Chloride California!

The finding of Silver-Lead ore in 1871 by August Franklin started the town site of Chloride. This was all around the same time as the Bullfrog boom , the town had a blacksmith shop , an assay office , a cookhouse , a bunkhouse , and the mine superintendent house. By Nov 1905 three compamies were formed ; The Bullfrog Cliff Mining Company , The Death Valley Mining Company and Franklin Chloride Cliff Company from 1872 .

One of the first roads through Death Valley was from Chloride to San Bernardino which was the nearest town 180 miles away . In 1870 Franklin hauled his ore by pack mule train which would return carrying supplies to the camp .

The owner of this mine shack didn't want anyone to get into the mine without knowing about it. You have to go out his back door to reach the mine opening.

Here is a photo looking out the back door.

About thirty yards south of the mine shack was a single grave marked James McKay. There does not seem to be any history on him, that I can find.

From the size of the remains I would say that this could have been the superintendents house or maybe the bunkhouse.

Here was a lot smaller shack, they even left there desert classic car setting out side.

Here is the mill site right off the main road. The tank was installed in 1935 by the Coen Corporation to supply water for the Big Belle Mine which is located below Chloride City. A diesel engine was used to pump the water up to the vicinity of Chloride Cliff where gravity took over to send the water the remaining way to the mine.