Wall Street Mill, Joshua Tree CA

• 5-star hike
• 2.2 mile out-and-back
• Easy difficulty | Gain 90 feet
• Twentynine Palms, CA | Joshua Tree National Park
• Driving Directions: Trailhead


The abandoned stamp mill at trail's end is mostly still intact.

Joshua Tree's Best Trails
The hikes around Joshua Tree National Park reviewed and categorized.

We'd recommend the trail to Wall Street Mill as the best short trail in the park. Take a picturesque stroll between rocky outcroppings along the flat desert floor, passing historic ruins of mans' attempts to live in and off this arid landscape.

The one mile out-and-back trail leads you past a windpump, an argument leading to a shoot-out, and ultimately to a small preserved depression-era stamp mill. Local prospectors would commission Bill Keys' stamp mill to crush and grind their rocks into a slurry using a two-step process, so it can be separated into gold and mine tailings.

On the route you'll happen across a modern metal replacement for a stone monument that was originally placed here and is now in the Joshua Tree park museum. The monument was placed in this location by the mill owner Bill Keys as a warning, after an altercation and shooting over a property dispute. The law sentenced Keys to five years imprisonment but later received a full pardon.

Wall Street Mill


Wall Street Mill 5★
2.2 mi, Out & Back, Easy, Gain 90 ft
Trailspotting Map at AllTrails

At the mill site you can also check out other historic equipment and a motor vehicle rotting away in the desert sun. More derelicts can be found on your return trip just to the north of the main trail - we've included a detour to these in our trail map. While you're out here in the desert, keep an eye out for wild bighorn sheep that roam the area.

This is a very popular hike, so we'd suggest making it a first priority in the park. We'd also recommend combining this with the Barker Dam Nature Trail hike that leads off from the same parking lot.


A metal monument to a desert showdown.


Ruins of a desert dwelling.


Abandoned mining equipment from the depression era.


Workings of the stamp mill. From the park's interpretive sign.

Tangents:
• External Links: Official, Public Map at AllTrails
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