By Joe Oesterle of Weird California
One room fixer upper, sprawling barren desert estate situated in the middle of abandoned spooky ghost town. Organic (dirt) floors. Big six point star on side of house. One story building approximately 12x12, made almost entirely of glass bottles.
A tough sell nowadays, but apparently bottle houses weren't that unusual an abode for prospective prospectors trying to cash in on the silver rush during the late 1800's in the Calico Mining District outside of Yermo, Ca.
Between the years 1881 and 1907 the boomtown produced $86 million in silver, and $45 million in borax. The settlement of Calico officially collapsed in 1929, but during its heyday, the tiny hamlet's population was over 1,200 citizens, maintained over 20 taverns to whet your whistle, and even a included local whorehouse to whet you non-mining tools.
Today The Calico Ghost Town is little more than a roadside attraction located right off the I-15 in the dessert of San Bernardino County, which draws occasional coastal Southern Californians on their way to Las Vegas.
Bought by Walter Knott (of Buena Park's Knott's Berry fame) in 1951, the town itself was restored from turn of the century photographs, even though there were apparently no pictures of a bottle house on the premises.
It would have been an incredible expense for indigent miners (who most likely had no intention of living in town long enough to invest in a proper home) to buy lumber at a premium price and transport in across the infertile land. In many such towns it was common for the workers to either live in a boarding home, or cobble make-shift habitats. A typical home of the day was made with whatever was durable and available. It is easy to imagine bottles would have been plentiful in a town with 22 saloons and no recycling station in sight.
