Various Places of Interest: California Edition

Various Places of Interest: California Edition

 

1. Pre Plastic Junk Museum

Image from clui.org

Also known as PPJ, the venue is seemingly mentioned only on clui.org. I cannot seem to find any information about the place anywhere else online. Located in Red Mountain, the premise is that it has (or had? Not sure if it’s even still around anymore) a collection of things and artifacts scavenged from the desert. Includes a large wooden fishing boat labeled as part of the China Lake Fishing Fleet. If anyone just so happens to know if this place still exists, or any other info about, please consider letting me know. I would love to learn the history of this place.

2. Red Mountain

image from ghosttowns.com

An unincorporated town in San Bernadino County, originally it was named ‘Osdick’ after a man with the same last name (P.J. Osdick). Created in 1919, it received a post office under its former name in 1922. In early 1929, they changed the town name to Red Mountain. Red Mountain has a small population, about 130 or so people. It’s approximately 23 miles north of Kramer Junction, and 23 ( or 32 depending on your source) south of Randsburg. It is also one of “three active ghost towns”, the other two being Randsburg and Johannesburg. The town also seems to have many of the original buildings from the mining days, including cabins, saloons, and a church. Apparently the main highway in the area (hwy 395) still has the original houses, which the current population lives in today. One website (ghosttowns.com) states that the “old general store looks like heck but is still in use”. If you want to see a timeline about the town, visit the ghosttowns.com link I’ll provide in the sources. It’s a real interesting place. The website has images sent in, though they look pretty old, at least by 20 years. Currently I’m unsure if any of these buildings are around anymore. Finally, there is a really interesting museum called the Historic Owl Cafe, which is a bit out of town when you look on a map. There is plenty of history on the area on their website, which I’ll also link below.

3. Burro Schmidt Tunnel

image from clui.org

A 2,000 foot long tunnel located in the El Paso mountains in the Mojave, Burro Schmidt Tunnel took 38 years to finish. Different sources state that it was started in 1906 and finished after 32 years, where others state it was started in 1902 and finished after 38 years. Started by William Henry “Burro” Schmidt (1871-1953) with hand tools and explosives in order to transport the ore from his mine to the processing site, Schmidt devoted over 32 years of his life to the tunnel.

He was mining gold in the El Paso mountains ans was faced with a dangerous ridge between the mining claims he had and the smelter in the south. He said that he would “never haul his ore to the Mojave smelter down that back trail” with his two burros, and started in 1902 on the tunnel. Originally coming to California from Rhode Island after six of his siblings died of tuberculosis, he’d hire himself out as a ranch hand every summer while working on the tunnel.

Not saying much more than it being a shortcut, ‘Burro’ as he was called, removed rubble with a wheelbarrow and sometimes carried it on his back. He reportedly had abdominal muscles so strong that forced him to bend permanently.

In 1920, a road was completed from Last Chance Canyon to the Mojave, which took away the need for the tunnel, but by this time, Schmidt was obsessed and kept mining his way through the tunnel. In 1938 he completed his goal, but never used the tunnel to move his ore. He later sold the tunnel to another miner and moved away. I’m not sure what may have happened in between this time, but later in his life, Burro started giving tours of the tunnel with a partner named Mike Lee. Burro gave tours until he died in 1954, and Lee continued until he passed in 1963.

In 1963, a woman named Evelyn ‘Tonie’ Seger bought the property with her third husband Milo, moving into a small cabin owned by the property owner who bought the land from Burro Schmidt. Apparently the couple moved to the area because they felt it was the best place to be, since Milo was dying. Less than a year later from moving in, Milo passed away while they were filling water containers from a spring.

The site attracts a lot visitors, who can take still take tours of the tunnel, which only takes 30 minutes itself to walk through. Reportedly there could be as much as 50 visitors on a good weekend to the tunnel. The tour includes looking at the shack that Burro Schmidt himself stayed in, which was filled with newspapers, magazines, and Aunt Jemima pancake boxes as insulation.

Tonie Seger was the keeper of the tunnel for 40 years, giving lectures on the subject and even writing a profile about Burro Schmidt in the book ‘Odd and Eccentric People’. Tonie Seger herself was an ‘Odd and eccentric’ person, where many people called her ‘The Old Lady of The Desert’ since it was such an oddity to see an old woman in the desert. Many people came to the tunnel to see her also. In 2003, Seger passed away at the age of 95.

After Seger’s death, there has been owership disputes between the US Bureau of Land Management and Seger’s descendants. Seger’s caretaker Dave Ayers was also supposed to be granted ownership with a Mr. F. Schmidt (a descendant of Burro maybe?). While the historic buildings were transferred to Seger’s granddaughter, but the BLM assumed ownership after a notice of abandonment was made. The BLM tried contacting the granddaughter, but apparently none of the attempts were made fruitful. Ayers was offered the opportunity to sign a memorandum, of understanding where the BLM were the full time caretakers of the site. Ayers refused to sign as he wanted to be the paid caretaker and left to work somewhere else as he had no legal right to be on site without signing the memorandum. So as far as I know, the Burro tunnel is owned by the US government.

At some point, Uncle Sam decided to put a fence around the Burro house, since it was a victim of vandalism. Though you can’t legally walk inside, you can still look at the building from the outside. If you want to see more pictures of the cabin that he lived in, with the time capsule insulation, I really recommend this blog post from yankee barbeno:

https://yankeebarbareno.com/2014/04/13/burro-schmidt-tunnel-and-shanty-1906-1930s/

The tunnel has been featured on Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and an episode of ‘California’s Gold’. The site was added to the National Register of Historical Places on March 20^th, 2003. Finally, the mine overlooks the ghost towns of Garlock and Saltdale. Apparently from certain points though, you can see the old mining town of Randsburg too, which is about 20 miles away.

[SOURCES]

wikipedia

http://clui.org/ludb/site/burro-schmidt-tunnel

https://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/redmountain.html

http://digital-desert.com/red-mountain-ca/

https://www.redmtnkellysilver.com/

https://www.desertusa.com/desert-prospecting/burro-schmidt-tunnel.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-15-me-seger15-story.html

https://www.amazon.com/Eccentric-People-Library-Curious-Unusual/dp/0809477238

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8398514/william-henry-schmidt

https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/william-burro-schmidt-and-his-tunnel-to-nowhere

Various Places of Interest: Little Diomede Island

Various Places of Interest: Little Diomede Island

Little Diomede Island

Have you ever just gone onto google maps and tried to find the smallest pieces of land in the middle of nowhere? Well I did that one time. And once, I found these two little islands inbetween Alaska and Russia called Little Diomede (Alaska) and Big Diomede (Russia). The island spans the city of Diomede, and locally, the island is called Ignaluk. The population is listed as anywhere from 115-146 people, with the former number being from the 2010 census. Another source states that there’s 65 people. The whole entire island is 2.8 square miles, with villagers typically living off the land. Supplies is sometimes helicoptered in, and there aren’t any hotels or cafes. Few of the houses on the island have running water. In the winter the water freezes, so villagers make a runway in the ice for bush planes to land with supplies. 

In the middle is Big Diomede to the left, and Little Diomede to the right.

Interestingly, Little Diomede is right next to the International Date Line, so Big Diomede right next to it is 21 hours ahead (which is about 16 miles). Technically, if you are on Little Diomede, yes, you can see Russia within eye shot. Allegedly.

The island has incredibly rugged terrain, with virtually no vegetation at all. One source states that there are certain things such as sour greens, Eskimo cabbage and potatoes, cloud berries, stink weed, and sea weed. Full of rocky cliffs the only way to get around is by foot. On top of that, the only way to get to the island at all would be by helicopter (this is during the spring-winter times). When the Bering Strait freezes, a runway can be plowed and snow machines are able to be used. With weather permitting, flights can arrive up to several times a week. 

Coast Guard Photo

The demographics of the island is mainly Inupiaq Eskimo, and the village is believed to be at least 3000 years old. Historically, the Inupiaq practiced whale hunting, which according to some western observations were advanced for their time. They hunted on ice and sea, and traded with the locals in Asia and Alaska. Originally, Little Diomede had strong ties with Big Diomede, with closely related families on both islands. Big Dio helped Little Dio with subsisting, until WWII. Come the second world war, the villagers on Little Dio were transported to the mainland, and anyone that stayed behind were captured by the Russians who had a military base on Big Diomede. During the time of the Iron Curtain, Russian and American Politics separated families on both islands that had been otherwise fine for centuries. To quote Alaskaweb.org,

“Those living on Russian soil eventually fully integrated into Soviet society. They had to abide by the same travel restrictions as all other Soviet citizens landlocked within the boundaries of the USSR. At that point, the two island communities, connected by Eskimo family kinships but separated by American/Russian politics, led parallel lives - pictures of Karl Marx hung in the Russian schools, pictures of Abraham Lincoln in the American. Little Diomede villagers watched Warner Brothers films, Big Diomede watched movies made by Lenfilm.   Although officially forbidden to do so, Eskimos from the two sides did occasionally meet on the International Date Line under the cover of fog, visiting briefly, and exchanging small gifts.  In the age of Gorbachev, perestroika, and glasnost, the Cold War thawed, and interest in reuniting with families across the Bering Strait revived.  However, many of the residents of Little Diomede never saw their relatives again.”

Very reminiscent of the Koreas to me. 

image from the diomede school blog

 

If one wanted to visit Diomede, they would most certainly have to ask permission and make arrangements. Transportation is listed as being restricted and expensive. The diomede school blog states that visiting is welcomed, though the best time really is during winter because one can stay at the school. The only other option would be to stay with a local. And since the island is remote, the store may not carry something that you need, and of course pack the essentials with you.

For such a small island, there is a lot of interesting history to it, and I have just scratched the surface. I would really recommend reading more about it. What is most fascinating to me, is that this is an area with people who are more than likely descendants of the original peoples that crossed the land bridge back in the day. Very interesting!

[SOURCES]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/little-diomede-island

http://www.alaskaweb.org/cmtys/diomede.html

http://diomedeschool.blogspot.com/p/about.html

wikipedia of course

google maps

Various Places of Interest: Alaska Edition

Various Places of Interest: Alaska Edition

Here’s a list of places that I’ve read about recently, and found intriguing.

1. Kennecott Copper Mines

The Kennecott Copper mines in Alaska were a copper mining system, and mining town that started in the early 1900’s and ended in 1938. The system had a near 200 mile rail system to transport the ore to the coast of Alaska. Initially named after a spelling error (Technically Kennicott is the correct way of spelling), the mining town’s community was tight knit, and even having movie nights twice a week. Majority of the people that worked in Kennecott were from outside of the area, and would send money back to their families. At its peak, the mine produced 200 million dollars worth of copper.

Today, many of the buildings in Kennecott are in disrepair, having been abandoned for decades. The National Park Service owns the mines, and work with a local community called ‘Friends of Kennicott’ to identify buildings that will be stabilized.

Today, you can visit the town and participate in a ‘walking ghost tour’ in Kennecott. There are various exhibits to look at too, such as the General Store and Post Office, tunnels of the mining operations, and the General Manager’s office, which is the oldest building in Kennecott. The tourist season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and is closed from Fall-Spring.

2. Nome Gold Mines

Though current mining activity in Nome is minimal, Nome is a historic mining site in the state of Alaska, with a gold rush from 1899-1909. In September of 1898, three men dubbed as, “The Three Lucky Swedes” (Jafet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom, and John Brynteson) found gold on Anvil Creek. Word of this made far reaches and by 1899, Nome’s population was 10,000. That same year, gold was found on the beaches of Nome, which spurred even more people to show up to the area. In the 90’s, the Alaska Gold Company operated an open pit and surface gold mine with about 100 employees. With the mine having been an active since 1924. The ground is perpetually frozen at the mining site, so the mining practice was to pump water through the ground in a network of pipes to thaw it before the big bucket dredges scooped it up. Alaska Gold quit the dredging process in 1993, though some gravel is still mined from the open pit. Today, the city of Nome is about 3800 people.

3. James W. Dalton Highway

James W. Dalton Highway, or Dalton Highway, is a mostly gravel road 414 miles long or 666 kilometers. The road starts at Elliot Highway north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse. It used to be known as the Haul Road, or North Slope Haul Road, and was built in 1974. Open year-round but is not always passable, it lies directly parallel to the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. Maximum distance between gas stations is 244 miles.

4. Permafrost Research Tunnel

A site for the Army Corps of Engineers, the permafrost research tunnel was excavated from 1963-1969 for the studies of permafrost, ice science, and mining techniques for permafrost environments. The tunnel is 360 feet long horizontally, 49 feet deep, 13-16 feet wide, and 6-8 feet high. The ice contains history from thousands of years, including fossils, plant remains, and bacteria. The dates for these are anywhere between 40-45,000 years old. Microbiologists were even able to revive a bacteria that had been trapped in the ice after 25,000 years.

5. Red Dog Mine

Located in the northwest Alaska area, Red Dog Mine is one of the largest Zinc mines in the world. The mine has had over 500 million dollars invested in it to extract about 85 million tons of Lead and Zinc. The mine is in a very remote spot, with the closest town seeming to be Kotzebue, which is still 80 miles away. Accounting for 10% of the worldwide Zinc production, the mine is largest producer of the ore in the world.

6. Project Chariot Site

Code name for an excavation project, Project Chariot was to be where nuclear bombs would be used to build a harbor on the west coast of the site. It was originally part of the ‘Plowshare Program’ or ‘Operation Plowshare’, a 50’s plan created by the US Atomic Energy Commission where it was mandated that non-military uses for nuclear technology were to be created. They planned to detonate nuclear explosives equivalent to 160 Hiroshima bombs underground in Ogotoruk Valley at Cape Thompson, about 30 miles southeast of the village of Point Hope, a village with an overwhelming Native American population. The local residents of Point Hope weren’t initially informed about the project, but once they were they immediately refused the plan. The Ogotoruk creek was, and still is, a major hunting and activity site for the town, but despite this, the Atomic Commission stated that they would have moved villagers to new areas. The commission wanted to move several villages for the first year after the blasts, and then create a new settlement next to the harbor (that they had the blasts at) sending the villagers back to the new area. Research showed that people of Native background already had consumed large amounts of radioactive isotopes, as the worldwide detonations ended up in dust that concentrated in lichens, which is the food that caribou eat. Since the Natives ate caribou, this is how they had the isotopes. Cancelled in 1963 due to protesting, radioactive material had already been brought to the area, and contaminated the ground. At some point in the future though, the contaminated ground had been dug up.

[SOURCES]

http://clui.org/

wikipedia

https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/476646/the-permafrost-tunnel/

http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/Issues/OtherIssues/ProjectChariot.html

https://www.nps.gov/wrst/learn/historyculture/kennecott-mines-national-historic-landmark.htm

https://www.alaska.org/detail/kennicott-mine-ghost-town-walking-tour

http://raregoldnuggets.com/?p=3795