What a nice way to spend Christmas Day.

12/26/06

We spent a very nice Christmas Day. In the morning we puttered around the house and then as the day warmed up, we went Jeeping with Larry and Jean. We decided to make it a short jaunt since we were fairly tired from the day before and our hike to the Salado cliff dwellings. We had previously found a neat road that traveled through the desert on a pretty good, although seldom used Jeep Trail. We first stopped at a small stone structure, speculating on what it might have been used for. Reaching no conclusion, we drove on to a lovely grove of pecan and walnut trees located near a spring burbling out of the ground. There was an abundance of blackberry bushes in the area (making a mental note to return there and gather berries before the bears could get them in late spring.) The next stop was at the site of Sunrise Mine, an old Fluorite mine, nothing much left to see there because the mine had been intentionally covered over.

Further on down the road we explored an old homestead and scavenged for horseshoes to take home with us. Spending Christmas Day in the back country, leaning against our Jeep, gazing at the majestic scenery and having good conversation with friends was a wonderful experience. A very good day indeed.

Christmas Eve 2006

12/24/06

I suppose by a stretch of the imagination and following the definition of what a ghost town is, these have to be some of the oldest ones around this part of the country.
The Salado Indians inhabited much of the land throughout Arizona, during 1280s up until somewhere around 1350. They were farmers and gatherers for the most part and lived in cliff dwellings carved and built high up on canyon walls. Their perches enabled them to see if enemies were approaching and also gave them a vantage point to watch for any game that might come their way. The trees and heavy brush hid the dwellings from anyone walking the path below.
We visited one of these ruins on Christmas Eve with our friends Larry & Jean, their son and two granddaughters. A nice way to spend the holiday. We drove in as far as we could then hiked the 2+ miles to the ruins. It was a bit of a scramble up the steep path leading to the ruins, but we were rewarded with a super location to explore. The walls and ceilings built into the cliffside were made of stone and mud mortar, supported by long logs. In some places we could still make out the almost 700 year old fingerprints left in the mortar. Blackened stones overhead indicated the fires the ancients used for heating and cooking. From the interior of one of the rooms, we could see that at one time there were several levels of living space. The particular dwellings we visited are located high above Coon Creek in the Sierra Anchas of Arizona. Below the dwellings, along Coon Creek, the land was flat and easily irrigated by the waters of the creek were where the Salados did their farming.

   This must have been the same view the ancient Salado Indians had

Stones and mud mortar

From the inside looking out

Wonderful colors!

From here we could see that at one time, there were several levels to the living quarters.

Vestiges

I came across this picture in my files of an old stone house we came across in Lucerne Valley, California. I was inspired by it to write the following prose.

Stone House in Lucerne Valley, California

                                           Vestiges           
Trekking through the sage and scrub we happen upon walls of stone.
A hearth which once held the warmth of kinship now holds only ashes heated by the relentless sun.
Long gone are the hands that toiled and labored to form this humble dwelling.
Blood and sweat are no longer evident in the mortar that refuses to give up its hold.
Only an empty shell sits in silent testimony to the lives it once sheltered.
Wind whistling through empty rooms is the only sound our conscious mind can hear.
We pause and listen with our hearts,
only then can we perceive the faint sounds of laughter which once must have echoed here.
A broken doll cast aside on the sandy floor,
her button eyes reflect a look of longing for a long-gone playmate.
Shards of glass bespeak a time when a cup was raised in a toast to life.
Ragged remnants of lace flutter at the blankly staring windows,
a contradictory statement to these harsh surroundings.
Rust now blankets an iron bed,
once the place to rest a weary body,
Mutely we hear the sighs of a lover and the joyous tears of childbirth.
Now, as the desert reclaims what is hers,
only vestiges of those who dwelled within these walls remains ....
Soon all will return to the greedy arms of the land which once cradled them.
© LauraA 1999-2006

Tonto Basin Gypsum Mill

12/17/06

We did a bit of local Jeeping yesterday with Jean and Larry. We visited the Tonto Basin Gypsum Mill. It was a functioning mill as late as the 1970s until environmental constraints and high costs associated with gypsum milling closed it down. It has sat decaying since the owner just walked away from it (according to locals) At one time it served local gypsum mines in the area, such as the El Oso Mine, (a favorite 4x and offroad site) Last winter the heavy snow collapsed the roof, leaving the place unsafe and open to the elements. Neighbors of the place are currently trying to get the owner to clear the property so we thought we'd take some pictures before it's gone.

No clue what this did.

Ladder to nowhere

Inside the mill, now open to the elements

Falling apart at the seams

Searching for Azurite

12-9-06

We returned to the Bluebird this past weekend with the intention of looking for some Azurite in the mine. For some reason we feel drawn to return to it time after time. Our friends Larry and Jean and a friend of theirs' Dick, from Tucson wanted to go and we were more than willing to oblige. We did locate a vein of Azurite running through a crevasse in the ceiling, however, the stone surrounding it was way too crumbly to consider picking at. Our friend Larry did find enough Azurite on the ground so we could each take home a tiny souvenir. Next time we go, we'll go in further and take better lighting. As you can see from the photos, it's a rather spooky looking place.

Something about this shot reminded of a doctor's view of a colonoscopy

This adit looks too unsafe to attempt, we opted for an upper adit with better shoring.

This is a shot of the ceiling, you can barely make out the purple and blue of the Azurite vein.

Bluebird Mine, Success At Last!

UPDATE: 2/7/07

An interesting historical tidbit;

We just learned from the Globe Historical Society Archives that the famous balloonist, Maxie Anderson was the last owner of "our" Blue Bird Mine. Anderson was best known as the first, along with his partner Ben Abruzzo to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in a gas balloon in 1978. He was killed in a ballooning accident in Germany in June,1983 and since that time, the mine has become part of the Tonto National Forest.
Maxie Anderson invested in mining at an early age, probably to help support his passion for ballooning. Nobody seems to know what his intentions were for the Blue Bird, since it was thought that Azurite, the primary mineral at the Blue Bird had run out and there isn't a big market for Fluorite, the secondary mineral found there.
Since he purchased the mine between 1976 and 1980 after it had supposedly played out, I wonder if he knew there was something else worth mining there?
The Anderson-Abruzzi Balloon Museum is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

11/17/06

Finally, on our sixth attempt, we were able to achieve access to the Bluebird Mine. Ralph's son Scott, was visiting us from Los Angeles this past week and when he heard us talk about the Bluebird he said that he'd like to try to reach the mine with us while he was visiting, so we loaded up early Thursday morning and headed once again for the Bluebird. We figured if we had any vehicle problems, Scott being a young 43 year old would be physically able to hike out and get help. The road hadn't improved since we last traveled it with Brian10X, still tippy, elevated and as rocky as any road we'd want to travel in our mostly stock Jeep. We arrived at the Bluebird cabin without any damage except maybe my frazzled nerves due to the tip factor of the road.
The quarter mile hike back into the Bluebird Canyon was semi strenuous, with lots of boulders to scramble over and cactus spines to avoid, but at the end of the hike we were rewarded with success. There ahead of us were the remains of the Bluebird Mine. Finally, after 6 attempts, we had reached our goal. A large ore chute, a conveyor of some sort with tracks leading from the mine to the conveyor and then to the ore chute. There were assorted remains, fallen wooden buildings, tracks all over the place, an old assayer's office now covered with corrugated metal siding.
The view from the adit was dark and ominous as we peered into the gloomy interior but we decided to go for it. The walls and ceiling were solid rock, the floor was lined by ore cart tracks and very little sound marred the silence except for our muffled footsteps and nervous laughter as we left the light of the mine entrance behind us. Only our flashlight beams lit the way as we went deeper into the mine. When we had gone a very slow, 150 feet into the mine making twists and turns along the way our flashlight beams in unison focused on a dark form on the floor ahead of us. There, as we approached, we could make out the shape of a human figure and upon closer inspection, we could see it was a skeleton, dressed in rotting clothing, wearing boots that were decaying exposing bony toes. Scott, being young and foolishly brave moved aside a bit of clothing and we saw an arrow piercing the skeleton's chest and large silver coins spilled from his pockets. Around his waist were the remains of a holster with a large gun still in place. At that point we turned and headed out of the mine at a much faster pace than the one we used entering it................

And now, the truth.....
We did indeed finally reach the Bluebird Mine, but alas, no skeleton, no skeletal toes, no arrow, no coins and no holstered gun. We were instead rewarded with some really neat ruins. The conveyor with tracks leading up was something we hadn't seen before and while poking around the assayer's office, we found some old tools which had fallen down behind a bench. There was a heavy, handmade chair and of course modern day beer cans and shotgun shells littering the ground from previous explorers to the area. Dammit, I wish people would be more considerate of these places, but that's the topic for another thread. We weren't disappointed at all at not finding any hidden treasure, instead we had the satisfaction of finally reaching our goal. It was worth the wait. Sometime in not too distant future, this site will be gone, scheduled for "reclamation" but at least we've photographed it, explored it and brought home a few things which would have been lost to the bulldozer's blade. 
                                             

                     Ore bin, ore conveyor, and assayer's office

           in Bluebird Canyon
                                      

                                         One of the Bluebird's adits

                       Bluebird Mine adit with ore cart tracks

Scott & Ralph

Here's an old bat that flew out of the mine

 

Ore cart conveyor

Ore chute

Assayer's office

Ore Conveyor

Ore chute

Recovered treasures

 

Not a very comfy chair

 

 

Old Dominion Mine, Globe, Arizona

11/02/06

The Old Dominion Mine in Globe, Arizona originally opened in 1881 and continued operation until 1931 when it closed operations completely. It was mainly a copper mine with other smaller quantities of ore being removed as new veins were discovered. The mine operated up to 14 levels until water removal became a big problem.
The mine had a rather infamous place in history when in 1917, a miners strike spread throughout Arizona, beginning at the mines around Bisbee.
The owners of the Old Dominion had employed quite a few Mexican workers, but when they too decided to participate in the strike, the mine owner hired cowboys and gunmen to "herd" the Mexican workers to an internment camp along the Mexican border where they were kept under the harshest conditions until they agreed to return to work and not participate in the strike. The strike proved fairly successful however, wages and living conditions improved once public outcry had an impact on the mine owners.
The Old Dominion Mine has been recently "refurbished" and talks are currently underway with the mine owner BHP Billiton and the city of Globe to open the grounds as a public park. As you can see from the photos, it's been pretty much sterilized and only retains a semblance of its original glory days. There was a big discussion whether to keep the massive headframe in place, but so far, it looks like they'll leave it. I hope so, the mine would be little more than a few buildings and grated adits without it.

Old Dominion Mine after being "sterilized"