Purple C.
Lila C. (also known as Ryan or Old Ryan ) is an abandoned mining community in Inyo County , California . It was 10 km (6¼ miles) southwest of Death Valley Junction at an elevation of 781 m.
Pacific Coast Borax Company
The settlement was on the railway line between Death Valley Junction and the Lila C mine , where borates were mined for the Pacific Coast Borax Company . The mine and its settlement were named after Lila C. Coleman, the daughter of mine owner William Tell Coleman .
At a later date Francis Marion Smith acquired the property rights and began mining borax there in 1907 . Production began several months before the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad reached the mine, so that up to then twenty-mule teams, called nine-tonne mule carriages, made the last stretch to the railroad. At that time the settlement was renamed Ryan in recognition of John Ryan, the loyal overseer of "Borax" Smith.
Ryan's post office opened in 1907 and relocated to Devar at the end of the Death Valley Railroad in 1914, which was then also known as (New) Ryan. To avoid confusion, Lila C. was sometimes called Old Ryan afterwards .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Desert Fog: Ryan, Death Valley, California. Chapter 1.
- ↑ a b c d e f Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif .: Word Dancer Press. P. 1198. ISBN 1-884995-14-4 .
- ↑ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lila C, California.
- ↑ Hildebrand, GH. (1982) Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith. San Diego: Howell-North Books. ISBN 0-8310-7148-6
Web links
- Legends of America. Death Valley Ghost Towns: Lila C , Kathy Weiser, December, 2010.
Coordinates: 36 ° 14 ′ 36 ″ N , 116 ° 29 ′ 56 ″ W.