Ragtown, California

Ghost town in California, United States

34°39′54″N 116°09′07″W / 34.66500°N 116.15194°W / 34.66500; -116.15194CountryUnited StatesStateCaliforniaCounty San BernardinoTime zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)GNIS feature ID252961^[1]

Image of the dedicatory plaque at Ragtown and the Buckeye Mining District — Dedicatory plaque at the site of Ragtown and the Buckeye Mining District

Ragtown was a mining town, now a ghost town, in the Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California, United States. John Sutter found gold in the Bagdad-Chase area in about 1898.^[2]

A plaque in memory of this place is installed by E Clampus Vitus on May 3, 1981, about six miles south of Ludlow, California.^[3]

The plaque reads:

Site of Ragtown and the Buckeye Mining District

At this location, Ragtown stood as a part of the once-booming "Buckeye Mining District". One mine in the district, the Bagdad-Chase, discovered by John Suter in the 1880s, was to become the largest single source of copper and gold in San Bernardino County. The owner, Benjamin Chase, built the Ludlow and Southern Railroad, just west of here, to carry ore to the Santa Fe Railroad in Ludlow.

References

^ "Ragtown, California". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
^ The book Desert Fever, An Overview of Mining in the Desert, by Vredenburgh, Larry M., Shumway, Gary L., Hartill, Russell D. (1981), partly available online, in its section "San Bernardino County" says that John Suter discovered gold in the Bagdad-Chase area in about 1898.
^ Billy Holcomb chapter plaques Archived 2007-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, E Clampus Vitus