Posted by Lewis Shorb on January 28, 1999 at 19:23:43:
In Reply to: Clair Camp, California posted by Cary L. Nickel on January 28, 1999 at 01:33:27:
: Last April I visited a site known\r\nas Clair Camp, just up Pleasant Canyon from Ballarat, CA. On the edge of Death Valley. I am hoping someone will have some history of the site.\r\n\r\nThank You!
Hi Cary,
I am in the process of adding pictures of Clair Camp to my site, And I have been reading the book "Death Valley & the Amargosa" that this site was originally the Ratcliff mine dating back to about 1897, the adobe building there dates from that period, the site featured a 10 stamp mill and a tramway. The site was picked up by W. D. Clair in the late 1920's and was run into the 30's. Aparently he had skirmishes with 2 gun toting sisters, Orpha & Mary Thompson who held nearly all the claims in Pleasant Canyon and tried to run him out. Now to the story of "Shotgun Mary",
A few years ago we hiked up to Panamint City, but we first stopped at Ballarat to talk to Don, the former caretaker "the official Mayor, sheriff, and city counsel" of Ballarat and he told us about a little old lady who lived at high up at the end of Suprise Canyon at Thompson Camp called "Shotgun Mary". He said Mary would greet travelers with her shotgun and ask what you are doing here?, where did you come from?, did you come here to steal from me?, or did you come here to rape me?, Don said she was quite a character. Today if you go to Panamint City, continue to the end of the canyon and there in the trees and brush you will find Thompson Camp.
Thus in reading about Clair Camp I finally found out who "Shotgun Mary" was.
We were last up Pleasent Canyon Nov. 97, and the road was fine, since then the road has suffered a washout, were you there before or after the washout? if after, what was the road like?
Lewis