Randsburg, California: Living Ghost Town

Public bathrooms at the park. Nothing was open at 2 pm on a weekday. Beautiful artifacts. Complete wagons, mining equipment, wells.

The historic Rand Mining District in Southern California, which includes Randsburg, Johannesburg, Atolia, and Red Mountain, attracts visitors from all over. They are considered living ghost towns. Visitors still prospect here, off road, hike, and enjoy the scenery, old facades, mining equipment, etc. Randsburg makes good food at the old General Store and they have a wonderful museum. Red Mountain has the historic Owl Cafe and Mining Museum which has a colorful history -- from the mining days to Prohibition on up. Atolia still has many old structures left for the process of extracting gold and tungsten.

Randsburg is an interesting place and even has a working General Store, and "saloon" which often attracts motorcyclists and off-roaders (on the weekends only). Look for the numerous "bottle trees" which add color and sparkle to this dusty ghost town.

Cute enough place. Worth a stop and a few photos. It was kind of busy when we went.

An old mining camp in the Mojave Desert. Has two saloons, General Store (great milk shakes and phosphorus sodas), art gallery, Old West photo studio, curio shops. The Joint (saloon) is 100 years old. Mining Museum.