Keane Spring & Tank

[DeathValleyDazed]

March 1. 2022 take a short hike from Monarch Canyon Road west past the large water tank and follow the rusty old pipeline up to Keane Spring with is waving rushes and single cottonwood tree. Glimpses of Chloride Cliff, Tucki Mountain and Corkscrew Peak are visible.

[DAW89446]

Did you know that there was an actual town there? You would have passed by a large stone floor with stone stairs, walls, and bits and pieces of pipeline. On the bench to the north there is a huge can dump. There was Kimball Brothers stage service from Rhyolite and depot. The water line was improved and the tank installed during the operation of the Big Bell Mine in the 1930s.

[DeathValleyDazed]

DAW, thanks for the history update of which I was not aware. I did notice several foundations below the spring so I realized that a group of people once lived around the spring but not a whole town. I must have just missed the large tin can dump while I was above the spring. It was fun following the old rusted pipe line up from the tank.

About ten years ago I explored the Monarch Mine down to the large water fall which gave me a perspective on the canyon's geology.

[DAW89446]

I must have just missed the large tin can dump while I was above the spring.

It’s on the top of the bench just yards north of the foundations, before you hit the thick tules. Keane Spring never amounted to much but did have a community.

A good publication for the history of the entire Funeral Range is Alan Patera’s WESTERN PLACES-FUNERAL MOUNTAINS MINING CAMPS AND MINES. Your humble servant also did a lot of research work for Alan behind the scenes in the book also …  You can pick it up online or at the visitor center.

[DeathValleyDazed]

DAW, thanks for the tip about the Funeral Mountains history book.

[John Morrow]

When I visited it in the fall I was a bit disappointed there was no surface water.  The fall color was pleasant, though.

[MojaveGeek]

I went by a few weeks after the video, on the way to higher places, did not explore the spring itself as i doubted I would find surface water. It is a scenic area and not terribly inaccessible.