Ryan Ryan Camp | |
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View of Ryan, California from Death Valley National Park, at the junction of Furnace Creek Road and Ryan Road | |
Coordinates: 36°19′23″N116°40′17″W / 36.32306°N 116.67139°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
County | Inyo County |
Elevation | 3,045 ft (928 m) |
Ryan (also known as Ryan Camp) [2] [3] is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California [1] that is now privately owned and stewarded by the Death Valley Conservancy. [3] A former mining community, company town, and seasonal hotel, it is now under careful restoration and preservation. [3] Ryan is situated at an elevation of 3,045 feet (928 m) in the Amargosa Range, and is 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Dante's View and 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Furnace Creek. The Ryan Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025. [4] [5]
The mining community of Lila C was constructed in 1907 near the Lila C mine, which produced colemanite for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The town was named by its owner William Tell Coleman, after his daughter, Lila C. Coleman. Soon after its completion, the community of Lila C became known as "Ryan", in honor of John Ryan (1849–1918), who was General Manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and a trusted employee of "Borax" Smith until his death in 1918. [6] [7] The Ryan post office was opened at Lila C in 1907.
When a new mining camp was first constructed 11 miles (18 km) to the northwest of Lila C in 1914, the new settlement was named Devar (misspelled as Devair on a 1930 topographic map) an acronym for DEath VAlley Railroad. [8] The name was later changed to Ryan in honor of John Ryan and the old camp at the Lila C. The new camp is currently known as Ryan, CA or Ryan Camp. [2] [3]
Ryan was the western terminus for the Death Valley Railroad, the eastern terminus of which was located at Death Valley Junction near the borax works of the Pacific Coast Borax Company in the early 20th century.
According to the Death Valley Conservancy, "Ryan was a luxurious mining camp by any standards of the day – with electricity, steam heat and refrigeration it also boasted a school, a hospital, post office, recreation hall/church (shipped down in sections from Rhyolite) and a general store." [9] [10]
After borax production had stopped in 1928, in an effort to increase revenues on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad which had carried the borax ore, Pacific Coast Borax converted the miners' lodgings into tourist accommodations and gave tourists visiting Death Valley trips on the narrow gauge rail line into the mine. [7] The Death Valley View Hotel operated full-time from 1927 until 1930, the year the Death Valley Railroad ceased to function. After 1930 the hotel was used as overflow accommodations for the Furnace Creek Ranch and Inn through the 1950s. [11] [3]
The Death Valley Conservancy is the current caretaker of Ryan Camp. [12] The donation of Ryan Camp to the Death Valley Conservancy was completed by Rio Tinto Borax Corporation on May 6, 2013. The Death Valley Conservancy is a nonprofit charity led by the former Rio Tinto Chief Executive of Energy & Minerals, Preston Chiaro, as the DVC's president. [13]
The Ryan Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025. [5] The historic district includes Ryan, remnants of the Death Valley Railroad and the Baby Gauge Railroad, the Upper and Lower Biddy mine complexes, road, and trails.
The district was recognized as significant under National Register Criterion A due to its connections to the early 20th-century borax mining industry in Death Valley, the rise of Death Valley tourism, 1950s film, and Cold War-era civil defense programs. Additionally, it qualified under Criterion C for its distinctive yet unified representation of early 20th-century Pacific Coast Borax corporate vernacular-style architecture and innovative engineering. Lastly, it met Criterion D for archaeology. [4]
While Ryan is closed to the general public for safety and historic preservation reasons, the Death Valley Conservancy offers occasional public tours. Tour participants can be selected by signing up on the Death Valley Conservancy's Ryan Tours webpage. [14]
This area has a large amount of sunshine year round due to its stable descending air and high pressure. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Ryan has a desert climate, abbreviated "Bwh" on climate maps. [15]
Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley.
Boron is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Boron is 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Red Rock Mountain at an elevation of 2,467 feet (752 m). The population was 2,086 at the 2020 census, up from 2,025 at the 2000 census. Boron is named after the element boron and is the site of the world's largest source of the boron compound boric acid.
Death Valley Days is an American Western anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. From 1952 to 1970, it became a syndicated television series, with reruns continuing through August 1, 1975. The radio and television versions combined to make the show "one of the longest-running Western programs in broadcast history."
Daggett is an unincorporated town located in San Bernardino County, California, in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40, ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow, at an elevation of approximately 2,000 feet (610 m). The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92327 and the community is inside area code 760.
Twenty-mule teams were teams of eighteen mules and two horses attached to large wagons that transported borax out of Death Valley from 1883 to 1898. They traveled from mines across the Mojave Desert to the nearest railroad spur, 165 miles (266 km) away in Mojave. The routes were from the Harmony and Amargosa Borax Works to Daggett, California, and later Mojave, California. After Harmony and Amargosa shut down in 1888, the mule team's route was moved to the mines at Borate, 3 miles (5 km) east of Calico, back to Daggett. There they worked from 1891 until 1898 when they were replaced by the Borate and Daggett Railroad.
Death Valley Junction, more commonly known as Amargosa, is a tiny Mojave Desert unincorporated community in Inyo County, California, at the intersection of SR 190 and SR 127, in the Amargosa Valley and just east of Death Valley National Park. The zip code is 92328, the elevation is 2,041 ft (622 m), and the population is fewer than four people.
The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern California and southwestern Nevada.
Francis Marion Smith was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California. He was known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King", as his company produced the popular 20-Mule-Team Borax brand of household cleaner.
The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King".
The Death Valley Railroad (DVRR) was a 3 ft narrow-gauge railroad that operated in California's Death Valley to carry borax with the route running from Ryan, California, and the mines at Lila C, both located just east of Death Valley National Park, to Death Valley Junction, a distance of approximately 20 miles (32 km).
The Black Mountains are a mountain range located in the southern part of Inyo County and northern San Bernardino County, California, in the southeast part of Death Valley National Park.
The United States Potash Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad built in 1931 to carry potash from the mines to the mill at Loving, New Mexico where the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad had a spur that went out to the refinery to carry out the processed potash. The 16-mile (26 km) railroad was located at Loving, New Mexico, just east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA, and Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
The Borate and Daggett Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad built to carry borax in the Mojave Desert. The railroad ran about 11 miles (18 km) from Daggett, California, US, to the mining camp of Borate, three miles (4.8 km) to the east of Calico.
Ludlow is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert on Interstate 40, located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The older remains of the ghost town are along historic Route 66.
The Oasis at Death Valley, formerly called Furnace Creek Inn and Ranch Resort, is a luxury resort in Furnace Creek, on private land within the boundaries of California's Death Valley National Park. It is owned and operated by Xanterra Travel Collection.
The Harmony Borax Works is located in Death Valley at Furnace Creek Springs, then called Greenland. It is now located within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, California. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lila C is a former settlement in Inyo County, California. It was located 6.25 miles (10 km) southwest of Death Valley Junction, at an elevation of 2562 feet.
Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building and cultural center located in Death Valley Junction, in eastern Inyo County, California near Death Valley National Park.
Richard C. Baker was the British business partner of Francis Marion "Borax" Smith and eventually became president of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
The Rio Tinto Boron Mine in Boron, California is California's largest open-pit mine and the largest borax mine in the world, producing nearly half the world's borates. Ore reserves are sufficient for current economic production through early 2040's. It is operated by the Borax division of the Rio Tinto Group.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link)After the mines closed in October 1927, the visitors had a second option of staying in the Death Valley View Hotel in remodeled rooms at Ryan, which was renamed Devar (later, Devair).
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