We got up at 7:00 and could hear the silence of the day. No wind howling around. We looked out and could see the campground clearly and even the mountains on one side but still a layer of sand swirling around the mountains on the other side. That doesn’t mean that we’re home free. We still had lots of vacuuming to do. We vacuumed and also cleaned out the blinds which had been closed all yesterday while we were gone. I then re-taped the windows since more wind was expected today, though not as furious nor as gusty.
We are moving today to another campground in the same area. Right now we are in the paid all hook-up campground and the other one is the National Park campground with no hook-ups. Both are right on the desert with all the same views. But the price is different and it’s fun to dry camp and test your metal. While we still had electricity we decided to do some more cleaning I vacuumed and re-taped while Gary used his air compressor outside and blew the sand out of grills, motors, generators, refrigerator and air conditioning vents, etc. Then we began the usual tasks associated with moving.
We also had some fun conversations with fellow campers about the ‘wind event’ yesterday. All of us were ‘thankful’ that the National Park Service had ‘scheduled’ such an awesome quintessential Death Valley experience for all of us. Usually they schedule special nature hikes and star gazing, for us they scheduled an awesome wind storm.
After we had moved, we then took the car to explore another area of the park where there is an old mine and a great view of Bad Water, the salt pan in the center of the Valley, from the western side. The temperatures were in the 60’s and the sun was bright making the air seem warmer than the 60’s. Because we are at sea level where we are camped, we drove upwards all the way. After 20 miles, we saw the dirt road we wanted to take, and further up that, we saw the Eureka Mine owned by Pierre ‘Pete’ Aguereberry.
Another car was parked there and a couple bundled in down jackets, hats and gloves was gathering their camera equipment for the walk to the mine. Oops. we looked at the temperature gauge in the car: 48 degrees. 48? Well, that’s what happens when you gain altitude. We’re at 4000’ now and all we have on is our hiking pants, a short sleeve t-shirt and a hiking shirt. We have always kept extra clothing in the car but took it out sometime this fall. Bad move. All we had left were gloves and hats. So, we rolled down the sleeves of our hiking shirt, put on hats and gloves and hiked over to explore the mine and the Aguereberry home.
Back in 1905, 2 men, Aguereberry and Shorty Harris found the mine and a town, named Harrisburg, grew up around it but only lasted a year. Aguereberry bought out Harris and stayed until 1945 mining alone. He was a very busy man since there were holes all over this part of the short hill he claimed. He built two homes, several sheds, and a long road reportedly up to his favorite point, Aguereberry Point. The mines on his 7 claims sustained him for 40 years. Historians have estimated that the took $175,000 out of these mines over those years at the then current price of $20 per ounce.
Here’s the setting among the hills of Death Valley. Amazing how you can see the old roads still across the desert.
When miners look for gold they look for a seams of quartz, following them an extracting the ore. A ton of ore would yield approximately 1 ounce of gold in a profitable mine.
Actually, he had a pretty fancy home for its time back in the mountains, with a shove, a refrigerator, linoleum flooring and 3 rooms and a huge Packard.
Here’s the mill powered by gasoline where they pulverized the ore, added chemicals to extract the ore.
And here’s a mine with rails running into it to carry out the tailings, the extra rock.
After we had explored the mine and wandered over his hill, we took off for Aguereberry Point, to which he built a road, in his spare time. Neat old road winding up a canyon to the highest point in the area. Great view down on Bad Water in the middle of Death Valley. Again, the sand in the air obscures the view and we can only imagine the view in clear air.
Back at the campground we bought some gas at the station: $5.05 per gallon. Location, location, location. Actually, getting gas to Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley must cost a bundle. We were thankful that they had it here. On Thursday, we checked the price of gas in Furnace Creek, where the main campgrounds and Visitor Center are and they were charging $5.97.
In the evening, we each put aside several pieces of warm clothing for permanent storage in the car so we will not get caught like this again. We weren’t cold today but were happy we had on the gloves and hats. But, we sure don’t want to be caught like this again.
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