Abandoned Towns
Trailers, sheds and a white dome house of Darwin scattered across sagebrush between two bare hills

Silver mining town · Other mining and oil town

Darwin

A silver and lead camp of 1874 that a new highway bypassed in 1937. About 30 people still live here, and they'd like you to know it isn't a ghost town.

36°16′08″N 117°35′20″W · ≈4,810 ft

Photo: Thomas Farley, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Living community

Darwin has about 30 residents, and signs around town read "People live here." The houses are private. There are no stores or gas, so come supplied and keep to the public roads.

Overview

The town a highway left behind

The Darwin monument where Darwin Road leaves CA 190
The Darwin monument where Darwin Road leaves CA 190 · Photo: Thomas Farley, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Silver and lead strikes in 1874 started a camp at the foot of the Darwin Hills, about 22 miles southeast of Keeler. It was named for Darwin French, a rancher and explorer who had led a party into Death Valley in 1860. A post office opened in 1875. The town passed 1,000 people in 1876.

Darwin had a second life after the Eichbaum Toll Road opened in 1926, carrying traffic toward Death Valley. In 1937 a new highway cutoff bypassed the town, and it has been isolated since. The census counted 54 people in 2000, 43 in 2010 and 36 in 2020.

The people who stay don't like the ghost-town label. In 2026 residents told SFGATE they need younger neighbors who can do physical work. About five volunteers run the water system, the town has moved from dial-up internet to Starlink, and the post office that opened in 1875 is still working.

Timeline

Boom, bypass and holding on

The Darwin Hills from a small mine along Darwin Road
The Darwin Hills from a small mine along Darwin Road · Photo: InyoCima, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
  1. Silver and lead finds bring a settlement into being. It takes the name of Darwin French, a rancher, miner and explorer who led a party into Death Valley in 1860.
  2. A post office opens.
  3. The population passes 1,000.
  4. The post office closes for a time.
  5. The Eichbaum Toll Road opens, and Darwin prospers from the traffic.
  6. A new highway cutoff to Death Valley bypasses Darwin and isolates it.
  7. Darwin is the subject of a documentary film, Darwin.
  8. BBC News reports that residents want broadband to replace their dial-up internet.
  9. The census counts 36 residents, with a median age of 61.5.
  10. Residents post signs saying "People live here" and ask for younger people to move in. The post office is still open.

What's left

What you'll see

Driving into Darwin
Driving into Darwin · Photo: Thomas Farley, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Darwin Road approaching town
Darwin Road approaching town · Photo: Thomas Farley, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Darwin is a scatter of houses, sheds and trailers on a slope, many of them built by their owners. An undated listing names rough shacks and the site of the Defiance smelter with rusted machinery, and says many Do Not Enter signs block the roads to the older buildings just east of town. Small mines and their dumps sit along Darwin Road. Everything here belongs to someone, so look from the road.

The old USGS sheets in the next section show the change. On the 1913 sheet Darwin is a dot where the roads meet below Ophir Mountain. The 1950 sheet shows the town's streets, a cemetery and an airstrip, the Darwin Mines camp and its hospital to the northwest, and mine workings scattered across the Darwin Hills to the east and southeast.

  • Old houses and shacks
  • Defiance smelter site
  • Small mines along Darwin Road
  • Post office (open)
USGS topographic map of Darwin and the surrounding hills
USGS The National Map, topo. The townsite at the end of Darwin Road.
Aerial view of Darwin's scattered buildings on desert ground
Aerial imagery, same area. Houses spread loosely across the slope.

Historic maps

Darwin on USGS maps, 1908–1950

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Darwin, 1908
Ballarat sheet, 1908, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Lone Pine is the nearest town with services. Take US 395 south and CA 136 east past Keeler; the road becomes CA 190. Turn right onto Darwin Road at the monument. The road is paved all the way.

USGS topographic map between Lone Pine and Darwin with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Lone Pine38.2 miabout 1 h 04 min
  1. Head south on South Main Street, US 395.1.9 mi
  2. Turn left onto CA 136, which becomes CA 190 past Keeler.30.3 mi
  3. Turn right onto Olancha Darwin Road (Darwin Road) at the monument.5.5 mi
  4. Continue on West Market Street and turn left on North Main Street.0.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • There's no gas, food or store in Darwin. Fill up in Lone Pine.
  • Houses and yards are private. Stay on public roads and respect residents' signs, including the Do Not Enter signs east of town.
  • Groceries, supplies and medical help are dozens of miles away.
  • Summers are hot. An undated listing suggests any season but summer.

Photos

Darwin in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Darwin?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Silver mining

More silver mining ghost towns

The nearest in California.

Black-and-white infrared view of rusting old trucks in front of Cerro Gordo's wooden buildings and mine dumpsGuide

Cerro Gordo

36.54, -117.80

Inyo County, California

In 1869 this camp high in the Inyo Mountains led the country in silver and lead, and its bullion helped build early Los Angeles. It's privately owned…

Open dailySilver mining
Calico seen from the hillside above town: tin roofs, the railroad trestle at left and the Mojave Desert beyondGuide

Calico

34.95, -116.86

San Bernardino County, California

A silver camp of the 1880s in the striped Calico Mountains. Walter Knott bought it in 1951 and rebuilt it, and it has been a county park since 1966…

County parkSilver mining

All 69 silver mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Darwin

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our California index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Darwin": fact sheet fields (roads, climate, best time), the 1876 population, shacks and the Defiance smelter, and the Do Not Enter signs east of town (undated).
  2. Wikipedia, "Darwin, California", retrieved October 2026: founding, name, post office, toll road and 1937 bypass, census counts and 2020 median age, 2011 documentary, 2012 BBC report on dial-up.
  3. Secret Los Angeles, "Darwin, California" (April 20, 2026), reporting residents' interviews with SFGATE: population, "People live here" signs, water board, Starlink, post office, Darwin French.
  4. Wikimedia Commons photo descriptions by Thomas Farley (March 2020): the monument at the CA 190 junction, no business services in town, groceries and medical help dozens of miles away; by InyoCima (2013): a small mine along Darwin Road. Coordinates: Wikipedia (from USGS GNIS). Elevation: USGS 3DEP point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits