Swansea
Swansea sat on the eastern shore of Owens Lake at a moment when the Inyo Mountains were spitting out wealth and the valley was scrambling to turn rock into cash. In 1869 Colonel Sherman Stevens built the Owens Lake Silver-Lead furnace and mill here, meant to smelt ore coming down from Cerro Gordo and cast it into shippable bullion. A year later James Brady assumed operation for the Silver-Lead Company and a small industrial town rose around the works -- Swansea, a place of slag, smoke, and men.
For a few seasons the claims were big. State landmark wording says that Swansea's furnace, together with a furnace at Cerro Gordo, produced around 150 silver bars every 24 hours, each bar weighing 83 pounds. Whether that figure describes a peak run or a rough average, it hints at the scale: tons of metal, day after day, in a valley that otherwise ran on wood, water, and mule power.
Owens Lake itself became part of the machinery. Moving bullion and supplies around the lake by wagon was slow and punishing, so steamers were pressed into service. The best known was the Bessie Brady, a paddlewheel boat that carried bullion across to west-side ports, tying the lakeshore furnace to the road and rail routes leading toward Los Angeles.
Then the clock ran out. The Owens Valley earthquake struck on March 26, 1872, shaking the region and complicating an already fragile operation. By March 1874 the Swansea furnace and mill were shut down. Trade shifted toward more practical lake ports like Keeler, and Swansea slipped into the familiar western afterlife -- foundations, scattered debris, and a shoreline name that still points to the days when a lake, a boat, and a furnace tried to make a mining district permanent. Little remains, yet it matters.
Timeline
1869 -- Colonel Sherman Stevens builds the Owens Lake Silver-Lead furnace and mill at the future Swansea site.
California State Parks
1870 -- James Brady assumes operations for the Silver-Lead Company and builds the town of Swansea.
California State Parks
1872-03-26 -- The Owens Valley (Lone Pine) earthquake strikes; later accounts associate it with disruptions to Owens Lake shoreline and local facilities.
USGS Earthquake Hazards
1872-06-27 -- Bessie Brady makes a notable early run hauling silver bullion across Owens Lake, reflecting the scale of Swansea-era smelting and transport.
Center for Land Use Interp;;;retation
1874-03 -- The Swansea furnace and mill cease operations (state landmark wording: used until March 1874).
California State Parks
1874 (summer) -- Flood/debris-flow damage is often cited as a final blow as activity shifted to Keeler and other lake ports.
Center for Land Use Interpretation
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Sources/Notes
California Office of Historic Preservation (CA Historical Landmark No. 752: Furnace of the Owens Lake Silver-Lead Company).
California State Parks
CLUI, Navigating on Owens Lake (boating and lake transport context).
Center for Land Use Interpretation
USGS event page: 1872 Owens Valley, California earthquake (date and event context).
earthquake.usgs.gov
Digital-Desert.com, Steamboats of Owens Lake (Bessie Brady details).
digital-desert.com
Colonel Stevens
Cottonwood Kilns
Cerro Gordo
Owens Lake
Steamers
Saline Valley Salt Tram
