History
The town was founded in 1897.[2] In its heyday—from 1897 to 1905—Ballarat had 400 to 500 residents. It hosted seven saloons, three hotels, a Wells Fargo station, post office (that opened in 1897),[2] school, a jail and morgue, but no churches. Ballarat was a place for miners and prospectors to resupply and relax. The town began to decline when the Ratcliff Mine, in Pleasant Canyon east of town, suspended operations. Other mines nearby also began to play out, and in 1917 the post office closed[2] and all that remained were a few diehard prospectors and desert rats. In the 1960s, Charles Manson and the "Manson Family" of killers moved into a ranch south of Ballarat, and left graffiti in the town. After arriving in the town, Peter Fonda's character, Wyatt, removes his Rolex watch and throws it away before he and Dennis Hopper's character, Billy, head east on their motorcycles towards New Orleans. On Easter weekend, 1971, about two thousand people attended a "hippy" celebration at Ballarat. About two hundred contracted hepatitis (A) from contaminated drinking water. [3]
Today
Today, Ballarat has one full-time resident (Chuck), and one part time resident (Louie), who live in the town. Chuck runs the general store on afternoons and weekends to supply tourists. Louie works on repairing the water pipes that supply the town. Ballarat is used as a meeting point for four-wheel-drive expeditions into the Panamint Range and Death Valley, and in winter up to 300 people camp in the grounds of the town. The town was recently used as a set to tell the story of the Ballarat Bandit. Ballarat was featured in an episode of Top Gear USA and the movie Obselidia. The town has a ZIP Code of 93592, and is inside area codes 442 and 760. Ballarat in fiction
Ballarat has featured in Western fiction including Hellbound for Ballarat (1970) by Nelson C. Nye and Bounty Hunt at Ballarat (1973) by Clayton Matthews. A scene from the movie: Terminal Velocity, with Charley Sheen was filmed there. You can see Telescope Peak in the background. https://youtu.be/1EBb1Dcd0GM
References
"Ballarat". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved May 24, 2015. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 1145. ISBN 1-884995-14-4. "Death Valley Gets Hippie Rock Mob". The Desert Sun. USA Today. 5 April 1971. p. 3. Todiwala, Mickey. "The Mayor of Ballarat". Vimeo. External Links
GhostTowns.com: Ballarat
Desertusa.com: Ballarat
Digital-Desert: Ballarat
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