The foundations of the Ashford Mill are set into the hillside, with the concrete walls of the office building to the left framing the desert beyond. Ore hauled down from the Golden Treasure Mine five miles to the east in Ashford Canyon was crushed at the mill. The Ashford brothers—Henry, Harold, and Louis—acquired the mine in 1907, alternately working it and leasing it to a series of companies. Each lessee defaulted on the agreement, returning the mine and any improvements to the brothers. The mill was abandoned the same year it was built. A 1915 edition of the Bishop Inyo Register called the ruins conspicuous monuments to disappointment, yielding far less than the investments made in them, a judgment that applied to many mining operations in Death Valley.