visit the train on the location of the shoot along the Eagle Mountain Railroad south of
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
.
Other films using Eagle Mountain locations include
![Eagle Mountain Kaiser Steel arches](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Eagle_Mountain_Kaiser_Steel_arches.jpg)
:* ''
The Professionals
A professional is someone who is skilled in a profession.
Professional or professionals may also refer to:
* Professional sports
Music
*The Professionals (band), a British punk rock band formed in 1979
* ''The Professionals'' (The Professionals ...
'' (1966)
:* ''
Impostor
An impostor (also spelled imposter) is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often through means of disguise. Their objective is usually to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but also often for purposes ...
'' (2001)
:* ''
Live from Baghdad
''Live from Baghdad'' is a non-fiction book published in 1992 by CNN producer Robert Wiener about his experiences before the Persian Gulf War, which lasted from August 1990 to February 1991.
It was filmed by Home Box Office
Home Box Office (H ...
'' (2002)
:* ''
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
'' (2003)
:* ''
The Island'' (2005)
:* ''
Unknown
Unknown or The Unknown may refer to:
Film
* The Unknown (1915 comedy film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film
* The Unknown (1915 drama film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film)
* The Unknown (1927 film), ''The Unknown'' (1 ...
'' (2006)
:* ''
Battle of Los Angeles
The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to a rumored attack on the continental United States by Imperial Japan and the subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which ...
'' (2011)
:* ''
Video Game High School
''Video Game High School'' (often abbreviated ''VGHS'') is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie ...
'' (2012)
:* ''
Tenet'' (2020)
Television
''
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 ...
'' has used Eagle Mountain at least 3 times. In season 2's third episode, "America's Strongest Pickup," Eagle Mountain was used for the final challenge including pulling down a house. And episode 8 "Hollywood Cars" racing a Subaru WRX against a motorcycle. The final challenge in the 13th episode of ''Top Gear USA'' third season was staged at Eagle Mountain. Entitled 'Doomsday Drive,' Eagle Mountain served as a stand-in for a post-apocalyptic setting.
See also
*
Desert Center, California
Desert Center is a census designated place in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California. It is in southern California, between the cities of Indio and Blythe at the junction of Interstate 10 and State Route 177, about halfway between Ph ...
*
List of ghost towns in California
This is an incomplete list of ghost towns on California sortable by town or county.
{{Lists of ghost towns by U.S. state
Calif
Ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Fil ...
*
Colorado Desert topics
References
External links
"From Boom to Bust to Boom to Bust: Eagle Mountain, CA."''Sometimes Interesting''. 08 Feb 2012
Classic and current photos of Eagle MountainEagle Mountain, Californiaprovides pictures, maps and historic information about Eagle Mountain Ghost Town.
*
{{authority control
Populated places in the Colorado Desert
Ghost towns in California
Former settlements in Riverside County, California
Communities in Riverside County, California
Mining in Riverside County, California
Desert Center, California
Henry J. Kaiser