Joe Walker Town is a former settlement in Kern County, California. It was located in the

Walker Basin Walker Basin is a valley in the Southern Sierra Nevada, in Kern County, California. It is named for Joseph R. Walker, a pioneer in the area. Geography Walker Basin is located south of Lake Isabella and the Kern River Valley, east of Bakersfield, ...

near Joe Walker Mine. The place was named after Joe Walker (as was the mine and basin). At least 100 single miners lived in the town, along with 12 families.Powers, Bob
High Country Communities
p. 35 (1999) The town largely existed to support operations at the Joe Walker Mine.

Joe Walker Mine

The Joe Walker gold mine was founded on 20 March 1866 by Hamp Williams, father of another Hamp Williams who discovered silver at

Randsburg Randsburg (formerly Rand Camp) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Randsburg is located south of Ridgecrest, at an elevation of . The population was 69 in the 2010 census, down from 77 in the 2000 census ...

. Williams sold the mine for $2,000 to investors who could properly equip it. A 20-stamp mill was hauled in from San Francisco. The mine quickly proved to be one of the most profitable in the area, netting $12,000 in six days and a total production over its lifetime of $600,000. However, the mine began to flood faster than it could be pumped out, despite a

Cornish engine A Cornish engine is a type of steam engine developed in Cornwall, England, mainly for pumping water from a mine. It is a form of beam engine that uses steam at a higher pressure than the earlier Watt steam engine, engines designed by James Wat ...

being shipped in from England.Eugene Burmeister
"Little mountain valley through the years...little has changed: Walker Basin"
''The Fence Post'', January 2013. After several changes of ownership and attempts to restart operations, ending with senator John P. Jones of Nevada in 1873, the mine was mothballed. It was acquired by the Phoebe Hearst estate in lieu of a debt but remained unused for sixty years. It was bought by Tom Duffin in 1939 and reopened in 1941. However, flooding remained a problem and the mine was again abandoned. The mine is now used as a reservoir of water to irrigate crops.

References

Former settlements in Kern County, California Former populated places in California {{KernCountyCA-geo-stub