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
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.
History
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
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
What remains of the Sunnyside Mill sits at the end of a short walk through the forest, a crumbled foundation and scattered machinery in a landscape that has largely erased a century of mining activity. The mine that fed this mill once had over 9,000 feet of underground workings