Eagle Mountain is a ghost town in the California desert in Riverside County founded in 1948 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. The town is located at the entrance of the now-defunct Eagle Mountain iron mine, once owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad, then Kaiser Steel, and located on the southeastern corner of Joshua Tree National Park. The town's fully integrated medical care system, similar to other Kaiser operations in California, was the genesis of the modern-day Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization. Eagle Mountain is accessible by Kaiser Road (Riverside County Route R2) from California State Route 177, twelve miles (19 km) north of Desert Center, midway between Indio and the California/Arizona state line along Interstate 10.
History
Founded in 1948 by Kaiser Steel Corporation, Eagle Mountain is located at the entrance of the now-defunct Eagle Mountain iron mine. As the mine expanded, Eagle Mountain grew to a peak population of 4000. It had wide, landscaped streets lined with over four hundred homes, some with as many as four bedrooms. Two hundred trailer spaces and several boarding houses and dormitories provided living space for Kaiser's itinerant workforce. Other amenities included an auditorium, a park, a shopping center, a community swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, and a baseball diamond. Businesses included a bowling alley, two gas stations, eight churches, and three schools.
In the late 1930s, Kaiser built the West Coast's first fully integrated steel mill. In 1942, Kaiser built such a mill at Fontana, California, which is located 112 miles (180 km) west of the Eagle Mountain Mine. Today the Fontana mill site includes other successor mills and the Auto Club Speedway (formerly the California Speedway). Kaiser then purchased the idle mines from the Southern Pacific Railroad as a source of high-grade iron ore. This was a contingent strategy Kaiser used to utilize rail and raw materials for an industrial operation in a previously agricultural (pig farm) area.
Production at Fontana was initiated during WWII, increased iron shipments began in 1948, and a mining town was constructed below what was soon to become Southern California's largest iron mine. It connected to the Southern Pacific Railroad via a 51-mile-long (82 km) railroad branch known as the Eagle Mountain Railroad. It ran southwest from the mine to the northeast shore of the Salton Sea, just north of the Riverside–Imperial county line. Ore shipments to the Fontana steel plant began in October, with five to eight 100-car trains running weekly. The mine's 100 millionth ton of iron ore shipped was commemorated in a ceremony on August 17, 1977.
Shutdown
Increased environmental concerns in the 1970s and stiff foreign competition led to a reduction in iron output and a drop in population to a low of 1980. In the summer of 1980, the mine shut down briefly, reopening on September 23. Only 750 workers were brought back to the town with an additional 150 (with uncertain employment futures) in Indio, some 60 miles (97 km) west.
On November 3, 1981, Kaiser Corporation announced the phasing out of half the Fontana works and the entire Eagle Mountain Mine operation over several years. The population dwindled as layoffs began. The grocery store closed in October 1982, and the post office, which had been active since 1951, closed in 1983. In June of that year, the last official graduating class celebrated their commencement at Eagle Mountain High School, followed by the closing of both the mine and mill.
The ZIP code was 92241 until Eagle Mountain shut down; mail is now sent to the nearby Desert Center at 92239. The community is within area codes 442 and 760.
Resurgence
Eagle Mountain experienced a resurgence in 1986 when the California Department of Corrections proposed placing a unique privately operated prison for low-risk inmates in the town. The shopping center was converted in 1988 into the Eagle Mountain Community Correctional Facility, which operated until state budget problems and a fatal riot led to the closing of the prison in December 2003. Talks resumed in 2005 to reopen the prison facility.