Anderson Mill (Parts I & II)

This was another place we visited more than once. The first time Kevin and I came alone, the second we brought a couple friends out to show then what we had found, plus do some more exploring.

The first trip we we took to the area, we only made it to Anderson Mill. The second time we did a little more exploring.

We started the morning looking around some small mines right off North Mine Road. There was only one that appeared to be open, but it was a huge drop and we did not bring any way to get us out of the hole if we jumped in. The second time, however, our friends brought some rope so Kevin and Kalla belayed down into the mine. It turned out to just be a loop underground that opened up into a decent sized cavern. I chose not to go down, however. I didn't trust myself to get back out...

Building

And then of course we found this cactus with a bra on to use as a point of reference.





The mill was pretty awesome compared to most things that we have seen on our trips. It was still very sturdy and all of the parts that were supposed to move, still did. Kevin had a blast turning the rock sifter thing. We ran into a native (trying to impress his woman with the mill) who said the mill had been stripped of a lot of its parts since his last visit, but there was still quite a bit left. He then made a joke about our "awesome ATV" aka the fact that we were in an ATV area with a Subaru. Yeah, we win.

 After finding the mill the first trip (this mill was used for mica mining, interesting tid-bit), we explored the hills to find more mines. All of them had been found by the state mine inspect and had been filled in. Very disappointing. We gave up after a while and headed home.

The way we took wasn't, the same as the way we came in, and we weren't sure we were going to be able to  get out. We went out of the wash, instead of going back to North Mine Road, and the way ended up being 10 more miles than the way we came in. We did, however, find some interesting things along the way.











The most note worthy find was an old barn that originally held the donkeys the miners used (the ancestors of the burros who so rudely woke us up in the morning). Inside was the skeleton of an old burro, with most of the core still intact.

The second trip we did a little more exploring. We went further north up the wash and found another burro enclosure. We also found some graves (not very old, 2008) and quite a few old houses. One looked like it had been ransacked then left to burn. It was pretty creepy. Apparently there is an open mine around the abandoned shack, but we left that for another trip.

 There are so many interesting sights in this area, and I'm sure we have not even touched the tip of the iceberg of things to see. Look for more future blog posts about this area!

More pictures:

The windmill pumps water still!

Fight to the death, and they both died

Pulley system to get into the mine

Neat hunting shack we found

Still works!

Can you spot the burros?