Atolia, California

 mining, ghost town

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During the labor strike of 1903 Charles Taylor and Tom McCarthy went prospecting and discovered the tungsten deposits 4 miles south of Johannesburg. Placer scheelite (calcium tungstate) had long bedeviled dry placer gold miners. Scheelite, being heavy was concentrated along with the gold.

On October 21, 1905 the Mining and Scientific Press noted that T. McCarthy and C. S. Taylor received returns from a carload of tungsten ore which they shipped to Germany recently. It netted $8,000 after paying freight and all other expenses.

In February 1906 E. B De Golia and a Mr. Atkins purchased Thomas McCarthy and M. C. Curran's claims for $114,000 with $27,000 cash down. Since September 1905 McCarthy and Curran had shipped three carloads of ore to Germany and sunk a shaft to 50 feet on a 3 foot wide vein. De Golia and Atkins organized the Papoose Mining Company. Initially De Golia and Atkins shipped the low-grade ore to the idle Barstow mill but by March 1907 they constructed the first tungsten mill, however water for the mill had to be hauled in railroad tank cars 45 miles from Hinkley. Up until this time hand sorting was the only concentrating method used. At this time the railroad constructed a spur and the place began to be called Atolia, a contraction of Atkins' and De Golia's names.

On January 25, 1916 the mill was destroyed by fire, a loss of about $109,000 to the Atkins, Kroll and Company, but by March the mill had been reconstructed.

The heyday was the years 1916 to 1918 when Atolia boasted a payroll of out $60,000 per month. During that period nearly $10 million was produced. The mines at Atolia produced more tungsten than any other mine in the world during this period.

In 1916 the town of Atolia boasted four restaurants, three general stores, a drug store, two stationary stores, two shoemakers, one hotel, three rooming houses and several lodging tents, four pool rooms, four barber shops, an ice cream parlor, picture show, garage, three butcher shops, a newspaper, and new school house for 60 pupils.

Most of the production during World War I was from lode deposits. Minor tungsten continued to produced up until World War II. Beginning in April 1942, the Hoefling Brothers of Sacramento began preliminary sampling and mapping of the placer deposits. Production began in April 1943. The Atolia Tung-Sun Placer Mining Company began placer scheelite in Baltic Gulch in May 1942.

Atolia was served by the Randsburg Railway in the form of a spur, 324 feet long with turnout at north end; and elevated loading drive. The spur subsequently extended southward and converted to a siding (about 1915).


www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYgoDcRx4uE

vredenburgh.org/mining_history/pages/west_mojave_desert...
www.high-desert-memories.com/atolia.html
www.goldledge.com/history/docs_html/metals_san_bernardi...
www.randsburg-railway.com/maps.htm