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Hannah McKelson Hannah McKelson – April 23, 2021 Wildlands is your source for the world of travel, outdoor adventure, conservation, and the stories of those who live wild lives. Editorâs Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series documenting a visit to the California Ghost Town of New Idria. Read Part 1 here. If at first you donât succeed⦠A first attempt to reach one of Californiaâs most elusive ghost towns certainly didnât go according to plan. To ensure I actually reachedNew Idria this time around, I contacted a local publication, the Benito Link, to follow up on any additional information regarding the washoutâother than the fact that it existedâthat had stifled my first attempt.
Hannah McKelson Hannah McKelson – April 1, 2021 | Updated April 6, 2021 Wildlands is your source for the world of travel, outdoor adventure, conservation, and the stories of those who live wild lives. New Idria is, at its core, an unsettling cesspool of toxicity, a trait that hasnât wavered since it was claimed in 1854 and initiated production of what would amount to 38 million pounds of mercury. Shut down in 1972 when the New Idria Quicksilver Mining Company closed, it would take nearly four decades for the siteâs contamination to elicit a âsuperfundâ designation by the Environmental Protection Agency. The area contains three forms of mercury, including the most hazardous: monomethyl mercury, a neurotoxin. Water discharges the heavy metal through the local San Carlos and Panoche creeks, couriering toxicities up to 20 miles downstream. Asbestos levels remain high, and the local water runs rust-red. Any personal aversion to the poison lingering in the dirt and air is compounded by the townâs intrinsic eeriness as, well, a ghost town.Â