Most of the restored and newly built buildings are made of wood with a simple, rustic architecture and a severely weathered appearance. Original mining crew at the Silver King Mine.Ĭalico has been restored to the look of the silver rush era when it flourished, although many original buildings were removed and replaced instead with gingerbread architecture and false façades that tourists would expect to see in a Western-themed town. If they could build an imaginary ghost town at Knott’s Berry Farm, would it not be possible to restore a real ghost town? In 1951, Walter Knott purchased the town of Calico from the Zenda Mining Company and put Paul von Klieben in charge of restoring it to its original condition, referencing old photographs. The three of them came back filled with enthusiasm. After building Ghost Town at Knott’s Berry Farm in the 1940s, Walter Knott, his son, Russell, and Paul von Klieben, who was Knott's art director, made a road trip to Calico. The last owner of Calico as a mine was Zenda Mining Company. Walter Knott and his wife Cordelia, founders of Knott's Berry Farm, were homesteaded at Newberry Springs around this time, and Knott helped build the redwood cyanide tanks for the plant. Īn attempt to revive the town was made in about 1915, when a cyanide plant was built to recover silver from the unprocessed Silver King Mine's deposits. Many of the original buildings were moved to Barstow, Daggett and Yermo. By the turn of the century, Calico was all but a ghost town, and with the end of borax mining in the region in 1907 the town was completely abandoned. The post office was discontinued in 1898, and the school closed not long after. By 1896, its value had decreased to $0.57 per troy ounce, and Calico's silver mines were no longer economically viable. In the same year, the Silver Purchase Act was enacted and drove down the price of silver. The discovery of the borate mineral colemanite in the Calico mountains a few years after the settlement of the town also helped Calico's fortunes, and in 1890 the estimated population of the town was 3,500, with nationals of China, England, Ireland, Greece, France, and the Netherlands, as well as Americans living there. Local badmen were buried in the Boot Hill cemetery. At its height of silver production during 18, Calico had over 500 mines and a population of 1,200 people. There was also a Wells Fargo office and a telephone and telegraph service. The town also had a deputy sheriff and two constables, two lawyers and a justice of the peace, five commissioners, and two doctors. The county established a school district and a voting precinct. The town soon supported three hotels, five general stores, a meat market, bars, brothels, and three restaurants and boarding houses. A post office at Calico was established in early 1882, and the Calico Print, a weekly newspaper, started publishing. King was sheriff of San Bernardino County from 1879 to 1882. King, who had grubstaked the prospectors who discovered the silver vein (the Silver King Mine was thus named after him), was the uncle of Walter Knott founder of Knott's Berry Farm. ![]() The four prospectors discovered silver in the mountain and opened the Silver King Mine, which was California's largest silver producer in the mid-1880s. After they described the peak as "calico-colored", the peak, the mountain range to which it belonged, and the town that followed were all called Calico. In 1881, four prospectors were leaving Grapevine Station (present day Barstow, California) for a mountain peak to the northeast.
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