Calico was founded in 1881 after the discovery of silver in the mountains. A few years later colemanite, which is used in making borax, was also being mined nearby but when price of silver dropped in the 1890s Calico became a ghost town. Walter Knott, the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm bought the entire town in 1951. Some of the original buildings were moved to the berry farm, others were restored and some were newly constructed to look like old west buildings. Knott donated the town to San Bernardino County and it is now part of the county park system.
As much as we usually enjoy ghost towns we found this one to be lacking in many ways. Most of the buildings are shops. There’s very little historic information or authenticity. The museum buildings are few and have meager displays.
A fee is charged to enter the town. Additional fees are charged for a mine tour, gold panning, train ride and mystery house. These are all geared towards children and most were not accessible so we did not go to any of them. The best thing about it is that we did not have to pay to see the ghost town because admission is included for visitors who stay in the campground.
The campground has full hookup, partial hookup and no hookup sites. The ground is dirt so it gets dusty. The sites are very close together with no privacy.
We didn’t see any accessible sites but the restrooms have handicapped parking spaces. The ghost town road is paved but has a fairly steep uphill slope. Most wheelchair users will need to have help. The buildings along the main road are accessible. Everything off the main road is not accessible due to rocky terrain, hills and steps.
The main parking lot for the ghost town is in the canyon. The ghost town is on a plateau so if it’s busy expect a climb. There’s handicapped parking and also a limited amount of parking for cars and RVs on top of the plateau. Ghost Town
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Hi there! I recently noticed that you have a little map of where you are after each post....would you mind sending me the code for doing this? Also, I haven't been using labels...are they like key words? How do you insert them after every post? TIA. Robin
ReplyDeleteHi Robin!
DeleteThe labels are pretty easy to do.If you use blogger to write new posts ( I use LiveWriter because I like the options) just look on the right side and the label setting is the first thing. Type in a label and it will be saved to use for other posts. If you use LiveWriter the labels are called categories and work the same as labels.
The maps are a little complicated. I'm upset with Google Maps because they changed things a few months ago and many of the really good functions are gone. I had the maps set so if you clicked on the little map at the bottom of a post a Google map window opened pinpointed on the attraction. Now it just opens the map and you have to search for the attraction. I keep hoping they change back because I'm not the only one who doesn't like the changes.
Anyway the maps -
I have a old clip art disc downloaded on my computer that happened to have all of the state maps so I just use that. Some of them are a little misshapen but they work okay. I also have a simple photo editing program that I use to put the state names on the maps. I keep them in layers so that I can move the name out of the way if needed.
The location dot is put on with the photo program. Merge the layers, save as a Jpeg and post on the blog.
I use LiveWriter so this next part might be a little different if you're posting directly to your blog. If you want the maps to be clickable and open up a larger map, click on the address for the large map and copy. Right click on the little map and click on hyperlink and paste. If you haven't played around with a photo editing program this might seem complicated but it just takes a little practice. If you want a more detailed explanation please feel free to email me. Our address is on the right side of the blog.
I hope everything in your house gets fixed fast. That had to be a shock seeing your ceiling hanging down but at least it looks like there wasn't a whole lot of damage..
This year our plan is to visit few Ghost Towns in Nevada.
ReplyDeleteThis one looks interesting.
Calico is not very authentic but there are some good ghost towns in Nevada. I highly recommend Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. Rhyolite Bottle House and Ghost Town is good but only if you're passing that way. I won't go out of my way to see it.
DeleteWheelchair accessible out there
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