1865
Featuring curated narratives and archival imagery.
Discovery on Buena Vista Peak
Pablo Flores’ silver-lead strike sparks a camp of crude furnaces and stone dugouts high above Owens Valley.
Legend places Pablo Flores on Buena Vista Peak in the mid-1860s, roasting ore in adobe furnaces that sent ribbons of smoke down into Owens Valley. Word of his strike drew Mexican prospectors, Paiute laborers, and investors from Los Angeles. Within months the ridgeline held arrastras, wind-shredded tents, and the earliest crude smelting pits. That spark set the stage for the industrial frenzy that followed.
Flores and crew roasting ore atop Buena Vista Peak
Adobe furnace remnants overlooking the Inyo Mountains
Early prospector trail descending toward Owens Lake
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