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Striped Butte Fallout Shelter

Striped Butte Fallout Shelter

Was this old mining adit made into a fallout shelter? Maybe it is one of Charles Manson’s secret hideouts? Or the Ballarat Bandit? Perhaps a local resident and miner set it up as an apocalypse bug-out shelter? Maybe it is one of many in the area? Perhaps I know

Angel Canyon Ruin

Angel Canyon Ruin

Lady Lou Mine

Lady Lou Mine

Occasionally, a friend will email me and ask if I have been to some old remote and obscure mine that has been long forgotten by normal, non-desert-obsessed (read: sane) folks. Usually, I haven’t. But occasionally, I actually have. Then, I sort through my photos and books and attempt to

Mexican Mine

Mexican Mine

On a trip in 2005, we were hiking through the thick Sierra Nevadan Forest in search of an old mine with a long tramway. It turned out to be a bit of a longer hike than we thought it would be, and we weren’t seeing a tram.

Jackrabbit Mine

Jackrabbit Mine

This mine was worked as early as the 1880s and produced $2.5M dollars before 1906. It continued to be active until 1959. That is a long time, and total production could be as high as $10M, but some of the recorded production is lost to history. That’s a

Newberry Cave Pictographs

Newberry Cave Pictographs

Nestled high in the mountains above Barstow, Newberry Cave sits quietly and unassumingly. Caves and pictographs are both rare in the Mojave Desert; this is a unique and amazing place. The cave was first discovered by locals in the 1930s but wasn’t excavated until 1953 by Dr. Gerald Smith,

Lida Wash Petroglyphs

Lida Wash Petroglyphs