High in the Panamint Mountains west of Death Valley are ten remarkably preserved, 25-foot-high beehive-shaped masonry structures built in 1877 to produce charcoal for nearby Modock Mine smelter. Workers filled he stone kilns with pion pine logs and fired them. The burning which reduced the wood to charcoal, took six to eight days. Cooling took another five days.
In 1905, Shorty Harris, one of Death Valley’s most colorful prospectors, discovered gold in the Panamint Range on the west side of Death Valley. Working with Pete Aguereberry, the strike led to the development of the Eureka Mine, one of the more productive gold mines in the region. To support mining operations, the small boomtown of Harrisburgsprang up nearby, along with the Cashier Mill, which processed ore
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