Red Cloud Mine Shaft

Yeah! I figured out how to get pictures back on the blog.  The picture with the tower is where the mine shaft is of the Red Cloud Mine.  At ground level -- can't really see it in the picture-- there are gates covering the shaft.  The gates have open grids so the bats can still fly in and out of the mine.  The last time we tried to visit the caretaker here he was working down in the mine so we missed seeing him.  This time when we got to see him he was all cleaned up -- scraggly long beard cut off and hair neatly trimmed.  He had to look good because he had to go to court.  He had shot his gun off on some trespassers.  It turned out the trespassers were border patrolmen out of uniform.  He must not have had to go to jail if he's still out at the mine.  The property has been shot up by trespassers in the past so its no wonder he's touchy about someone trespassing. 

If you look closely at the hole in the side of the hill you will see the chimney stack sticking out of the top.  Its hard to believe that miners actually lived in these caves but there are quite a few dug into the sides of hills in the area. 

Its been cold here at night this last week with temps dipping just below freezing.  They are very nervous about the lettuce crop freezing.  Its quite devastating to the local economy when large acreages of crops are lost.  The flu has hit here but so far we have remained untouched. 

Red Cloud Mine

Can't seem to upload pictures at the moment.  Google changed something and hoepfully they will fix the problem soon.  If not I will have to start using Picasa Web Albums for pictures.  Not sure how to do that but I guess I can learn.

We have a new intern that will be working at the refuge for 10 months.  We took her up to Red Cloud Mine to meet the caretaker.  He has a very lonely job being out two hours from the nearest store, etc.  He showed us the new doors they put on the mine shaft.  The doors are bat friendly so bats can go in and out of the mine as they please.  The shaft is over 500 feet deep.  The mine started out as a silver mine and then when silver prices took a dive the caretakers over the years discovered wulfenite.  A very pretty orange crystal.  Not sure if its good for jewelry or is just pretty to look at and very rare. 

The current caretaker told us that the mine is now being leased by a mining operation out of Nevada.  They want to go after silver again but have been too busy mining for gold in Nevada to get started here. 

The miners back in the 1800's used to dig holes in the sides of hills and make a cave to live in complete with a hole in the "roof" for a stove pipe.  There isn't a lot of wood to build with and the caves were nice and cool in the heat.  If I get the chance I will post the pictures I had of the mine and the miners cave. 

Hillbilly Gold Mining?

Two of our fellow workampers went up to an old gold mine and got a chance to meet the caretaker.   The caretaker gave them some rocks that he was fairly confident had gold in them.  All you have to do is crush them and pan the crushed gravel for the gold.  Jim had also met the caretaker and actually seen him crush rock and pan out the gold.   We are trying to put together a mining display for the visitor center.  We thought some crushed rock and maybe a little sparkle of gold in an old gold pan would look cool in the display.  So Jim and Bruce, the other guy in the picture, took a post hole digger pounder and used it to crush some rock.  They crushed several nice rocks and we panned them out but no gold just some flour gold that wouldn't get a bee's belly yellow.

Jim had to take a picture of the duck towards the back of the picture.  The two black ducks with the white beaks are Coot.  The other two we discovered are American Widgeons.  We've never seen this kind of duck before.  They came down for the winter.  We get lots of different kinds of migrating ducks and birds and its interesting to try and figure out what they are. 

   

Coyote

Coyotes are all over the place around here.  If you don't see or hear them you certainly see their scat (animal poop).   Most are small and almost look like grey foxes.  Life is tough in the desert so the larger predators tend to be smaller than the ones you find in the northern states. 

We are having a quiet Christmas -- making a turkey and some pecan pie from the fresh pecans I got this spring when we were in New Mexico.  This friday is a full moon and myself and another volunteer are going to guide a full moon hike.  We have 20 people coming out to the refuge to do the moonlight walk.  It's our most popular hike -- always full with a waiting list.  I'm hoping all goes well.  We just walk up a dry wash and talk about the moon and the animals that are out in the desert at night.  We spend a little time looking in a cave (just in the entrance) for evidence of bats and birds and scorpions.  Luckily at this time of year the scorpions and snakes, for that matter, aren't out -- it's too cold.

Wild Horses

 

We were driving north on Highway 95 toward Quartzsite and saw wild horses close to the side of the road.  There is about a three mile corridor where there is some grass growing close to the road and thats where they were grazing.  It seems odd to find wild horses roaming around in such a deserty area.  Horses and burros were left behind in the area during the old mining days.  They have survived and as far as the burros are concerned they have thrived.  The Bureau of Land Management did a burro round up last April.  They rounded up over 400 burros from the area.  The burros are put up for adoption.  They say that there are still over 800 burros roaming free.  There are not as many wild horses.  I have not heard how many horses they think are roaming free.

 

We went to Quartzsite to work on the gold claims.  Our gold club memebership ends at the end of the month so we wanted to work one of the claims at least one more time.  We brought back a 5 gallon bucket of dirt and and so far no gold but we aren't to the bottom yet.  We bought a $25 bag of dirt that is guaranteed to have gold in it.  We wanted to test our gold wheel machine to make sure it works.  We ran the bag of dirt through it and we found lots of tiny gold.  Yes, the machine works so now we know we just haven't found any gold on our own with it.   

Desert Life

Jim rinsed the dust off the roof of the RV so he could spray and mop rubber roof treatment over it.  All of the water around the rig attracted wildlife such as this lizard.  This one was pretty good size, harmless, just looking for a drink.  The only poisonous reptile around is the Gila Monster.   The desert may look desolate but there is a lot of life out there.  It is also very beautiful in a different way from the blues and greens up north.   

This is the start of our 5th winter in a desert area and we really have learned to love the desert.  It is so nice to get up everyday and its sunny, warm and dry.  The temperature has stayed in the high 70's, low 80's and up until a day or two ago was only going down to the 50's at night.  Now it is starting to get a little colder at night -- into the low 40's. 

I took the plunge and went to the dentist in Mexico.  It was a very good experience.  All the latest equipment, very nice waiting area , I saw the instuments taken out of their sterile packaging.  So I had a crown done.  The cost was $250 and its porcelain and matches my other teeth perfectly so I can't complain.

River Queen Boat Tour

The volunteers and some of the refuge staff get to go on an annual commercial boat tour as part of our welcome, orientation, and to show how much we are appreciated.  This year we went on the River Queen Historic Boat Tour.  The boat as seen "docked" in the picture is a jet boat and only needs 8 inches of water.  The tour operator and his mate can dock the boat in the narrowest openings of the weeds along the river.  Here we docked and walked up to an old miners cabin.  We also docked and walked back to where there were petroglyphs and a backwater lake (pond). 

The Colorado River is a ribbon of blue with narrow strips of green along the water's edge.  Down here there are mountains on both sides of the river and it makes it very picturesque.  The river is so winding that even though we were only 20 some miles from Yuma we were almost 60 water miles from town.   The river is low this time of year with lots of sandbars.  If you want to navigate the river in a boat you need to zigzag from side to side.  The water on the sides of the river are deeper than the middle.   If you canoe, the middle of the river is your friend because if you tip your canoe all you have to do is stand up.