Ballarat
3½ Miles

Now a ghost town, Ballarat served nearby mining camps from 1897 to 1917. They produced nearly a million in gold. The jail & a few adobe ruins remain. Seldom Seen Slim, it's [sic] last resident, was buried in Boothill in 1968. It had a school but no church.

Post Office Spring ¼-mi south is where the Brier Party, some Jay Hawkers & other 49ers came in their escape from Death Valley in Jan. 1850.

On Sunday morn at 3am, March 22, 1908, a car in the Worlds Longest Race, a Thomas Flyer, arrived in Ballarat. It won the New York to Paris race, covering 13,341 miles in 169 days. The car is now in Harrah's Museum in Reno.

Erected 3-92 by Death Valley Escape Trail Conf. Trona Chapter

Ballarat

3½ miles east of this point lies Ballarat. Established in 1897 as a mining camp and supply center for the gold and silver mines located on the western slope of the Panamint Mountains. It was named after a well-known gold producing area in Australia. Boasting a population of nearly 500, it had a Wells Fargo Station, post office, school, jail, morgue, 3 hotels and 7 saloons. When the Ratcliff Mine suspended operations in 1905, Ballarat began to rapidly decline. After the post office closed in September of 1917 Ballarat became a ghost town.

Dedicated October 13, 2001 By
Death Valley '49ers, Inc.
And
Slim Princess Chapter 395 and Billy Holcomb Chapter 1069
E Clampus Vitus