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 exist in the wild, so we were very interested in finding it.
Read next

Chemung Mine
The Chemung Mine tells two stories, and neither one ends well. The first is about phenomenally rich gold ore that someone discovered in 1909 – ore so valuable it ran "several hundred dollars per ton" in an era when that meant real money. The second story is about a

May Lundy Mine
Just northwest of Mono Lake lies Lundy Canyon, home to a Mono County campground, a large lake, and a small resort with a few cabins and campsites. Most visitors today come for the fishing, hiking, and fall color, probably unaware that this quiet area was once home to a booming
