Swansea is a former settlement and

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is located south of New York Butte, at an elevation of . Swansea was a boomtown located on the eastern shore of

Owens Lake Owens Lake is a dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about south of Lone Pine. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, ...

. Spawned by the success of the silver mining operations in the nearby

Cerro Gordo Mines The Cerro Gordo Mines are a collection of abandoned mines located in Cerro Gordo in the Inyo Mountains, Inyo County, near Lone Pine, California. Mining operations spanned 1866 to 1957, producing high grade silver, lead, and zinc ore; and, mo ...

in the late 1860s, Swansea became a hub for smelting the ore and transporting the resulting ingots to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, over 200 miles away. The smelter operated from 1869 to 1874. Swansea was named after the town

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

in south

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, which was known as "Copperopolis" due to its large smelting industry from which many experienced extractive metallurgists

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The

1872 Lone Pine earthquake The 1872 Owens Valley earthquake – also known as the Lone Pine earthquake – struck on March 26 at in the Owens Valley (California, along the east side of the Sierra Nevada), with the epicenter near the town of Lone Pine. Its magnitude has ...

damaged the smelters and uplifted the shoreline, rendering the Swansea pier inaccessible by Owens Lake steamships. As a result, most of the smelting and transportation business moved to Keeler, approximately one mile to the south. In the summer of 1874, a thunderstorm-induced debris flow inundated Swansea under several feet of water, rock, and sand.Likes, Robert C., "From This Mountain", 1975, Sierra Media Inc. By then the town had been almost deserted, and the debris flow marked the end of Swansea. As of 2007, only one building and a smelter foundation remained alongside California Route 136 (about 10 miles southeast of Lone Pine). The community is now a ghost town.

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* Ghost towns in Inyo County, California Mining communities in California Former settlements in Inyo County, California Populated places in the Mojave Desert Unincorporated communities in California Populated places established in 1869 1869 establishments in California {{California-ghost-town-stub

See also

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