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Amargosa Basin

The Amargosa Basin region between Death Valley and the Mojave Preserve in California.

17 posts

Mexican-American Labor Camp, Death Valley Railroad

Mexican-American Labor Camp, Death Valley Railroad

I came upon this site in a rather odd way: a video from an ultralight pilot flying over DV that came up on my YouTube feed last year. He passed over some odd looking ruins somewhere in the eastern part of the park that I glimpsed on the background. After

Beacon Hill Petroglyphs

Beacon Hill Petroglyphs

The Beacon Hill Petroglyphs are reported to have nearly 600 ancient etchings spread across 31 boulders. However, after an exhausting search of the site, which left us questioning our eyesight and sanity, we found a dozen or so at best. Perhaps the desert sun has a way of multiplying petroglyphs

Halloran Spring Petroglyphs

Halloran Spring Petroglyphs

Surprisingly, just off the I-15 freeway northeast of Baker in the Mojave Desert of California are four or five groups of rock art scattered across small basalt hills and along a sandy wash. The main site is right next to the freeway. And when I say right next to

Riggs Cabin

Riggs Cabin

Out near Baker is the Riggs Cabin at the old Riggs Mine. We first went out there on a chilly January day in 2004. I've been back many times over the years. It makes a nice place to camp. The oldest mine in the Silurian Hills, the Riggs

S and S Mine

S and S Mine

Way back in 2009, we went hiking out into the middle of the white-hot heart of the Mojave Desert in search of a modern mining site. We found it. The operation had been inactive since at least the early 1980s, and the mining camp was nearly intact. Almost everything

Sheep Creek Springs Cabin

Sheep Creek Springs Cabin

The historic Sheep Creek Springs Cabin (Sheep Creek Cabin) was removed by the Barstow Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in late October 2011. The BLM paid contractors $3,495 to remove the cabin. A mining camp sprang up here in 1906. Miners prospected for gold and silver in the hills

Halloran Arrastra

Halloran Arrastra

In the summer of 2014, I was out in the Eastern Mojave exploring around (which is pretty normal for me). This time, however, I was looking for an old mining site with an arrastra. There aren’t too many arrastras left out in the wild, so finding one is always