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Expert Review of Wall Street Mill

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Parks and Outdoors Review of Wall Street Mill

Away Travel Expert: Ann Marie Brown

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Parks and OutdoorsExpert Tips & Helpful Hints

• The best of Joshua Tree's abundant mine ruins can be seen at Wall Street Mill. With only a short hike from the Wonderland of Rocks, visitors can explore an old house foundation, a windmill, a few rusting trucks, and a two-stamp mill, which stand as testimony to Joshua Tree's mid-20th-century gold-mining heyday. Wall Street is the only mill in the region that remains virtually intact.
• Partway up the trail you'll spot a granite marker that states: "Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W.F. Keys, May 11, 1943." Keys owned the Wall Street Mill and shot Bagley in a dispute over his use of the access road. Keys ultimately served five years in San Quentin prison, but was freed when it was ruled that he shot in self-defense.
• Walk around the mill site and you'll find large cyanide tanks that bear this catchy slogan: "Why pay more?" William Keys fashioned the Wall Street Mill from tractor engines, chicken coops, lumber, and cyanide tanks he salvaged from other defunct mines.