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Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines

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

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 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

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

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

Lucky Turkey Arrastra and Blind Mule Placer Cabin

Lucky Turkey Arrastra and Blind Mule Placer Cabin

These mines are a bit of a mystery as very little is known about them. The hike visits a roofless stone cabin first, then heads over to the Lucky Turkey Mine with its arrastra, and finally out to a remote cabin at the Blind Mule Claim. The little bits of

Sunnyside Mill

Sunnyside Mill

Deep in the forests of central Idaho and almost entirely surrounded by the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness is the Sunnyside Mine. Once a large mine, it has been completely reclaimed. It does have some mill ruins left. Discovered by the Caswell brothers in 1899, they sold the mine