Rob Roy Mine

Jim had to haul a generator out to the Rob Roy mine on the Kofa Wildlife Refuge.  The maintenance guys from Imperial Wildlife Refuge were out at the mine working on reroofing an old building on the Rob Roy property and the generator they had brought out didn't work.  The Rob Roy mine was recently purchased by the refuge.  They like to keep at least one building in useable condition so that hunters and other guests have a shelter to spend the night in if needed.   The Rob Roy was an old gold mine and has all kinds of old artifacts from busier mining days.  While Jim was there the caretaker took some rock and crushed it and then panned it out and lo and behold there was gold in the pan.   Of course, once the refuge takes full possession no one will be able to do any more mining.  
The former owner of the Rob Roy is 93 years old and still owns the King of Arizona mine which is an active gold mine.   

There is a small cemetary close to the mines that dates from the late 1800's.  Back then there were quite a few miners working these mines and they had their families with them.  There are mounds of rocks defining the graves but only one gravestone that can be read.  The rest of the graves probably had wood markers that are long gone. 

More Kofa Cabins

The other cabins we visited while out in the northern section of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge were these two in the pictures.  The top one is called Hoodoo Cabin and was actually built from a kit in 1940.  It was a line cabin.  Line cabins were used by ranchers when they were so far out from home that they couldn't get back before dark.  They had this cabin to sleep in and cook in.  The left side of the cabin with the rounded roof was a full kitchen.  The other side was the sleeping quarters with a wood stove and in the back was a bathroom with a shower.  There is no water to this cabin now but it can still be used as a place to stay overnight.

The wooden cabin is Wilbanks cabin and is built where the old Wilbanks homestead originally stood.  The Wilbanks family lived out here and raised cattle before the big drought that caused the dust bowl.  It affected land as far west as western Arizona.  Its hard to believe this area ever supported a large ranch full of cattle but it did.  The homestead burnt down killing some family members and the rest of the family moved to "town" after the trajedy.  It takes a few hours even now to get out to these cabins and its hard to believe people lived out here and survived. 

Kofa Cabin

One of the first things we did when we got to the refuge was go out into a remote section with another volunteer couple.  The other couple help maintain the Kofa side of the refuge system while we help maintain the Imperial side.  They invited us along to see the more remote section and help them with a few of their duties.  It was quite a ride out there.  There were two major "rain events" this summer and fall that hit the refuge.  The roads in the refuge were pretty much washed out not being much as far as roads in the first place.  Most roads just follow washes so when the water flows through them they get filled in with sand and gravel or just washed away.  One wash had over 8 feet of water in it during the big rain -- hard to believe when all we've seen is dry, dusty washes that look like they haven't seen any kind of water running through in a century. 

We did a circle tour that is less than 30 miles.  It took us all day to complete.  The road that was there last spring was gone.  We were riding in a 4 wheel drive truck with a small backseat so all four of us could ride together.  We were lucky the guy driving was very good at driving off road.   He took that truck where we didn't even see a road ahead of us just rock and steep, deep cuts.

The first cabin we checked was called Kofa cabin.  Kofa is short for King of Arizona -- the name of a famous mine in the area.  This cabin was built by the CCC back in the 30's and this group of cabin builders consisted of native americans.   The cabin is available to guests to spend the night -- just a shelter, no water, no toilet.  There is a water tank in the yard that is kept full by a windmill and is maintained for the bighorn sheep.  The tank is fenced to keep the burros out.  The refuge doesn't like the burros which are non native leftovers from the mining days.  The burros compete with the desert bighorn sheep for food and territory. 

Sedona

Our next stop on our way south through Arizona was Prescott Valley.  We took a day trip from there and drove over the mountain through a little mining town called Jerome to get to Sedona.  Sedona is known for its beautiful red rocks.  They truly are beautiful from what we could see.  We didn't go to Red Rock State Park or the famous creek where you can slide down the big flat rock like a giant natural water slide.  We did check out all the neat shops and saw all kinds of places where you could buy crystals and have your "aura" checked.  There are many art galleries and tourist shops and interesting places to eat -- all on the spendy side. 

We drove to the Sedona airport to a restaurant that overlooks the runway.  Supposedly you can see lear jets coming in and taking off "part of the rich crowd" that hang out in Sedona but it was pretty quiet when we were there.  Our burgers came with green chili fries -- very good-- not really spicy hot just pieces of green chili battered and fried.  We also saw a restaurant that was serving cactus fries -- maybe next time. 

Prescott (pronounced preskit) and Prescott Valley are popular retirement communities.  The weather year round is pretty nice because the area is at 5000ft.  The drawback to towns that attract retirement crowds -- the roads are busy all the time because no one works.   They are always out shopping and eating.   We did find a forest service recreation area that had gold panning.  We found one little spec after about an hour and a half. 

We have begun our orientation for working at the refuge for the winter and start actual work this first full week of November.