Hello: I can answer your questions: This was MY Home!!! We lived there 1960 for 4 years. It was the most beautiful place ever on the desert. We had LUSH green lawns, big tall trees, flowering bushes, paved streets, street lights, well built with AC homes that was owned and maintained by Kaiser. The schools were the best in the USA and our teachers were top in their fields. We had lots of activities, famous movie stars visiting, even Red Skelton's brother worked at the mine with my dad. And we had a good safe place to grow up in, good income, safe working conditions, and 'family' environments. IF they could bring it back to its glory days of beauty and Desert Center too! I would move back there in a heart beat! I miss Eagle Mountain. There is water underground, electric power still operational, a huge lake nearby too. Desert Center was the stopping point coming and going from AZ to CA for all traffic. It breaks my heart to see what time has taken away from its one time beauty. Most of the original families that lived there are gone now, my parent's generation, and a lot of my age group (60's+) are gone too. Our kids and grandkids have no connection to the town. As the drone panned over the community I got to see my house, my best friends' homes, the rec center, the elementary school, the high school, and the shopping area. I CRIED... again, my memories are so strongly attached to those buildings. I know others that see this will have their own memories and that is so wonderful. I pray that who bought this property will not destroy it, but instead bring it back to life... Blessings to all.

This looks like a great opportunity to house at least some of the thousands of homeless people living on California's streets. Bring them here with tools and supplies to refurbish their new-to-them houses, schedule food deliveries and no alcohol, drugs or drug paraphernalia. A remote rehab if you will.

My parents met in this town! They had moved to Oregon by the time I came along. My sister graduated from EMHS in '82. I've always been intrigued by this place. I visited the town in 2014. Rode my motorcycle out there. But I could only look at it from the front gate. Mom and dad are both gone now, but my sisters have some fond memories of the place.

I lived in Eagle Mountain as a kid from 1971 until summer of 1979. It was a great place to live, a true sense of community. The people were great, have maintained friendships with some for close to 50 years. Many are dying now. Remembering makes me feel bad for kids today.

I lived EM from 1956 to 1964 (I was born in Indio). Every day at noon the warning whistle would go off alerting when they blasted the mine. We left and moved to Alaska when I was 12 years old. Still in Alaska. We used to go back when visiting relatives in Blythe, CA. Used to be allowed to walk through the town, but not the last time I was there. Have a lot of photos (color slides of course).

My husband and I were just married in the early seventies. He was hired by Detroit Diesel as a partsman for the huge earth movers used at the mines. The money was good and we had saved enough money for a down payment on one of the homes there. We couldn’t figure out why our loan wasn’t funded until he and many of the other workers there were laid off. Thank God the banks were aware of the situation and we headed back to LA County to better job offerings. That was over fifty years ago and my husband has since passed. This video brought back some great memories of when we were young and our lives still opening up to what was to become. Thank you!

My Grandfather was a train mechanic there. I stayed with them a lot and went to school there. It was a wonderful place with many interesting people living and working there. You can never go back home.

I lived at Eagle Mountain as a kid from 1967-1971; my Mom was a buyer/purchasing agent for the Mine, and we lived in the house at the corner of Palm and Elm (8:14). Played lawn darts with my brother on that green meridian between Palm and Sage. I still have my class pictures from Kindergarten through 2nd grade before my Mom re-married and we moved to Fontana since my stepdad was the chief optometrist for Kaiser Hospital back in 1971. The Ghost Town is NOT a secret.

I worked at the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility for 7 years as a Parole Agent II. The Department of Corrections oversaw operations of Management Training Corporation (MTC) based in Utah. There were seven CDC personnel stationed there and most lived in the housing facility. One Facility Lieutenant, three CDC Sergeants, and three Parole Agent II's. The facility operations were in the old business area, and the Administration Building was the old Bank of America. The old bank vault was our armory. Inmates lived in the buildings that had been used to house single miners. There were two riots there, the first on Feb 27, 1997 and the most serious injury from that one was a sprained ankle of one of the MTC Correctional Officers. One reason why the first riot didn't get out of control was because at that time, the facility had CDC staff on duty 24/7 and we were able to access the facility armory. We got assistance from two CDC Correctional Officers who were there for transportation purposes and from an off-duty Corrections Officer who worked at Ironwood State Prison and lived in the Eagle Mountain housing and was married to an MTC officer. We were able to get assistance from the California Highway Patrol, US Border Patrol, Bureau of Land Management Rangers, and deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department before back-up assistance arrived from Chuckawalla Valley state prison. I left a couple of years before the second riot which got out of hand, in my opinion, because CDC had stopped 24/7 coverage by Department Law Enforcement personnel and there was no access to the facility armory where they kept shotguns and large pepper spray containers. Also, additional fencing that had been recommended after the first riot was never installed. As a side note, one summer day, Kaiser Resources, who maintained a presence on the facility and their weather station recorded a temperature of 132 degrees - only 2 less that the world record high recorded in Death Valley.

My uncle Jack worked at Kaiser Steel and lived in Eagle Mountain until he retired in 1978.

i hauled bentonite to there until the day it closed--the mill used it to make steel--we came out of amagossa,nv and came down the calbaker road,unloaded and went home to vegas and did the same thing day after day--it was a gravy run,great money,my truck--hated to see it close but fontana was a huge smog maker where they rolled the steel

Quite an active place when I worked there temporarily in the late 1960's until a fire department job opened in my town nearby. No mention of the heavy equipment and 100 ton trucks that sped the ore up from the bottom of a mega-huge quarry, the expanse of which would take your breath away when looking down from the top. Thanks for a reminder of an era very much different from today, and proudly a part of my past.

Can you imagine having to move from this place knowing that no one would buy your house and having to start over in another town broke…

I live at a shelter on skid row in downtown Los Angeles and I would definitely move here in a heartbeat!!! I have my own tools to help rebuild!!!

In 1990 I was a truck driver with California fright line. They had the contact to haul away the scrap steel from the mine building’s. Even then it was a ghost town. I was not aware of the prison facility in the town. Learned something new all these years later.

That's interesting, never heard of this town. Really adds to this story when people commenting had lived there. Thank you all for sharing your stories.

My Godfather was the Cathloic Priest there for many years and my brother Richard grew up there. I remember visiting them and stopping at the Desert Center lake. Good Times.

How sad. I helped friends move there in the 70s. It was a beautiful little town then. I moved out of state shortly after that. I had no idea it had become a ghost town. I also worked across the freeway from Kaiser Steel. I knew it had closed and the Ontario Motor Speedway moved onto the property.

Lived here from 1967 to 1980. Fun place to grow up.

I grew up here. And, yes, not only would I live here again, but it has been my desire to do so for many, many years!!!

Maybe homeless people can go there and rebuild with their skills and turn it into their own community

Great history lesson of a forgotten town !! 👍😊

This is where I grew up… I attended school there until we had to move. My dad, as school administrator, found employment elsewhere after closing, so I attended High School in a strange new place, a crowded city school with the freshman class of over 1000 students…. 😳 So much history and innovation created there, it wants to be revitalized but with a renewed spirit and purpose, like that of an ugly duckling becoming swan…. And flying like an eagle… let my spirit carry me…🎶🎵🎼🎤 (Little me dreaming). 🥰

Kaiser saw the opportunity to make this a thriving community again. Brilliant Buy 🎉❤🎉❤🎉

Drive by there from Lake Havasu City quite often to visit relatives in So. Cal (as recently as last week) since the early '80's. Used to stop at the service station in Desert Center until it closed. I have always wondered what was out there. If somebody has bought it, I would bet it would be for huge solar farms which are now infesting the area. Thanks for the video!

It really bothers me to see so many abandoned homes and completely abandoned towns when there are so many people who could use them. I'm not even talking about squatters or addicts who don't appreciate anything and trash everything they touch, I'm talking about real people in need. The working poor. The elderly. People on fixed incomes like myself lol. I was 34 when I became permanently disabled due to a brain tumor. I support myself and my son on 1,511 per month. Life is a struggle every day. I hope to one day become well enough to return to work. The tumor and resulting brain surgery left me with some challenges and it has been a slow recovery. I would love to be able to live in an abandoned home or trailer and fix it up in exchange for rent so that I could have the opportunity to save so that I can one day have something of my own and I know that there are plenty others out there like myself. People with skills, who are clean and respectful. People who work or want to work but have barriers because they don't have a home or stable housing. I'm college educated and worked at my job for 13 years before I had to stop working to receive treatment for my brain tumor. It was a rare tumor and there's only a handful of specialists in the United States that are knowledgeable about that type of tumor and can treat it. Fortunately I lived 30 minues away from a hospital who had the kind of specialist that i needed but he moved 1700 miles away some years ago and two years ago i moved to where he is because it was too expensive to travel back and forth. It was a stupid decision since I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona where it's crazy expensive to live. I do receive housing assistance from section 8 but it's hard to find a place that will accept it. So i had to take what I could get, which was a 650 square foot 2 bedroom (yes i said 650sq ft) in a less than desirable location, managed by a slum lord. Maybe I'm uppity but I want better. I want to live in a safe neighborhood. I want a garage so that i can buy my son a new bike and he'll have a safe place to store it. We've lost two bikes this summer that were securely chained to the fence outside of our front door and locked because the theives cut the locks. They even stole my adult tricycle which was a gift that I can't afford to replace, it was a 2,000 dollar bike that isn't available in the United States. I can only ride a trike now because I can't balance a 2 wheel bike after my brain surgery. These people out here steal from the people who need it the most. So I don't think it's uppity to feel that I should have better. I may be living well below the poverty line but I'm smart and educated. I have pride in my home. I have an amazing son who is kind, polite, and respectful. I don't drink or do drugs. Never have. Sorry if anyone has made it this far. I'm just ranting I guess. I just don't understand how someone can just throw an entire home away. I will never own a home although I wish to. More than anything. And I know I'm not alone. It is just crazy to me that a person has so much that they can just walk away and it doesn't matter.

My father, my God father, his son, and their friends all worked for Kaiser Engineers at Eagle Mountain during the 1960s. I hope the new buyer opens the iron mine and brings back manufacturing to California.

Seems like a perfect solution for the homeless problem

My dad worked out at Kieser still for many years just when we where going to move out there the mine shutdown. My best friend went to Eagle Mountain HighSchool. Back then it was very beautiful and everything was green. It broke my heart the last time we drove by the road just off I-40. My step sister and her husband lived in Desert Center and he also worked at the mine. It would be great to see that place get a new life, a chance for families to ,live in those homes again.

My husband works there in 1973 and 1974 it was good place to live, seeing this makes me my husband is long pass and so to his this. Life just keeps on going on.

I was 7 years ago, along with an entire film crew. We lived in the houses for a month. We filmed a sci-fi horror movie there. I personally loved it there. Looked like it does in the video. I can tell it was beautiful at one point. There was definitely some paranormal activity going on. I know there are two families there that are caretakers if the property, as it is fenced into keep looters and scavengers away.

See their always claiming they don't have a place for homeless. This is a example of what they can do for them.

Whenever i see things like this, i look at the homes, stores, schools......... and womder about all the families and their kids. What happened to all those people.? Most of us can probably return to where we grew up. It has probably changed, but at least your hometown is still there.

Interesting little documentary. Thanks for the upload! (Music a bit dramatic for the subject matter in my opinion, but still good…)

This is facinating information: I only know about Kaiser Steel because I was a nurse working at Kaiser Permanente in Fontana and in the hospital orientation, they tell the story about the origins of Kaiser Health Care. I never knew! It would be great if the buyer would build or restore some of the older homes and rebulit a community out there in Eagle Mountain. Maybe low income housing would be the best use of this place. The industry would have to come to provide jobs. It could just be a low cost desert oasis. I would pay to spend some nights there in the absolute silent world. Beautiful desolation, as they call it. Thank you for those old stories. X O

The first movie I worked on was filmed at the Kaiser steel mill in Fontana. It was called Steel Frontier. I think that was in 1993. That was pretty trippy because there was still a bunch of the infrastructure left from the mill and it was enormous. I think it’s all gone now. I wonder what they did with all the toxic soil that was there. Probably little to nothing. One day a fierce wind came up and blew some dust in my co worker’s eyes. She had to go to the hospital to get treatment for the chemical burns in her eyes. Fun times!🎉

It should be restored, I lived there back when the prison was there with my older brother and my parents who lived two doors down. My father was a guard and my brother was in maintenance. It could be a great community and yes I would live there again

I have flown over this place a dozen times. It’s surrounded by the WWII training area. You can still clearly see the rocks soldiers placed around their tents and walkways. If you look really hard, you can see tank tracks cutting across the desert

This is awesome… I live in Twentynine palms and had no idea this was here! It’s only an hour and a half drive!

I was passing by the town in 2021. It's a beautiful place to live and so close to Big Bear Mountain. I would love to see the place redevelop.

Build a wall around it, fill it with tents and prisoners like they did in Arizona. Bet it would cut crime by 75%

I think that the entire area could be revived agriculturely. Also the possibility of an active community as well. You will need people to look after everything once it gets going.

Pretty cool place ro explore. Interested to see what the new ownership will so with it. Eagle Mountain School K-8 is still open, has around 20 students.

Some of the houses are definitely in good enough shape to be restored. Others are beyond hope. It would be a great place for a tech based town. Silicon Valley is beyond expensive.

Thank you for this very interesting video. They are many remote ghost towns in California. Eagle Mountain reminds me of Trona. Only there they're still residents living there. Not many anymore either though still there!

Would have liked a tour of inside the homes.

I went there in 2002 and there were guards for the prison living in some of the houses. Was surreal to say the least. Oddest ghost town I'd ever been to! Never saw a soul, except for a woman on a porch smoking a cigarette (prolly a guards wife or daughter?). The quietness out there is deafening! Great place to visit if the public still can. I do know the final graduates of the school still meet there, or they did before it was purchased. I don't know if it's blocked off now, and/or they let them still do that.

Im surprised so many people have memories of Eagle Mountain so few know about it.

I’ve raced at Chuckwalla in Desert Center and they’re actually doing new construction in the area, and there’s already a small community at Eagle Mountain pumping plant. Anything is possible, but it’s called the middle of nowhere for a reason. Although the desert is beautiful to visit, I wouldn’t want to live there year-round. RV park may work or rentals if themed properly IMO. Maybe The Flintstones?🤠

The company that bought it was formed in March of 23, the property was bought in May. The guy only makes 200k a year? Highly suspect as to what it will be used for. He has a recycling company... Long drive to do recycling.

Interesting video. Thank you for sharing.

Eagle Mountain was a small, thriving, and family-oriented community, my family had strong ties to the place. My Grandfather, Ben Fermon, worked at the mine, while my grandmother was employed at the school. My mother, aunts, and uncles all attended school in Eagle Mountain. However, after the 1983 school year, Eagle Mountain High School closed, and my youngest uncle had to attend Indio High School. In 1976, my mother moved to Indio. I have two older brothers, and I was born in 1979. Due to illness, my grandfather also relocated to Indio, while my grandmother remained in Desert Center. Sadly, my grandmother Gladys Fermon passed away in 1985, followed by my grandfather Ben Fermon the next year. My mother, Diana Fermon, followed in my grandmother's footsteps and worked with children. After retiring as a kindergarten teacher, she passed away in 2020, leaving behind seven siblings and three sons. I am the youngest of the three. Im a Correctional Officer for the California Department of Corrections and served as the Mayor of Indio in 2022. I am currently a Councilmember. Despite the changes, there is still a deep sense of pride in our roots. I have vague memories of spending time in Desert Center as a young boy, and it saddens me to see the area disrespected with vandalism. With the purchase of Desert Center and Eagle Mountain, I believe that revitalization is on the horizon. I visit the area about twice a year, and I owe my existence to Eagle Mountain, as my grandfather and family moved from Utah to California to work at the mine. Without Eagle Mountain, I might not be here today.

Sad the railroad isn't there anymore would have been good for a scenic railroad and hopefully the town won't be empty anymore and someone nice to help keep it maintained

A cool old place I'd love to walk around and check it out

I used to work for Kaiser Steel in Fontana. Worked there for a year in 1981-1982 Great pay for sure and met quite a few colorful characters. I used to cash my paycheck at a liquor store on Cherry Avenue. Great video

Very interesting. Thanks

It has an interesting history and deserves to be restored and recreated into something incredible. Anything but a wind-turbine farm.

I've heard Ecology Mountain Holdings is a subsidiary of the Umbrella Corporation. And that people have heard strange noises underground there, as if a secret research facility was hidden far below.

Very interesting! Thanks

Interesting video. I guess it is not open to the public. I would love to explore this place.

I live full time in a camper van and travel all over the west, spending the winters in the desert. I've been past Eagle Mountain a few times but assumed it was at least a semi-active operation. Having seen this video it looks like a good place to boondock when visiting Joshua Tree NP. But that wouldn't work since it's private land. Oh well.

Would be interesting to see or know if there are other minerals in the area that might be of interest for mining. There are reports from the Salton Sea area of massive lithium deposits for instance.

This place is fascinating!

I've always wanted to see the town that Kaiser built, more interested in the former mine and the Eagle Mountain Railroad. But, the railroad has mostly been ripped apart to keep the curious railfans from exploring the area!

And another excellent video that has many memories for me. Been there several times in the ‘70s. It was a beautiful place because of the underground water supply. I had a friend that worked at that correctional facility. My opinion, that would be a good option for that area, to bring people back, you have to have some commerce. There is nothing else out there to build from. Minimum security correction facility would bring a lot of opportunities for jobs. Thanks again for your content. Brings some new info to places I have been so many years ago, now laid up with a broken foot, having 🤩 fun.

My dad worked at Kaiser then went up to Eagle Mt ..it was really green at that time best time living with my family there as a kid

We moved to Eagle Mountain in 1956,the year i was born, through 1971. Eagle mountain was the best place ever to grow up. You never had to worry about anyting. We were all like one big family. We took care of and looked out for each other And most of us still are to this day. We drank out of hoses, slid down the gullies on cardboard boxes, after it rained we would go looking for polliwogs, or tadpoles for those of you who don't know what those are LOL. nice green lawns,nice houses,great schools,teachers, and the most Absolutely greatest people that ever walked this earth.What's really sad is my kids and my grandkids will never experience where I grew up or even see it. Its hard not to cry just thinking about Eagle Mountain. If there was ever a chance to live there again with all the security and safety we had, I would move back there in a heartbeat.

So many response,good video

I would explore there, but I would only live there if it were alive.. 😁 Nice video! Cheers from the high desert 🏜

I'd love to live there !!! Yes it should be restored

Lived there when it was a prison. Loved it as a kid i could explore old houses or buildings. If it ever opens to the public id love to show my family it.

That was a smart buy ! already running water and power this city will be up and running within the next 5 years and looking beautiful with million-dollar homes ,,,I will continue to check the progress since I'm 30 minutes away

so sad to see how it become. I cant believe beautiful town like this will become a ghost town. I hope they revive this town again.

It was corporate town for the miners! It is trashed last time I was there! Ok put the homeless in the middle of the desert where we can't see them!

*As a Ghost Town, Eagle Mountain is just perfect , very good for the tourists!!! I love it !!* 💙💙💙

Cool video

If you look at the developments all around the region I believe it will be revived and refurbished with new homes. Sadly track housing is swallowing up all the beautiful desert spots and the natural serenity into cold and environmental outdates boxes.

If food and water were available it would make a good retirement facility with recreation facilities entertainment and medical staff also have a good security system armed guards.

I love your videos even though they are beautiful and compelling.

Just awsome,id love to do what your doing ,god bless you.great videos love it🎉

Yes I already live in riverside. I was born in Fontana kaiser hospital..... yes I think it should be rebuilt creat jobs for homeless that want to better themselves and get the chance to have a own home that they built....it could be a good idea for restoration of the town..,....ext... I would love to live and help work on town.. I'm pretty good at construction remodeling landscaping..my dad worked with the water public utilities for Riverside county.,, water maintenance supervisor...retired now...but that is how we were able to have heath insurance with Keiser hospital...❤😮kind of cool on how I kind of connect with the ghost town a little...

Frankly we have all kinds of land like this in California. I used to go on these weekend drivers from Highland and every back road. I found abandoned government sites where they had gone off years ago left buildings with desks, chairs, papers, etc from 15-20 years ago. Even more sites. Who knows for what, but they cleared out. There’s a lot of vacant property that could be used for retraining homeless that want that. For jobs that could have housing attached. Open your mind.

I was working on a job in the mine there in 1992 drilling water monitor wells. At the time, Riverside County was looking at turning the mine into a landfill. The town was abandoned then and our contact told us to pick out one of the furnished houses to stay in. We drove down to Desert Center for groceries and beer. I remember I had trouble sleeping at night because of the noise from the prison.

Beautiful place. I'd be glad to live there...

yeah it could be used as a maximum federal prison. spend some money building a high voltage double fence around the housing, no need to repair anything, put the inmates in just like it is. chopper the food and water in, and let them run the place. you would only need 25 guards, pay them a good salary, build them some concessions so they don't go nuts doing nothing all day. and your done!

well it does sit at 1400 feet it could be beachfront property someday

This is the perfect place for an amusement park. It has enough space for an amusement park and a place to ride ATVs. Be sure to include a swimming pool at the amusement park. Happy trails new owner!

Yes it should be restored and no I wouldn’t live there but I do think when you have a place with so much history we should definitely make sure it stay alive as much as possible…

I find it a bit odd that the Keizer facility just got destroyed by a tornado and this was purchased about a month before 🤨

My parents lived here from 1964 to 1983. I graduated from high school in Eagle Mountain in 1975, Two of my brothers also graduated after me and one of my younger sisters was in the last graduating class in 1983.

Thanks ❤❤❤

Would that not make an ideal place to put the tiny homes for homeless, gradually building into a living town again ?. Businesses could invest in ventures, big or small solving the plight of many homeless on the street and so clearing the mess generated. I fully understand more is needed for this to become a long term solution but is it not worth a try?

Kaiser over-spent on a marginal location which likely had a sparse amount of available water. It would have been better had Kaiser brought-in portable housing which could be moved when the mining was done. Collecting reasonable rents would have been a good option for basic housing, but it's all history now.

Great location to keep people in California as long as the homes would be affordable. Lots of land here to be cleaned and utilized. Just make brand new town with all kinds of facilities, from young to old senior centers. Lisa G.

Cool video. Probably many ghosts reside here.

The problem is it's still a desert. There is a good reason it became a ghost town.

A town that could be brought back to life, California EPA laws would probably keep the mine shut down.

I grew up in Needles, CA in the 60s and 70s. We played high school sports against Eagle Mountain. They had lots of talent and it was always a tough game. Nothing like playing football against a bunch of miners' sons. Like the song says: "The children of a mining town are raised on iron and lead"

thank you.

I think the best idea repair the houses and bring the homeless people in this town.