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Big Eye Mine

Big Eye Mine

Winter is a great time to be in the southern deserts of Arizona, and this time, we had our sights set on the Big Eye Mine down at the south end of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and the Castle Dome Mountains. A. K. Ketcherside of Yuma discovered the Big

Wall Street Mill

Wall Street Mill

The Wall Street Mill is Joshua Tree National Park’s most intact remaining historic gold stamp mill. Finding a stamp mill like this is rare these days. I’m grateful the NPS has preserved it for future generations to enjoy. Once owned and operated by renowned prospector and rancher Bill

Bennettville Ghost Camp

Bennettville Ghost Camp

Bennettville (once called Tioga) was a small mine camp with that typical ghost town story of boom and bust of a big strike that never panned out. Part of the Tioga Mining District, Bennettville was built to support one mine, the Great Sierra, and its famed Sheepherder lode. They believed

Pinto Wye Arrastra

Pinto Wye Arrastra

An arrastra is a simple and primitive gold milling device. Heavy stones are dragged over gold ore to crush it. Mercury and water are added to the floor of the arrastra to create an amalgam and capture the gold. There is some mystery about who built and used this arrastra.

Par Value Mill

Par Value Mill

Late autumn of 2017 found us tracking down a very unusual stamp mill high in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The mill was a unique hammer design called a Pratt Ideal Stamp Mill. Very few of these mills were ever put into use, and even fewer (if any!) still

Law’s Spring

Law’s Spring

Over the summer a few years ago, we explored the Ponderosa pine forests of northern Arizona. One of the spots we visited was Law’s Spring. It was an old campsite along the historic Beale Wagon Road. The Beale Road was born from a need to travel over the newly

Lava River Cave

Lava River Cave

In late spring 2015, we took a trip out to Flagstaff seeking cooler temperatures. One of the places we stopped at was the Lava River Cave. Formed in the Pleistocene, roughly 675,000 years ago, this 0.75-mile-long lava tube is remarkable for its length and tall ceilings; at some