Eagle Mountain, CA.

Located 12 miles north of Desert Center, CA, Eagle Mountain is unique due to the fact that it is a new ghost town. Founded in the 1940’s, the town was founded to support the efforts of the Kaiser Steel plant in Fontana. At its heyday the town supported about 4,000 people and had hundreds of homes. There was a post office, schools and a store.
When the production of steel at Kaiser slowed in the 1970’s, Eagle Mountain’s existence was threatened. In the early 1980’s the mine was closed and people began to leave the small town. There was a glimmer of hope when a private correctional company placed a private prison there in the late 1980’s but that only lasted a few years.

Today Eagle Mountain has been in the news because of proposals to place a one of the largest landfills into the open mine pits. These proposals are still in the works and probably many years away from being reality. When I we went to photograph Eagle Mountain I was somewhat disappointed because most of the town had been fenced off and there was a grounds keeper that came by and gave us a visit. Apparently he was the only one that lived there.

Esmoreit Koetsier