Summary: We went to the Eldorado Canyon Mine.

Saturday, February 23rd: Right after we started up again, after our lunch break, we spotted a herd of Bighorn Sheep!!!! They weren't far off the road, but we apparently startled them and they went running down the gully and up the hill. We got some pictures, though!!!

Carl and I had no idea what to expect at the end of our "Eldorado Canyon" trip. We read about a mine, but I thought there was a mine somewhere and that Eldorado Canyon was a beautiful canyon, with fantastic rocks or something. I didn't realize the mine was in the canyon. Duh!!! Most mines are in canyons. Anyway, we were really surprised to see all the old buildings, mining equipment and other memorabilia laying around. Over the last decade Tony & Bobbie (the mine owners) have restored and preserved a number of buildings at the mine site. Across from the mine sits a historic 1861 building which serves as a museum to the area and to the Techatticup Mine. This is a really, really interesting place!!!

Arrangements had been made for us to have a tour of the mine. The tour began with Tony telling us some of the history of the area. The Eldorado Canyon Mine is the oldest and most famous gold mine in Southern Nevado. The Techatticup Mine, located in 1861, was the most important mine in the Eldorado Canyon. It produced millions of dollars in gold ore, and was originally served by steamboats on the Colorado River. The mine's name is taken from two Paiute words meaning "hungry" or "bread". The canyon was full of deserters during the Civil War. There was also a 49-man military post here in 1867 called Camp Eldorado. In the 1880's more men lived in Eldorado Canyon than all of the Las Vegas valley. Two of Nevada's most famous renegade Indians were raised in the canyon: Ahvote, who killed five victims, and Queho, who killed over 20 victims. Near this spot, Queho killed his last victim, Maude Douglas, in 1919, and successfully eluded Sheriff's posses. Queho is known to have taken odd jobs around the Eldorado Canyon mines. He also gathered driftwood along the Colorado and sold it to the miners. At some point, he broke his leg or his foot. With no access to even rudimentary medical care, the fracture healed unevenly, giving him a characteristic limp, which is supposed to have been detectable from his footprints in the dirt.

Tony showed us pictures, old receipts found in the basement of the main building and told us about the movies made in this area. He even showed us a clip from a Kevin Costner movie 3000 miles to Graceland. Several scenes were shot here, including the scene where the Lucky Strike gas station blows up. Props from the movie can still be seen here. Then Mary Ellen (80+ years young), a local resident, told us some more history about the area. She'd just recently developed a theory that this area was a Spanish viceroyalty at one time and was really excited about it. She'd found a map that labeled this area as "New Spain", which supported her new theory. A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. His province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty.

Then we followed Tony to the old Techatticup Millsite. We could see the main entrance to the mine way up on the hillside above the Techatticup Millsite. The millsite is where the ore was brought out of the mine to the stampmill, crushed to a powder and mixed in cyanide tanks where the gold and silver were separated.

We walked through tons of the white powder left from the crushing process. There are processes available with new technologies and Tony is working a deal to sell some of the powder and remove more gold from it. We walked by the plane that had been blown up in 3000 miles to Graceland.

As we walked to an old mine entrance, Tony pointed out the three markers on the hillside that mark the three mine claims that he owns. One of the mines, the Techatticup Mine, was once owned by Senator George Hearst and was claim jumped in 1874 which resulted in numerous murders and stories of hauntings.

We went in through an old entrance to the mine that was buried under tons of the white powder. The miners had put some heavy timbers across the opening and then let the white powder gradually run down the hill and totally cover the entrance. Tony and his wife, Bobbie, found the entrance when the timbers finally rotted and were washed away from the entrance by a recent storm. They spent a lot of time muking out the white powder and opening the entrance back up again.

Then we walked into the Savage Mine some 500 feet where we looked up and down several stopes which lead to other levels of the mine. There are over 30 miles of tunnels!!! We could actually see the veins the miners chased. There is still about $1M of gold in these mines (according to Tony), but it would take $2M to get it out.

After our mine tour, we walked over to the "library". Mary Ellen has been donating her books, maps, papers and documents to Tony and Bobbie. They've been collecting all these books and documents in their "library". They have some amazing stuff in there, including old maps, diaries, receipts, records, etc. regarding the nuclear testing in the area, the Indians, the pioneer women, etc. Bobbie is trying to catalog and organize all of the material. What a daunting task!!!

When we left the Eldorado Canyon Mine, it was a paved road all the way back to Hwy 95. We'd sure taken a great "shortcut" to get there!!!!

Monday, February 25th: We drove back to Parker. Carl had quite a job cleaning the mud off of the Jeep and the Roamer.