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Expedition Notes: Burro Schmidt Mine
Oct. 15th, 2004 07:09 pmSorry about the long delay in updating. After being sick as a dog Tuesday, Wednesday wasn't much better, so other than a brief chat with the Lost Destinations Scoobie crew, I rested up on Thursday. On to the expedition notes...
After being moderately disappointed with Garlock, on a whim the kids and I drove up to the Burro Schmidt Mine. Why disappointed you might ask?.. I'd very much wanted to get some up close and inside pictures of the Garlock buildings. Unfortunately the caretaker and owner simply would not allow it much to my frustration. Little did we expect to be so utterly blown away by what we found on the way to and at the Burro Schmidt Mine. Again rather than go into extreme details about the back ground of the mine, I've included some websites.
From Garlock, we drove only about 8 miles to get to the mine. One mile on a highway, 7 miles on gravel trails going up a mountain canyon, climbing 2500' vertically into the back country. I'm glad I've got a dependable 4-wheel drive. There was more than one occasion I thought to myself that it would really suck badly to break down or get stuck out here in BFE. On the way up the canyon, we stopped and tentatively explored a few mine tunnels that dove into the granite of Black Mountain. I couldn't imagine working these small tunnels in the hopes of finding a vien of gold of silver. Some of the mines went in hundreds and perhaps thousands of feet. Since I didn't have to correct lights, safety gear and partners, I didn't delve too deep, but I seriously want to go back and look in some of the hundreds of abandoned diggings.
After bouncing around up those rough roads and following small signs pointing toward the mine we passed a broken down homestead, rounded a bend and there it was. No touristy stuff, just a plaque, some rails leading into the tunnel and a deep dark hole in the side of the mountain. I was really surprised that with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sign at the edge of the mine property, there was no official presence there. None, nada, neyt.. Given this, we wandered to the entrance of the 4460' long mine/tunnel. I kept expecting that just inside the open entry gate to find some fence or barred gate restricting access, but I walked into the mine nearly 100 feet without restriction. I would have gone further but my daughter got very antsy and begged me to return closer to the entrance. At the time, I hadn't found the reference that the mine had been cut through solid granite and required no shoring beams to safeguard the ceiling. Nothing short of dynamite or an earthquake was going to bring down those walls.
As I came back and turned around to get several pictures, my daughter really wound up. There moving towards us in the dark tunnel were a pair of misty eyes. NO body, just eyes floating towards us about 4 and a half feet above the floor of the tunnel. Rather than retreat, I actually advanced back into the mine. Hey they were being curious or sociable, why shouldn't I?.. As I approached, they faded out. I softly commented that I was impressed by the mine and merely was there to take pictures. Of the three I took in the mine, two came out with a hazy quality (probably due to the quartzite in the walls). The last one was unbelievably blurred as if the camera was shook. This is an SLR 35mm, with little time delay set in the exposure so I'm not sure what happened. Given my daughter's increasing anxiety I went ahead an retreated from the tunnel and climbed back in the Jeep.
Coming back around the bend there was the homestead again. Since it was only 200 feet from the mine entrance I figured it had to be associated with the mine. After calling out several times and getting no answer, I left the kids in the Jeep and wandered right up to the open door. The place was no only uttered abandoned and completely open, but the two main buildings were strewn with the debris, tools, parts and brica brac of William Burro Schmidt and Tonie Seger (the last caretaker). I had read before going up that she had died last year and her relatives were trying to run the property, but they had been pushed out by BLM.
The property contained two main buildings and several outbuildings. Closest to the mine was Burro Schmidt's shack. This wood slat and tin building looked ancient but sturdy. All around the shack was the remains of mining equipment, jars, bottles, chests and so forth. Most looked old but were servicable and intact. We were about to go inside the shed when a group of of 6 ATVers on Quad-4's came roaring up one of the trails from below. Discretion being the better part of valor, I sent the kids back to the Jeep and approached them to see if they knew anything about the building. After a moment or two sizing each other up, I explained I was an amateur photographer and historian who was there to document a little about the property. This eased their mind that I wasn't there to steal stuff, they told me about the various parts of the property and actually encouraged me to go into Burro Schmidt's shack.
It was utterly dumbstruck when the kids and I entered. The shack was built when Schmidt settled on the mountain around 1900. Considering the lack of building materials, he used newspapers, boxes, magazines and gunny sacks to close up the many holes between boards. This part of the Mojave Desert gets rain about once every 50 to 100 hundred years, so most of these papers products were remarkable intact. I would have gone through ten rolls of film and not captured enough images of the many unbelievably preserved publications, advertisements and box tops dating back to 1910. Along walls and floor were littered the remains of shoes, books, ledgers, and even ancient vacumn cleaner. The ATV'ers explained that the last property holder had keep the shed up as a sorta museum dedicated to Schmidt's work. She didn't charge, but happily accepted donations.
After viewing the shack and the associated work areas around the outside, we entered the Seger house and stepped back into the 1970's. The stories note that Tonie Seger was something of a hermit much like Schmidt. By all accounts, she was generally regarded as a good natured woman who enjoyed visitors to "her" and relished the title of "the Tunnel Lady." The house was really a collection of imprved shacks that had been added to and expanded over decades. The ATVer's told me that the BLM had run out to people who'd moved into the building following her passing last year (2003). BLM and ATV club volunteers then collected and carted out an amazing 11 tons of debris. I think the intent had been to preserve the inside of the house in a condition close to how it was when she lived there, but the government didn't follow through with a site protection plan.
Clothing and vartious personal items were scattered but unbroken throughout the house. Every wall, corner and space seemed to have a story all it's own. In what had been a gift shop of sorts was a lonely teddy bear waiting forlornly for an owner who'd never come back. In the kitchen ancient cleaning supplies, lay mixed with pots, pans and other tools. Empty spice and whiskey bottles sat side by side. Two 1970's era televisions were stacked in the living room area. Closets contained bits and pieces of clothing dating to that same era. Here and there lay personal pictures, mementos of family gatherings and the remains of a rich life gone by. Hopefully I'll have pictures available on-line in a matter of a few weeks.
After nearly 90 minutes of roaming the property, taking many pictures and reveling in astonishment at the history in and around those walls, we reluctantly bid the watchful ATVer's farewell and headed back down the mountain to drive over to Randsburg. Randsburg was and is again a mining town. Ghost town enthusiasts classify it as semi-dead. Much of the town is abandoned or decayed. Some areas are inhabited and even restored to turn of the century glory. After a nice late lunch in the General Store, we headed home to Lancaster, tire, dirty and satisfied.
I can only hope and pray that BLM and the Park Service with quickly step into the gap and move to protect this place before someone does something incredibly stupid. This place is an irreplacable treasure trove of several era's past. Unfortunately the site is not posted "no tresspass" and the 4 feet high fence around the shacks is down in several places already. This provided no restriction to the property other than it's remote site and the viligance of the back country folks who watch over this historical gem.
http://www.deathvalley.com/dvtalk/messages/8536.shtml
http://www.death-valley.us/article659.html
http://www.deathvalley.com/dvtalk/messages/16427.shtml
also see the previous links in my last post.
After being moderately disappointed with Garlock, on a whim the kids and I drove up to the Burro Schmidt Mine. Why disappointed you might ask?.. I'd very much wanted to get some up close and inside pictures of the Garlock buildings. Unfortunately the caretaker and owner simply would not allow it much to my frustration. Little did we expect to be so utterly blown away by what we found on the way to and at the Burro Schmidt Mine. Again rather than go into extreme details about the back ground of the mine, I've included some websites.
From Garlock, we drove only about 8 miles to get to the mine. One mile on a highway, 7 miles on gravel trails going up a mountain canyon, climbing 2500' vertically into the back country. I'm glad I've got a dependable 4-wheel drive. There was more than one occasion I thought to myself that it would really suck badly to break down or get stuck out here in BFE. On the way up the canyon, we stopped and tentatively explored a few mine tunnels that dove into the granite of Black Mountain. I couldn't imagine working these small tunnels in the hopes of finding a vien of gold of silver. Some of the mines went in hundreds and perhaps thousands of feet. Since I didn't have to correct lights, safety gear and partners, I didn't delve too deep, but I seriously want to go back and look in some of the hundreds of abandoned diggings.
After bouncing around up those rough roads and following small signs pointing toward the mine we passed a broken down homestead, rounded a bend and there it was. No touristy stuff, just a plaque, some rails leading into the tunnel and a deep dark hole in the side of the mountain. I was really surprised that with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sign at the edge of the mine property, there was no official presence there. None, nada, neyt.. Given this, we wandered to the entrance of the 4460' long mine/tunnel. I kept expecting that just inside the open entry gate to find some fence or barred gate restricting access, but I walked into the mine nearly 100 feet without restriction. I would have gone further but my daughter got very antsy and begged me to return closer to the entrance. At the time, I hadn't found the reference that the mine had been cut through solid granite and required no shoring beams to safeguard the ceiling. Nothing short of dynamite or an earthquake was going to bring down those walls.
As I came back and turned around to get several pictures, my daughter really wound up. There moving towards us in the dark tunnel were a pair of misty eyes. NO body, just eyes floating towards us about 4 and a half feet above the floor of the tunnel. Rather than retreat, I actually advanced back into the mine. Hey they were being curious or sociable, why shouldn't I?.. As I approached, they faded out. I softly commented that I was impressed by the mine and merely was there to take pictures. Of the three I took in the mine, two came out with a hazy quality (probably due to the quartzite in the walls). The last one was unbelievably blurred as if the camera was shook. This is an SLR 35mm, with little time delay set in the exposure so I'm not sure what happened. Given my daughter's increasing anxiety I went ahead an retreated from the tunnel and climbed back in the Jeep.
Coming back around the bend there was the homestead again. Since it was only 200 feet from the mine entrance I figured it had to be associated with the mine. After calling out several times and getting no answer, I left the kids in the Jeep and wandered right up to the open door. The place was no only uttered abandoned and completely open, but the two main buildings were strewn with the debris, tools, parts and brica brac of William Burro Schmidt and Tonie Seger (the last caretaker). I had read before going up that she had died last year and her relatives were trying to run the property, but they had been pushed out by BLM.
The property contained two main buildings and several outbuildings. Closest to the mine was Burro Schmidt's shack. This wood slat and tin building looked ancient but sturdy. All around the shack was the remains of mining equipment, jars, bottles, chests and so forth. Most looked old but were servicable and intact. We were about to go inside the shed when a group of of 6 ATVers on Quad-4's came roaring up one of the trails from below. Discretion being the better part of valor, I sent the kids back to the Jeep and approached them to see if they knew anything about the building. After a moment or two sizing each other up, I explained I was an amateur photographer and historian who was there to document a little about the property. This eased their mind that I wasn't there to steal stuff, they told me about the various parts of the property and actually encouraged me to go into Burro Schmidt's shack.
It was utterly dumbstruck when the kids and I entered. The shack was built when Schmidt settled on the mountain around 1900. Considering the lack of building materials, he used newspapers, boxes, magazines and gunny sacks to close up the many holes between boards. This part of the Mojave Desert gets rain about once every 50 to 100 hundred years, so most of these papers products were remarkable intact. I would have gone through ten rolls of film and not captured enough images of the many unbelievably preserved publications, advertisements and box tops dating back to 1910. Along walls and floor were littered the remains of shoes, books, ledgers, and even ancient vacumn cleaner. The ATV'ers explained that the last property holder had keep the shed up as a sorta museum dedicated to Schmidt's work. She didn't charge, but happily accepted donations.
After viewing the shack and the associated work areas around the outside, we entered the Seger house and stepped back into the 1970's. The stories note that Tonie Seger was something of a hermit much like Schmidt. By all accounts, she was generally regarded as a good natured woman who enjoyed visitors to "her" and relished the title of "the Tunnel Lady." The house was really a collection of imprved shacks that had been added to and expanded over decades. The ATVer's told me that the BLM had run out to people who'd moved into the building following her passing last year (2003). BLM and ATV club volunteers then collected and carted out an amazing 11 tons of debris. I think the intent had been to preserve the inside of the house in a condition close to how it was when she lived there, but the government didn't follow through with a site protection plan.
Clothing and vartious personal items were scattered but unbroken throughout the house. Every wall, corner and space seemed to have a story all it's own. In what had been a gift shop of sorts was a lonely teddy bear waiting forlornly for an owner who'd never come back. In the kitchen ancient cleaning supplies, lay mixed with pots, pans and other tools. Empty spice and whiskey bottles sat side by side. Two 1970's era televisions were stacked in the living room area. Closets contained bits and pieces of clothing dating to that same era. Here and there lay personal pictures, mementos of family gatherings and the remains of a rich life gone by. Hopefully I'll have pictures available on-line in a matter of a few weeks.
After nearly 90 minutes of roaming the property, taking many pictures and reveling in astonishment at the history in and around those walls, we reluctantly bid the watchful ATVer's farewell and headed back down the mountain to drive over to Randsburg. Randsburg was and is again a mining town. Ghost town enthusiasts classify it as semi-dead. Much of the town is abandoned or decayed. Some areas are inhabited and even restored to turn of the century glory. After a nice late lunch in the General Store, we headed home to Lancaster, tire, dirty and satisfied.
I can only hope and pray that BLM and the Park Service with quickly step into the gap and move to protect this place before someone does something incredibly stupid. This place is an irreplacable treasure trove of several era's past. Unfortunately the site is not posted "no tresspass" and the 4 feet high fence around the shacks is down in several places already. This provided no restriction to the property other than it's remote site and the viligance of the back country folks who watch over this historical gem.
http://www.deathvalley.com/dvtalk/messages/8536.shtml
http://www.death-valley.us/article659.html
http://www.deathvalley.com/dvtalk/messages/16427.shtml
also see the previous links in my last post.
