Carson & Colorado attempted to capture that traffic but they were too late; the silver ran out. And they made another mistake; they ran narrow gauge to save money...so there were always expenses when they connected with a main line. The result was a marginal, money-losing enterprise which the owners gladly sold to Southern Pacific in 1900. Their timing was bad again; a new strike at Tonopah was announced a few months after the sale. 5 years later L.A. began construction of its aqueduct and SP responded by running standard gauge to an Owens Valley junction at Owenyo. Despite this the line was never very profitable but managed to limp on - even though a Depression shut down its northern end in the '30s - until the mines finally petered out completely in the late '50s.

Owens lake - made famous by the movie Chinatown - no longer exists. It was drained to satisfy LA's unquencheable thirst. What remains is dust and puddles.

The old Natural Soda Products plant which was responsible for the settling ponds south of Keeler was demolished in 1956 but it starred in the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock movie Saboteur in which it already was a ghost town.