Inyo County Points of Interest
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Adobe Ruin
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Adobe Ruin with Modern Additions
(Note the pressure treated posts)
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Adobe Ruin with Modern Additions
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Ballarat General Store
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Poster in Ballarat General Store
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Boot Hill
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Boot Hill
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Boot Hill
"God Bless These Children"
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Boot Hill
All Photos 20 February 2007
(Click Photos to Zoom)
Ballarat Road
Mojave Desert Near Death Valley
Founded 1897
Ballarat was born in eighteen ninety seven following the discovery of the Radcliff Mine in Pleasant Canyon. Its namesake was the famous gold city in Victoria Australia. It was never a very large town. It served Panamint Valley and Death Valley as a miners supply and recreation center. Ballarat's colorful life ebbed with the closing of the post office in 1917
The prospector, Seldom Seen Slim, is buried in Ballarat.
In the 1960s, Charles Manson and the "Manson Family" of killers moved into a ranch south of Ballarat, and left graffiti in the town.
The 1969 movie Easy Rider has a scene filmed in Ballarat. 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.