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Dunmovin is located about three miles north of Coso Junction rest stop along Highway 395, but getting there is complicated since the rest stop is located on the northbound side of Highway 395 and Dunmovin is on the southbound side.  The town is behind the fence with a sign "Private property", "no trespassing"  .  The area is very isolated , so the chances that anyone knowing that you trespassed on a property is unlikely.  We were obviously trespassing.    I had zero luck finding out  a full history of Dunmovin .  According to Wikipedia , "A post office operated at Dunmovin from 1938 to 1941. The place was originally called Cowan Station in honor of homesteader James Cowan. Cowan Station was a freight station for silver ingots being transported from the Cerro Gordo Mines to Los Angeles. When Cowan sold out in 1936, the name was changed to Dunmovin. It was a roadside service station, cafe, and store along U.S. Rout...

Article and photography by Natasha Petrosova  The semi-ghost town Darwin , that was once the biggest town in the county , sits on the western outskirt of Death Valley in Inyo County, California.  The settlement got it start in early 1860 when prospecting expedition led by Dr. E. Darwin French set out from Visalia , Califonia in search of Lost Gunsight Mine and a place that had been referred to as "Silver Mountain".   French's expedition never found the Lost Gunsight Mine or Silver Mountain, but they did discover rich silver outcrops, staked a number of claims and headed back to Visalia to record them.  When they returned , they were followed by hundreds of others and soon mines developed and the rugged mining of Coso Junction was born.   More gold, silver, and lead deposits were discovered around 1970 in  the Coso range  and that resulted in a  formation of the New Coso Mining District in 1874.  The settlement of Darwin was soo...

This Old Darwin mine consists of straight rows of decaying company houses,  stuck on the non-level Mountain Ophir.  In 1919 major development began on Mt. Ophir, and a company town was built to house all the miners needed to work the Wagner & Company Mine.  Wagner was only the first of several lessees and owners of the property until 1942 when the mine was closed be the government order that all mines were to be closed for the “War Effort”. After the War ended, Anaconda Copper Mining Co. purchased the property and reopened the facilities, and within a couple years, the Anaconda’s Darwin Mine was the number one lead mine in California.  The mines remained in operation until the 1970s.  The remains of that company camp almost overshadow the original site of the town. The Company "Project Darwin LLC“ acquired the Darwin mines and 58 patented mining claims in 1996. The company is looking for investors to re-start the Darwin mines. Darwin  is kn...