Keane Wonder Mine

Discovered by Jack Keane and Domingo Etcharren in 1904, the Keane Wonder Mine earned the nickname “King of the Desert” in 1911 and produced over a million dollars in gold from 1904 to 1917, sharing with the mines in Skidoo and Rhyolite the distinction of being profitable. Gold from the mine returned as coins to pay its employees. After Keane and Etcharren sold their interest in 1907, later owners developed a 20-stamp processing mill, housing, an ice plant, and a mile-long aerial tramway. Moving ore down the mountain by tram and tunneling horizontally into the mountain rather than sinking shafts helped the operation maintain a good profit margin, and unlike most Death Valley mines, it lived up to the name “King of the Desert.”

California · United States