Shooting Affray At Panamint City 1875

From what I've been told, the Panamint City silver mine claim took place in late 1872. But for some reason, the town of Panamint City didn't get going for another year. As most of us know, reading about the way such things worked back in the day, once the word leaked out that gold or silver, or even copper, was discovered, a rush took place to get in on the early findings. And no, I can't find out exactly why, once silver was discovered that a boom didn't take place in this instance. 

Of course, there are a couple of stories about how silver was discovered by three prospectors, William L. Kennedy, Robert P. Stewart, and Richard C. Jacobs, and how an outlaw gang kept them from filing their claims for months. One story goes, the outlaw gang followed the three men for months whenever any of the outlaws saw any of the three return to work their claim. The men were so busy evading being followed that they didn't work their claim. Another story says that the outlaws overheard the three miners talking about their big strike and followed them to their claim. Once there, the outlaws demanded to be partners, and they all became rich. 

I don't know if I believe either tale. But the latter of the three miners was forced into a partnership with the outlaws sounds a little too tall a tale to believe. After all, claim-jumpers didn't share their victims' wealth once they had it. They normally showed them the door or buried them in some shallow grave.

As for the area taking off and the town being founded between 1873 and 1874, most sources note how a prominent mining investor, although some say he was a "sidewalk barker," by the name of E.P. Raines convinced Los Angeles businessmen to build a wagon road to a suitable staging site for supplies. Soon afterwards, Nevada Senators John P. Jones and William M. Stewart created the Panamint Mining Company with $2,000,000 of capital. Jones and Stewart then arranged for the importation of hundreds Chinese laborers. It was their interest in Panamint that started the boom. From their efforts, the town of Panamint City grew to a population of about 3,000 people of the usual sorts that flocked to boom towns. 

The town is located in the Panamint Range, near Death Valley, in Inyo County, California, about three miles northwest of Sentinel Peak. The town included stamp mills, saloons, stores, a very unhealthy red light district, and a cemetery. 

On April 20, 1875, the Daily Alta California newspaper reported the following story: 

Shooting Affray At Panamint City

On Friday evening last, at Panamint City, two men, named James Bruce and Robert McKinley, got into a dispute about the ownership of a gun, and finally hard words passed between them. Both men attacked each other, and the latter, drawing a pistol, fired at his opponent. The ball took effect in the left arm above the wrist, shattering the bone. 

Bruce on being shot fell to the ground, and McKinley fired three or four times more, hitting the prostrate man with one of the bullets in the back. Bruce succeeded in getting on his feet, and drawing a revolver, he fired six shots at his opponent in rapid succession, nearly all of which took effect. 

McKinley ran a short distance, when he fell, and is undoubtedly mortally wounded. Bruce walked to his house, but soon became unable to move and complained a great deal of the wound in his back. 

The stage left before any further facts could be obtained.

-- end of the newspaper report. 

While fistfights were the common way of settling problems in saloons and in gambling halls in the Old West, and someone pulling a knife on someone came in second, shootouts did take place. And as for shootouts, when we look at records, one of the things that may surprise folks is that shootouts taking place in saloons and gambling halls accounted for where most shootouts typically took place in the Old West. Not in the street with two men facing each other like in the movies, but in the places where booze and tempers came into play on a regular basis.

Panamint City is said to have had its share of bushwhackers and killers who would jump a miner and kill him on the trail, then roll their victim's body into a ravine. That, and knowing that was going on in the saloons, gambling, and the red light district, Panamint City was regarded as a "Bad and Wicked Town" because of its lawless reputation. Yes indeed, they were like a lot of other mining boomtowns. 

As for the town, luck ran out for Panamint City when, on July 24, 1876, a flash flood washed out most of the town. After that, the big money pulled out to save themselves. When their bosses pulled out, the Chinese laborers who were brought in by Jones and Stewart were abandoned to fend for themselves. They like the miners started leaving, and once that happened, it was just a matter of time for the town closed up shop.

Some say some of the Chinese laborers headed to Los Angeles, while most of the miners headed East over the Panamint Range into Death Valley, where Borax claims were discovered. Others say the miners did what miners did back in the day and simply drifted away, still searching for that elusive strike that would make them rich. 

As for Panamint City, the town died out completely by the 1890s. And today, well, Panamint City is just a ghost town that sits on BLM land. 

Tom Correa

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Much of Panamint City and Surprise Canyon were added to Death Valley National Park in 1994, with the exception of the land, buildings, and road that are still private property. Surprise Canyon Road and Panamint City are in a non-wilderness "cherry stem" created by an act of Congress, surrounded by Surprise Canyon Wilderness and Death Valley National Park. A "cherry stem" means that these areas were specifically excluded from wilderness because they did not meet the wilderness criteria. The cherry stem of Surprise Canyon Road and Panamint City was created by Congress to insure future public access to this historic town, and private property in the area. In May 2001 the BLM erected a gate to block vehicular access road. Today, Panamint City is accessible only by a 7.5 mile hike, strenuous for even experienced hikers.