Keane Wonder Mine, Park Route 4 (Daylight Pass Cutoff), Death Valley Junction, Inyo County, CA

Significance: After fifty years of tenacious but comparatively unprofitable gold mining activities in Death Valley, the Keane Wonder strike in 1904 became the heart of Death Valley's most prosperous two decades of gold mining. One of Keane Wonder Mine's most impressive and intact technological features is the aerial tramway, which is the most intact original feature of the mine and sets Keane Wonder apart as a unique historic mining site in the region today, just as it did when it began operating in 1907. Although aerial tramways have been a fairly common, well-established, and necessary part of mining operations throughout the world, the scale of the Keane Wonder tramway made it unique in the Death Valley region. It remains as one of the few places in the Mojave Desert where an intact aerial tramway of this vintage can be seen.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N995

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1335

Survey number: HAER CA-291

Building/structure dates: 1904 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1906-1907 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1908 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1937 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1941-1942 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1983 Subsequent Work

aerial tramways gold mining gold mines mining ruins pipes conduits adits wooden buildings mills privies vats water tanks california keane wonder mine keane wonder mine park route daylight pass cutoff daylight pass cutoff death junction death valley junction inyo inyo county horace albright gianfranco archimede pete brooks jim butler john f campbell justine christianson cohen company hartwig cohen e l cord ed cross todd croteau johnny cyty death valley national park jack delamar j r elgan domingo etcharren roland flores shorty harris historic american engineering record george ishmael amy b james keane wonder mining company jack keane w d leonard leschen brothers company dana lockett stephen mather michigan technological university industrial archeology program bob montgomery national park service kristen o connell richard o connor lucien patrick george schriber charles schwab mike sullivan title insurance company e h wedekind homer wilson photo ultra high resolution high resolution old pictures tramway tram transportation mining industry library of congress

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

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