March
2000
September
1971 arrived with Ray and myself heading out Interstate 15 toward an area
near the Nevada border. Our destination was the "high
desert" of California, a land markedly different from the "low desert"
still baking in the sun along the lower Colorado River. A previous journey
put us in the ghost town of Providence with it's Bonanza King lead/silver
mine. Now we left the freeway at the Cima Road
offramp and entered almost the extreme borders of the Joshua Trees, in
the Mojave Desert. To add to the magic of the Mojave, range cattle were
seen from time to time sleeping in the shade of the Joshua Trees and around
a watering tank.
We
made camp in a cluster of Joshua Trees, along one of the interconnecting
roads that led to some still operating small mines. Morning came too soon
as it has a habit of doing. Normally the deserts are still quite hot in
September, but remember, we are now in the high desert and while colder
through the night, the days are what we Californians
call "T-Shirt" weather. The cactus we are familiar with in the lower desert
did not appear here. A type of Spanish Dagger grew along with the Joshua
Trees and several kinds of bushes.
After
breakfast, we prepared our dual-purpose motorcycles for our day of exploration.
I had a brand new Honda SL125, and Ray was riding his Honda SL350 Twin.
As a carryover from my hiking days, I wore a roomy day pack. Using motorcycles
instead of 4-wheel drive vehicles required the rider to carry a number
of items that would make sure he got back to camp. I carried a small first-aid
kit, towing rope, small tools rolled up in a T-Shirt, snacks, fire-making
items, motorcycle owners manual, water, along with paper to wrap interesting
rock samples, and one or two cameras (a Stereo Realist 3-D camera, and
a Pentax H3V single-lens reflex camera). To all this might be added our
riding jackets and gloves to keep the bushes at bay. Top this with our
fiberglass helmets and we should come to no harm. I added a metal fishing-rod
case strapped to the motorcycle loaded with the topographic maps we thought
we might need, as well as the auto club maps to give us the big picture.
Quite a load!!
Tromping
on
the kick starter levers we brought our iron ponies to life and off we
went. From our camping spot we headed West to rejoin the Cima Road, thence
South East on the well paved road down to Cima (a small store and gas
station). The Union Pacific railroad passes by Cima, and we rode down
to and on the railroad service road paralleling the tracks to Ivanpah.
Not the mines of Ivanpah which were in a direction said to be on the back
side of Clark Mountain, but a rail signal stop.
We
left the railroad and explored a connecting road that led to the site
of Vanderbilt, on the West side of the New Y ork
Mountains. We saw some abandoned workings; mostly some tailings and an
unshored tunnel. The tunnel mouth was nice and cool, so we made it our
"riding break", leg stretch and posterior blood circulation restorer.
It was a good time to look at our maps and decide where next to go. And
that was to head back to our camp and pick up another mine or two depending
on how hot my new motorcycle's tight engine got going back uphill. With
several stops to face my hot engine sideways into the breeze, and thus
to forestall seizing a piston, we got back to camp, rested a bit and had
some lunch.
After
lunch,
we again refilled our gas tanks and loaded up the motorcycles and headed
North East into the the early afternoon through the Piute Valley, ending
up at the Iron Horse Mine. It was for the moment abandoned. The Iron Horse
was a very small mine. It is a silver/lead mine of low grade and was worked
for a short time before 1941. Along with some silver and lead it also
had some copper and iron. We parked in the afternoon shade and
explored the mine area. Despite the jerry-built form of consruction, we
saw a clever method to route the no-value "country rocks" over the storage
bin and the road used by the trucks loading ore for transportation to
a mill, using one set of track to either fill the ore bin or dispose of
the "country rocks" on the tailings pile.
The
track had two openings along the dumping route. If it was good ore, they
stopped the ore car at a certain point and released the dumping mechanism,
dropping the ore into the storage bin. If it was "country rocks" the car
continued along the track until it was stopped at the end, and the car
dumped onto a long chute that took the material beyond the loading road
and dumped it onto the tailings pile. Ray is seen standing on the rail
bed in one of the pictures. In another picture I point my camera down
the ore chute for a rocks-eye view of the holding bin. The long shadows
of late afternoon drew our attention to supper time back at our camp some
eight miles distant. The weather was still pleasant and the sun on the
Joshua Trees painted them a golden color.
Next
morning after breakfast, we decided to look at the Copper King mine near
the West side of the Ivanpah Mountains. Riding preparations as usual.
At last we set off, bouncing over the dirt roads and came at last to the
Copper King mine.
You
can see in the pictures the head frame used immense wood beams. Thats
Ray climbing up the stair steps
from the deck above the sorting bins. I soon joined him and had a great
view of a rusty steel building and an old one cylinder engine near it.
It may have been used to pump water from a well. This mine brought up
copper carbonates. An inclined shaft was sunk prior to 1910, and went
down as deep as 225 feet. There were other shallow diggings in the area,
but no actual production was listed. Leaving the Copper King mine, we
did further exploring on this trip, but I'm saving that for another adventure
from the pages of Jerome's Notebook. I hope you enjoyed the trip. --Jerome
W. Anderson -- Jerome W. Anderson
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