More Mines

 

Rather than go straight back down from Bee Cave I cut across the face of the mountain to see what there was to see.  To my enjoyment I found a mine.  Unfortunately the Abandoned Mine Patrol had sealed off the entrance with a steel girder fence.  

Gee this looks like it would have been fun.

(insert sad face here)

On the rock wall to the left was this plaque.  Only ten years old?!  

 I looked up the name once back at camp and found only a listing on the Find a Grave website which has the place of death listed as El Paso, Texas, his home.  

So whatever the story is behind this, I don’t know.

I continued on and found another fenced off mine entrance but hey, someone had cut a hole in it!

Being a little guy I could just squeeze through.

Unfortunately it didn’t go very far and branched off in two directions.

Notice the holes drilled in for dynamite charges.

I had to leave my hat and haversack outside in order to slip through.

My biggest concern was cracking my fat head on the steel bars.

The ore was brought out and slid down this chute...

...to a truck waiting below.

As I was creating this post the thought came to mind how did they get the truck turned around to come back down the road?  There was no room to turn around up there.  Perhaps this mine pre-dates automobiles and a mule team dragged a wagon up there, they unhitched the mules and backed the wagon in under the chute then hitched the mules back up.