Trail Report: Ghost Towns of Mojave

[mkjeepers]

[COLOR="Blue"]We did another historic run through the Mojave Desert. This time I focused more on ghost towns than the mines, though these are mining ghost towns.

What better place to start than the active Red Mt area. This area dates back to the late 1800's with many of the structures of that era still standing.

Many of the mine sites in this area have been abandoned and inactive for decades but the structures are still standing.

Atolia, Red Mt, Johannasburg and Randsburg still have active mining going on there and many people still live in the towns, so much of the exploring has to be done from the public streets.

From there we went over to Garlock, Old Garlock and a few other smaller ghost "camps" to do more exploring. We didn't have time to go through all of the mining camps in that area, but visited some of the less know ones on this trip. Others are Bickle camp, Burro Schmitt's, Bonanza gulch, Last chance cyn, etc.

THe rain and snow held off, for the most part, till we reached the pavement, then it hit hard all the way home.

A few links
Atolia, Ca.
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow
Johannasburg and Randsburg, Ca.
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow
Garlock area.
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow
Red Rock
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow

A few pix[/COLOR]

Atolia, Ca.










Johannasburg



King Solomon Mine





Another Mine


Another mine



Randsburg











Other mining Camps





Another camp





Lady K mine



New Garlock





Old Garlock - this was a hay bailing area. There are several acres of alfalfa fields here.







The start of a flash flood







Hidden camp

[headhunter]

Thanks for sharing more great exploring with us!

I especially like the entrance to this mine.

Christian

[Nipple Twister]

Very nice pics........

....and report.......thx for sharing, always look forward to your trail reports and never disappointed, very cool place too......

[Geebo]

Very Cool Thank,s for the report and awesome picture,s ..looks like ya had a blast exploring out there...

[Guest]

We did the Randsburg and the "tunnel" run recently. Missed those mines though!

Thanks for the pics.

[mkjeepers]

We did the Randsburg and the "tunnel" run recently. Missed those mines though!

Thanks for the pics.

[COLOR="Blue"]We've gone to most all of the mines in the Red Rock NP area in the past. The Burro Schmidts tunnel is pretty cool. It goes all the way through the mountain and out the other side. I'm not too sure if old Burro found much gold there though.

In fact history has it that it took Burro 32 years (1906-1938)to make it all the way through the mountain (a half mile in length). He wasn't looking for gold, but he didn't want to take another dangerous route over to Mojave to have his ore processed, so he decided to go through the mountain instead. He cut it through solid granite with a pick and shovel. After he was done with the tunnel he never used the route to take his ore down the mountain. He ended up selling his claim and moved away. (Love some of these mining stories)
mk[/COLOR]

[Guest]

32yrs he dug that tunnel by hand! I heard he found enough to support him. Poor guy ended up to high for it to be worth his trouble. Keep him alive for all those years. I heard he was sick or something when he started and they only gave him a short while to live.

[Ol Man]

I used to ride motorcycles all around that area a lot, especially back in the 80s. One of my memorable trips was a run through the Rands with a mining geologist. He would take us into some of the mines and point out why they did not work. He said most of those miners had high expectations and not much geology knowledge; and a lot of energy.

Nice pictures once again Mike. Did you have lunch in Randburg at the fountain by chance?

[JeepGal]

Burro Schmidt didnt dig that tunnel to mine gold.

He thought that he could provide a direct route to the other side of the mountain to transport gold through. Unfortunately, where he popped out at wasnt condusive to building a road up to

We used to go visit Burro Schmidt camp when Tony Seger was still alive and living there. Its sad what its become

Tam

[mkjeepers]

Burro Schmidt didnt dig that tunnel to mine gold.

He thought that he could provide a direct route to the other side of the mountain to transport gold through. Unfortunately, where he popped out at wasnt condusive to building a road up to

We used to go visit Burro Schmidt camp when Tony Seger was still alive and living there. Its sad what its become

Tam

[COLOR="Blue"]It is very sad, someone had ransacked the very nice and livable cabin there on the site. The Red Rock park had a ranger there for awhile. Now it's nearly a ruin.

mk[/COLOR]

[curtis]

Mike is that hay cover with the bus by it on 395? If it is I can remember when they built it.

[mkjeepers]

Mike is that hay cover with the bus by it on 395? If it is I can remember when they built it.

[COLOR="Blue"]No it's right buy the little ghost town of Ceneda on the Rand/Garlock road.

mk[/COLOR]

[mkjeepers]

I used to ride motorcycles all around that area a lot, especially back in the 80s. One of my memorable trips was a run through the Rands with a mining geologist. He would take us into some of the mines and point out why they did not work. He said most of those miners had high expectations and not much geology knowledge; and a lot of energy.

Nice pictures once again Mike. Did you have lunch in Randburg at the fountain by chance?

[COLOR="Blue"]No lunch in Randsburg, we were in a hurry to get everything in before the rain. We did lunch in flooded Palmdale.

mk[/COLOR]

[Guest]

Burro Schmidt didnt dig that tunnel to mine gold.

He thought that he could provide a direct route to the other side of the mountain to transport gold through. Unfortunately, where he popped out at wasnt condusive to building a road up to

We used to go visit Burro Schmidt camp when Tony Seger was still alive and living there. Its sad what its become

Tam

Correct.

Correct again. To high! Not even close to the tracks.

It's a mess there now. I thought it would be different. People have destroyed it.

[lakev2]

Actually compared to a year and half ago, when i took the kits to burrow tunnel in november it was cleaned up a lot. Still ransacked, but very clean comparatively. My kids still won't go more than 50ish feet into the tunnel with me.