Abandoned, or just Dormant??
This little adventure occurred in the 1970s. I’m not sure of the exact year,
but one morning, I found myself in an exploring mood.
I had a theory that a lot of the gold found below McCabe Flats was coming
out of a gulch on the opposite side of the river from the campgrounds. So,
I waded across the river and started up the gulch. I hadn’t gone up the gulch
but a short distance, when I came upon the remains of an old road. The road
was pretty well covered by brush, but since it was headed in the same direction
as I was, I decided it would be easier to follow it, since the brush beside the
road was much thicker than on it.
I followed the road for a little over a quarter of a mile and was taken by surprise
when I rounded a bend and found that I had come upon an old mine, complete,
with a cabin and a large storage building.
The door to the storage building was just hanging by one hinge and was wide
open. So, I took a look inside. It was obvious to me that whomever was working
the mine intended to return, (some day), as one wall had tools hanging from it,
and leaning up against it. I’m not talking about one pick and one shovel, but I mean
many of every kind of hand tool you might expect to find in a hard rock mining
operation. Plus, there was a shelf up near the top of one wall that had several
old sleeping bags. None of them would have been much good, as the pack rats
had chewed holes in them and had been using the stuffing to line their nests.
Outside, there was an old caterpillar (perhaps to pull ore carts). I believe it only
had a two cylinder engine, so I imagine the heaviest work it had done was cutting
the road down to the river. Of course, when I saw it, there was no blade on it, so
I’m doing a little conjecture here. (lol)
Looking around a little more, I saw an old cast iron engine, I’m talking old here!
It was basically an iron cylinder, mounted horizontally, with a single spark plug
in one end, and a push rod projecting out the other end. There was other items
of interest, but I don’t recall all of them. I didn’t go into the cabin ‘proper’, but
the kitchen was open on two sides, probably for cool air flow. One interesting
aspect of the kitchen was; there was a box where one of the windows would have
been. The box was covered with (rotting) burlap. The reason for the box and burlap
was for cool storage of food. If a steady trickle of water was kept flowing onto the
burlap, it would have kept the inside of the box much cooler than the outside temperatures.
I didn’t consider going into the impressive tunnel behind the cabin, partially because
I didn’t have a lantern, but mostly because of the signs posted:
Warning…..This mine is booby trapped. Keep out!!
Then there was one someone had scrawled on an old gas refrigerator outside:
Your booby trap was pretty good…..Wait til you find mine.
As you might imagine, I wasn’t about to step in the middle of a private war. (lol)
So, interesting as it was, I headed on back down the gulch to the river and have never been back.
Unfortunately, I do find myself wishing that I had known enough to look for a tailings pile, as it was obvious that some serious tunneling had been going on here. Now, I’m of the age, I have no desire to climb that mountain again. But, I’m sure it’s still there for someone younger and more ambitious than I. (lol)
I hope you enjoyed this little memory.
Eagle
