Skip to main content

Garlock Road and the Garlock ghost town

By


Garlock Road is located in the Mojave Desert of eastern Kern County in Fremont Valley.  The corridor originated in 1873 as part of the Searles Brothers stage road between Mojave and their Borax plant in Searles Valley.  The modern roadway is named for the Garlock ghost town which was a stamp mill community founded in 1896 to service ore from the Yellow Aster Mine.  Garlock Road begins at Redrock-Randsburg Road and terminates 8.3 miles to the east at US Route 395. 




Part 1; the history of Garlock Road

What is now modern day Garlock Road was part of the western Searles Brothers stage road.  Said roadway connected from the Searles Borax Plant at Searles Valley west to Mojave beginning in 1873.  The road utilized a passage through Fremont Valley wedged between the Rand Mountains and El Paso Mountains.  The western Searles Brothers stage road can be seen on the 1882 Bancroft's map of California. 


In 1896 Eugene Garlock constructed a stamp mill in Fremont Valley to crush gold ore from the Yellow Aster Mine in the Rand Mountains.  A small town would begin to develop around the Garlock property.  Garlock would lose much of the importance it had when the Kramer-Randsburg Railroad was completed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway circa 1898.  Despite Garlock being bypassed in favor of Randsburg it initially had Post Office service from 1896-1904.  

Rail service would come to Garlock in 1908-1909 when the Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a line from Owens Lake south to Mojave.  The Southern Pacific line passed through Fremont Valley and was directly accessible from Garlock. 

Garlock can be seen along Garlock Road and the Southern Pacific Railroad on the 1915 United States Geological Survey map of Searles Lake.  Garlock would begin to see a boom after receiving rail service which saw Post Office service resume circa 1923-1926.  Garlock has since declined to a ghost town with numerous ruins which can be found along Garlock Road.  




Part 2; a drive on Garlock Road

As southbound US Route 395 descends from the El Paso Mountains it intersects the westbound beginning of Garlock Road.  


Westbound Garlock Road flanks the railroad (now Union Pacific Railroad) and approaches the Garlock town site.  







The Garlock town site still contains the ruins of several homes and businesses.  A California Registered Historical Landmark details the early history of the community.  







Garlock Road west of Garlock reaches a terminus at Redrock-Randsburg Road.  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

By
After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...
4 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more