Skidoo was a Death Valley boomtown that flourished for nearly ten years. At its height in 1907, it had 700 residents, a newspaper, bank, school, and telephone service. Its hundreds of mines earned about $1,600,000 when gold sold at $20 per ounce, making it one of the most productive gold camps in California. It was first named "23 Skidoo," an early 20th-century slang term meaning "go away" or "take off," but the postal service refused to accept "23" as part of the name.