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Write a paragraph to summarize the history of Calico, California.

In 1881, four prospectors were leaving Grapevine Station (present day Barstow, California) for a mountain peak to the northeast. After they described the peak as "calico-colored", the peak, the mountain range to which it belonged, and the town that followed were all called Calico.[5] The four prospectors discovered silver in the mountain and opened the Silver King Mine, which was California's largest silver producer in the mid-1880s.[5][6] John C. King, who had grubstaked the prospectors who discovered the silver vein (the Silver King Mine was thus named after him), was the uncle of Walter Knott founder of Knott's Berry Farm. 

King was sheriff of San Bernardino County from 1879 to 1882.[7][8][9][10] A post office at Calico was established in early 1882, and the Calico Print, a weekly newspaper, started publishing. The town soon supported three hotels, five general stores, a meat market, bars, brothels, and three restaurants and boarding houses. The county established a school district and a voting precinct.[11][12] The town also had a deputy sheriff and two constables, two lawyers and a justice of the peace, five commissioners, and two doctors. There was also a Wells Fargo office and a telephone and telegraph service.[5] At its height of silver production during 1883 and 1885,[11] Calico had over 500 mines and a population of 1,200 people.[5] Local badmen were buried in the Boot Hill cemetery.[13][14]

The discovery of the borate mineral colemanite in the Calico mountains a few years after the settlement of the town also helped Calico's fortunes, and in 1890 the estimated population of the town was 3,500, with nationals of China, England, Ireland, Greece, France, and the Netherlands, as well as Americans living there.[15] In the same year, the Silver Purchase Act was enacted and drove down the price of silver.[5] 

By 1896, its value had decreased to $0.57 per troy ounce, and Calico's silver mines were no longer economically viable.[5] The post office was discontinued in 1898,[16] and the school closed not long after.[11] By the turn of the century, Calico was all but a ghost town,[15] and with the end of borax mining in the region in 1907 the town was completely abandoned.[citation needed] Many of the original buildings were moved to Barstow, Daggett and Yermo.[15]

An attempt to revive the town was made in about 1915, when a cyanide plant was built to recover silver from the unprocessed Silver King Mine's deposits. Walter Knott and his wife Cordelia, founders of Knott's Berry Farm, were homesteaded at Newberry Springs around this time, and Knott helped build the redwood cyanide tanks for the plant.[15][17]
gpt
The ghost town of Calico got its name from four traveling prospectors in 1881 who left Grapevine Station in Barstow to go to a mountain peak to the northeast. These prospectors described the peak as "calico-colored", and the name of Calico stuck. The prospectors discovered silver in this mountain range and opened the Silver King Mine, which was named after John C. King, the uncle of Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm. Calico established its post office in early 1882, and its local weekly newspaper called the Calico Print started publishing shortly after. Calico also benefitted from the discovery of borate mineral colemanite in its mountains and had a population of 3,500 in 1890. The Silver Purchase Act was enacted the same year, driving down the price of silver. The value of silver decreased to $0.57 per troy ounce by 1896, which made Calico's silver mines undesirable, leaving Calico a ghost town by the start of the 20th century.