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east side of the Valley, the old gold rush town didn’t seem to stir. But I could see severalstructures and the glint from what I presumed were windows.

I left the highway and took the dirt road running out across a long causeway to reach the place. At the moment it seemed a popular hangout, with a dozen or so 4WD vehicles and a

couple sedans camped out in the open sage beyond the graveyard.

This spot was well known by local Indians because of fresh water at a spring nearby, and used by the ill-fated Jayhawker Party of Argonauts in 1850. In the 1890s a mining camp wasestablished at the springs, now named Post Office Spring. This was the original site of Ballarat. The camp quickly outgrew the area and was relocated to the more suitable landabout a quarter-mile to the north.

Ballarat, once a shipping point for the busy gold mines up Surprise Canyon, is now indeed aghost town. The graveyard may be the best-preserved part of the place. Seldom-Seen Slimand Jim Sherlock, miners both, are buried here, along with others now lost to history. Slim’s

grave marker reads: "Me lonely? Hell no! I'm half coyote and half wild burro." Slim walkedto Ballarat in 1917 and lived there until he died in 1968.

In the 1960s, a plan was initiated to bring new life to the town of Ballarat. A corner of thetown site was sectioned off as a residential mobile home and trailer park and electrical hook-ups were installed. The one new building in the place – a general store of sorts – is a remnantof that endeavor. But the venture was a dismal failure and Ballarat sank back to its ghost townstatus.

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The Ballarat Jail 

A few of the original adobe buildings can still be seen, though little remains of them. Anincongruously new-looking wooden structure turns out to be what’s left of the set of the 1986

movie THE DANGER ZONE . The original set consisted of three wood-framed, Wild West buildings and a "whipping post". One building and the post still stand.

Two other movies feature Ballarat, sorta. In TERMINAL VELOCITY (1994), several Cadillacswere dropped from a cargo plane flying above the dry lake in front of Ballarat . . . but thescene supposedly takes place in Arizona. And in the beginning of 1969’s classic  EASY 

 RIDER, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper ride their Harley hogs into Ballarat. They look atFonda's watch one last time, then Fonda tosses it on the ground and the two head off acrossPanamint Dry Lake in their cinematic quest to see America.

A small wood and adobe shack, relatively unscathed, used to be the town jail. The Ballarat

Jail was built in 1899, at a cost of $336.50. This structure served as both the town lock-up andmorgue. The first person to utilize the building as a morgue was an engineer named "Ibbings".This unfortunate first-timer from Lone Pine reportedly died after eating a can of spoiledtomatoes.

On one visit to Ballarat, I discover the former jail occupied by a couple care-taking the site.They both appear to be on the shady side of 60. They say they used to live over in the area of 

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China Lake where they ran a small garage. The shack is maybe 10’ x 14’, with a leaky tin roof and coffee cans strung together to form a stovepipe.

“Does the old fellow who runs the onyx mine still live over there,” I ask, pointing across thePanamint Valley.

She: “Fletcher? Yep, he’s still there.”

Me: “Then I’m going over to see him tomorrow. I was here a year ago, and I want to see howhe’s doing. He was still pretty shaken when I saw him last.”

She: “Y’know, you’re the second person to tell me his wife died….”

He: “We don’t like to pry around here. What’s going on with people, that’s their business.”

She: “…but I’ve talked to him, and he talks as if his wife’s still right there in the house…”

He: “You know, he’s got quite an operation going over there. They got several peopleworking.”

She: “…but I just don’t know if she’s died or not.”

Abruptly turning to his wife, he says, “You get that damn feller taken care of? Got his tire?”

Turns out some guy left Ballarat a little earlier, driving out in a rented car with a flat tire. Hadno spare, so he planned to drive the 30 miles or so to Trona on the rim. The caretaker told hiswife (“The Boss”) to fire up their battered pickup and go after him to give him a lift intotown. She caught up with him on the other side of the causeway across the playa.

She: “I asked him why he didn’t get help here,” with a wave taking in the half dozen RVs andJeeps parked in the area. “You know what he told me? He said where he comes from hewouldn’t think of stopping to ask for help, because nobody would help him, and he’d probably get robbed if he stopped.”

Me: “Gawd, where’s he come from that’s so bad?”

She: “San Jose.”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. I understand why they live in Ballarat, Pop. 2.

* * * *

One old adobe building, now nearly demolished by the elements and vandals, was used as anassay office operated by Fred Grey in the first part of the last century. A few years ago, onecould make out the word "HELTER" inscribed on one of the interior walls, a reminder of theinfamous Charles Manson's presence in Ballarat in the late 1960s.

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Charles Manson and his “family” lived up Goler Wash in the old Barker Ranch, less than adozen miles from here. On the evening of October 12, 1969, Manson and eight others werecaptured during a law enforcement raid of the ranch. They were arrested on suspicion of vandalizing some county road equipment and were transported to the Inyo County Jail inIndependence. It wasn’t until later that officials connected Manson and some of his followers

to the ghastly murders of actress Sharon Tate, Rosemary La Bianca, and six others in the hillsabove Los Angeles.

In the raid at the ranch, Manson was discovered hiding in a small cupboard beneath the sink in the bathroom. Although he managed to curl up inside the cupboard, he closed his hair in thecupboard door -- revealing his location to a California Highway Patrol officer.

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