Stedman, California
Stedman, also known as Copenhagen, is a ghost town in the Bagdad-Chase area of the Mojave Desert, located in San Bernardino County, California. Stedman, which sits near the end of Bagdad Chase Road, is approximately 2 miles south of Ragtown, 2 miles north of Pacific Mesa, and 8 miles south of Ludlow. Stedman's camp superintendent was Edward H. Stagg.
History
Stedman was founded by John Sutter when he found gold in the Bagdad-Chase area in 1898.Stedman was the site of the Bagdad-Chase Mine was originally called Camp Rochester, after Rochester, New York, the hometown of many of the mine board's members and investors, but after it was realized that a Rochester already existed in San Bernardino County, the mining camp was renamed to Stagg and then later Stedman. The name Bagdad was also considered, and a nearby community chose the name Bagdad after Baghdad, Iraq. By November 1902, Stedman was at its peak activity with 40 cabins of five, four, and three rooms mid-construction. The outhouses were located behind the cabins. Stedman also had telephone service. On March 28, 1904, a post office was established. Since John Sutter never found any water, Stedman's water supply was piped in from nearby Newberry Springs and stored in a 10,000 gallon water tank atop a hill in the surrounding desert. A company store existed on site while it was owned by the Pacific Mines Corporation, which site employees were barred from purchasing from. Miners working for other nearby mines such as the Pacific Mine and Roosevelt Mine also lived in Stedman. Since so many Stedman miners were Scandinavian, locals began to jokingly refer to Stedman as Copenhagen, in reference to the Danish capital city. A local celebrity, Mother Preston, operated a saloon and restaurant in Stedman. Stedman may have once contained a small kitchen and a mess hall. Stedman's camp superintendent was Edward H. Stagg. Neither liquor nor prostitution were allowed in Stedman.
When the mine went into receivership, The Ludlow and Southern Railroad's, which ends in Stedman, near the Bagdad Chase Mine, track was sold to the Philippines in the 1930s and Stedman was abandoned.