Every Trail Tells a Story
Wall Street Mill
A gold mine, a mill, and a murder mystery rolled into one trail.
Some of the best-preserved mining ruins in Joshua Tree.
A history lesson that proves the “Wild West” lasted longer than we think.
A mine, a mill, and a murder – Wall Street Mill has them all, bundled into one of Joshua Tree’s most colorful tales. A mine, a mill and a murder figure prominently in the colorful history of the old mining road (now a hiking trail) on the border of the Wonderland of Rocks. What begins as a pleasant stroll along a sandy track turns into a walk through the pages of a true-crime frontier story.
The Wall Street Mill was built by rancher and desert entrepreneur Bill Keys in the 1930s to process ore from his Desert Queen Mine and other claims in the area. It clanked and rattled away for decades, until an “operational delay” in 1943 – otherwise known as a gunfight.
Keys had long feuded with his neighbor, Worth Bagley, over the right-of-way to the mill. The argument escalated beyond the usual desert shouting match into armed confrontation. Keys shot and killed Bagley, and found himself tried and convicted of manslaughter. And here’s the twist: this wasn’t the 1870s but 1943, long after Joshua Tree had been set aside as a national monument. Turns out the Old West wasn’t entirely past tense.
Keys went off to San Quentin, where he spent five years pondering life, mining, and how neighbors can be hazardous to one’s health. His early release came thanks to an unusual coalition: state politicians and mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, who apparently thought Keys deserved a better defense. (One imagines Perry would have gotten him acquitted.)
The Wall Street Mill itself is one of the best-preserved examples of a Depression-era gold mill in the Mojave. Its two-stamp machinery still stands, along with cyanide tanks, rusting trucks, and assorted relics that look ready to sputter back into action if only someone would toss in a little fuel and a few tons of ore.
From Park Boulevard, 1.5 miles north of the intersection with Keys View Road, turn north on the signed road to Wonderland of Rocks and drive 1.5 miles to the large parking area. Reach a second trailhead by following Queen Valley Road briefly to meet a dirt road and driving 0.25 mile to a smaller lot.
Follow the signed trail (to the right of the restrooms) along the sandy old road. A short detour leads to the pink adobe ruins of the Keys ranch house – desert homesteading in pastel. Return to the main route, which threads past a windmill and soon reaches the interpretive marker where Bagley’s ill-fated stand once drew attention away from mining to murder.
The trail then narrows, dips into a wash, and finally delivers you to Wall Street Mill. Here you’ll find the two-stamp mill itself, ore tailings, and rusted vehicles parked like props for a long-finished movie. An interpretive blueprint from 1931 shows how the mill once operated; the fun is spotting how much of it is still in place today. Looks like with a few repairs, operations could start right up again!