Flooded mine shaft?

Early Monday morning, Dad and I drove out to the Keane Wonder Mill.  It its day, it was the most productive Gold Mine in the valley.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of it.  There are quite a bit of ruins there, including the towers for a tram system that brought the ore down from the Keane Wonder Mine to the mill.  Pipes which brought water from the nearby Keane Springs litter the landscape, as well as large tanks which held water or cyanide, the latter used to leach gold out of the rocks. We left the Keane Wonder Mill and hiked towards Cyty's mill, where ore from the Blue Bell Extension Mine was processed.  The Picture to the left is of one of the Keane Springs, which provided water for Cyty's and Keane Wonder mills.  These look extremely deep - we dropped pebbles into the water filled holes and watched the pebbles slowly sink into the depths.

After a little while (1.2 miles), we reached Cyty's Mill.  There's still quite a bit of stuff there - an ore stamp, some buildings, a well, and other machinery.  Its hard to believe that ore was brought down from the mountains high above to be processed here.	Cyty's Mill at a distance
Ben through doorway at Cyty's Mill	Dad in front of Cyty's cabin

Cactus on the trail

View from ridge @ 2,770 feet

From Cyty's Mill, it was a constant uphill climb to the Big Bell Extension mine.  After 1.6 miles and an elevation gain of 1,450 feet, we reached a ridge and looked back down into the valley.

The first mining site

After the ridge, about 0.3 miles up the trail, which was fairly precipitous as it followed above a canyon on the left side, we saw several adits and stopes (two kinds of mining tunnels), and finally came across a short tunnel that looked lived in.  In the picture on the left, you can see a couple mattresses, and on top what looks like a bed stand in the foreground is what appears to be an old alarm clock.

As we continued on, we reached a wooden platform which was the floor of a cabin before winds blew the rest of it away.  In the picture on the right, I'm holding the top of a canning jar that I found laying on the ground.

First artifact - canning jar fragment

Dad with the stovetop

We walked farther, and came upon another wooden platform.  We found a stove top, and a whole passle of artifacts.

Assorted artifacts

Tracks leave the mine Ben at the mouth of the mine

Finally, we got to the end of the trail.  We found the Big Bell Extension Mine itself, complete with a narrow-gauge railroad track coming out of it.  By that time, it was getting towards noon, but it was pretty cool, since we were at about 3,100 feet, almost 1,800 feet higher than the start point at Keane Wonder Mill.  The view from the top was spectacular!  In the foreground was the ridge from which the picture above was taken.  We had hiked 3.4 miles. View from the mine

It only took us a couple hours to get back down to the Keane Wonder Mine.  As we descended, the afternoon sun coupled with our steadily decreasing altitude made it get hot in a hurry!  The hike was great - we were the only people on the trail the whole day.

 Here's a map of the route.  The "Y" shaped symbols are mine shafts:

When Dad and I got back to the ranch, I rode out to the golf course and found Tricia, David, and Courtney playing golf:

I went back and got Mom and Grandma, and they came out to watch the kids play.

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