Calico is a ghost town and former mining town in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Calico Mountains of the Mojave Desert region of Southern California, it was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, and was later converted into a county park named Calico Ghost Town. Located off Interstate 15, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) from Barstow and 3 miles from Yermo. Giant letters spelling CALICO are visible, from the highway, on the Calico Peaks behind it. Walter Knott purchased Calico in the 1950s, and rebuilt all but the five remaining original buildings to look as they did in the 1880s. Calico received California Historical Landmark #782, and in 2005 was proclaimed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be California's Silver Rush Ghost Town.
Calico in the Mojave Desert
Mining in Calico
Restoring Calico was one of Walter Knott's efforts to educate the public and honor the pioneers.
Entrance to the town
A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry.
Partizánska Ľupča in Slovakia. Now a village with 1300 inhabitants but in 14th-19th centuries an important mining town with more than 4000. Several houses still have an urban character.
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, in 1957.
