September 2022 News Here are the news and updates since July. It's been a busy couple of months for me personally. I've been busy with home stuff and haven't gotten out like I would have wanted to but that is coming to an end and I'
El Dorado Mine James “Chuckwalla Jim” Wilson discovered a rich gold-bearing outcrop of rock in this canyon of the Hexie Mountains in 1901. He called it the "El Dorado" (also spelled Eldorado) and transported small batches of ore on burros to the mill at Pinyon Well or all the way to
Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines Unlike many of Joshua Tree's more remote mining sites, the Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines can be reached via a relatively easy 2-mile loop hike. This makes them ideal for visitors who want to see mining sites with limited time or who prefer shorter trails. Silver Bell
Hess Mine Not far from the Tioga Pass entrance station to Yosemite National Park lie the remains of the Hess Mine, one of the more accessible 1940s-era tungsten mines in the High Sierra. Three widely-separated claims comprised the mine: the main claim at the north end of Steelhead Lake; a small middle
The Blueprint Petroglyph The desert has gone silent. Where once it was inhabited by homesteaders, miners, and even ranchers, now it's a checkerboard of wilderness areas delineated by long, lonely roads. Surely many interesting and historic sites remain, but how accessible are they now that most of the roads have been
Chuckawalla Bill's Anthony William Simmons, also known as Simon but more famously as "Chuckawalla Bill," fixed up this little cabin and lived here from around 1932 to 1936. From what I could piece together, he was born on August 2nd, 1875, in Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army
July 2022 News Since the May 2022 update, I've done some work on updating the look and feel of the site. The site has a new theme (which I'm still thinking about. I'm picky about the way the site looks). I added a new Search option that