Abandoned Gold Mine

History is very fickle, we learn one thing and any other information that doesn’t fit that narrative simply isn’t true. It doesn’t occur to us that the truth can encompass our original knowledge plus more.

Case in point, gold mines.  The existed in Northern CA and maybe parts of Nevada, but certainly not in Southern California. This weekend I had the opportunity to hike to a local mine and learn a lot, not only about gold but also about the old fashioned way of mining.

Kudos to The Los Angeles Obscura Society for organizing  a hike in the Angeles Forest to The Big Horn Mine with expert Eric aka Xavier Drenfold, a twenty year old kid with a passion for old mines.The mine was discovered in 1895. What we see here is the active, rapid decay of the mill. The Mine itself is tunneled into the mountain, this structure was the mill, where the gold was extracted from the rock. By the time it left the mountain, about 98% of the gold had been extracted – a very high rate. The work was done onsite – simply because it was more cost effective.The structure is rapidly falling apart, in 20 years it will be completely gone. These mountains erode very quickly as we found on our hike out, the July rainstorm caused a lot of erosion that hadn’t been there just a month before. Mills are always built at the exit of the mine, right on the slope, so of course, the structure is collapsing. A massive iron hook to hold the cablesFlowers grow among the steal cables.Pilings that held the ore-carts.

Getting all this equipment up the mountain was probably achieved by using mules. We hiked a long what is left of a road that was built out to the mine. The man who found the mine, Thomas Vincent never had the money to invest -so he sold to someone else and worked for them.This mine was never very profitable, because of how the gold is embedded in other minerals, it is simply very hard to extract – especially with the old techniques of one hundred years ago. The Mine changed hands at least 7 times, no one made much of a profit. In 2006 the Forest service bought it since it is surrounded by National Forest land, so whatever gold is there – will remain.Yes, it is a little scary standing in here, who knows when something will give way and fall.I’m sorry to see that graffiti is now the norm even out in the wilderness. Yes I hold the Art world somewhat responsible – they decided that graffiti is art and even have exhibitions of it in museums – all this does is encourage more people to go out and tag.  As cities have gotten better at controlling graffiti, people simply go out and destroy nature – because they can. Also because they have been told that it is ‘art’ and is valuable. No it isn’t, it’s ugly, it’s destructive and its harmful.At least they haven’t gotten to this side yet.These rickety stairs were placed here in the 1970s’  not a safe way to get up to the actual mine. But You know me, old man made materials are often very beautiful to me, especially as they age and decay.Like here, the confluence of  materials.  Once the mine is no longer operational, no one is going to spend any money removing the structures and much of the equipment. Which is what makes the mines so fascinating. The Forest service does not like this and they have been destroying and closing up mines where ever they can. They are about the forest and the safety of hikers, not about preserving mines – even if they are an important part of our heritage.Massive bolt.Part of the stamp process that still remains.This is the entrance to a smaller mine we passed along the way, but this is what the Forest service has done to many of these mines. The only reason they haven’t blasted this shut is because of the bats that live here.Most of the group went in to explore, sorry, I get very nervous in dark closed spaces, a few flash lights won’t make it easier for me.So I snapped a few images at the entrance and went back down.  If you are interested in images from inside the mine, got to Xavier’s Flicker page.  I must say I was extremely impressed with Eric. 20 years old, has found a passion in life, yet he recognizes that exploring old mines is no way to make a living, so he is studying nursing. That way he will have a good solid career as well as a fascinating hobby.Nature is right outside the mine.