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