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catalyst to Calico's growth.

An example of this growth would be that, in July 4, 1881, there were
only three men living in Calico and the only housing was a cramped cabin
owned by Allison, one of the discoverers of the Oriental Mine. By the
spring of 1882, however, approximately 100 people, ranchers turned to
mining for the most part, were living on Calico's narrow mesa.

In July/ 1881 J. B. Whitfield and others staked the claim which would
become the Burning Moscow Mine. By April, 1882 E. Summers' new five-stamp
mill was ready to run on Moscow ore. At the same time, ore from the King
Mine was being transported forty miles south along the Mojave River to the
Oro Grande Mining Company's mill—situated about twenty miles north of
Cajon Pass—which had been constructed in 1878 to service neighboring
Silver Mountain District ores. The greatest hindrance to stamp mills in
the Calico District was a lack of fuel. A ten-stamp mill at the Calico
mines had decimated the cottonwood groves along the Mojave River, leaving
only greasewood for home fuel supply.

Sickness in camp and intense desert heat during summer, 1882 slowed
temporarily the development of the Calico District. By fall, however,
prosperity returned as more professional miners arrived and smaller proper-
ties were consolidated, thus leading to a higher efficiency. Many new
claims were made, among these the Snow Bird, east of Calico.

In October, the fledgling town of Calico got its own newspaper, the
weekly Calico Print. John Overshiner of San Diego was the journal's founder
°
and editor. The Print published faithfully until summer of 1887.
A high pitch of excitement and optimism at Calico in fall, 1882 was due
to the approach of the railroad. The railroad was the solution to local
fuel shortages for the stamp mills, the transportation of ores, and the
inaccessibility of building materials. The Southern Pacific reached Water-
man's from Mojave on October 23, and a Calico station was established on
November 13. The Calico station was located on the south bank of the Mojave
River, about seven miles from the townsite. In spring/1883, the station
changed its name from Calico to Daggett.

Although the appearance of the railroad brought in a glut of new miners,
it also offered some much-needed security to the town of Calico. The town
itself began to take physical form, with five saloons, three restaurants,
stores, assay offices, hotels, boarding houses, a school, and a community
hall lining its thoroughfare, Wall Street. Accommodations for miners ranged
from frame and adobe homes in town to tents, shacks, caves, and dugouts in
the hills and canyons.

The railroad was largely responsible for lending Calico some physical
permanence by hauling lumber and other building materials across the desert.
Without these supplies, lodging in Calico had tended toward the Hyena House,
a hotel composed of barrel stave walls and niches in the rocks for rooms.
3
Chili beans and whiskey were available at every meal .
The year 1882 not only saw Calico take shape as a town, but also wit-
nessed the geographical definition of the district. Mines came to be dis-

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