Starbuck's Exploring

“Funeral Hoodoo” Pictographs, DVNP

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:30:00 +0000

Dan, Alysia and I went out hunting for a hidden pictograph site in Death Valley National Park. Most pictograph sites are small and while this is no exception, it was a great find. As usual, if you happen across it, please treat it with great care, a part of the site has already been vandalized. [...]

“Snake Canyon” Petroglyphs

Guy Starbuck — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

This is a collection of two sites that are very close together in a remote corner of western Nevada. They are medium sized sites with a variety of Western Desert Archaic petroglyph designs. We have visited the site a few times over the years. The site also has an 1909 inscription by Roy Hunter. The [...]

Oro Fino Mine, MNP

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

While heading out on a trip to Nevada, we rendezvoused for a quick exploration of the old Oro Fino Mine in the Old Dad Mountains of the Mojave Preserve. The mines are closed by iron bat-gates. The cabins, however, have been recently repaired by volunteers and are in good shape. Pilgrims in the Desert by [...]

Boxcar Cabin

Guy Starbuck — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

For about a decade now, some friends of mine have been maintaining the (Buckhorn) Boxcar Cabin out near Death Valley. Before its life in the “Adopt-a-Cabin” program, this simple two-room cabin was once a train boxcar used by miners. Mining prospects were first worked here in the 1930s. In 1958, a prospector named William Carpenter [...]

“Engagement” Mine

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

This fairly remote and old silver, lead and zinc (with some traces of gold and copper) mine is a pretty neat site. The old camp dates from the 1870s and was re-worked in the 1920s. The mine has four levels (not including the adit level) and a few thousand feet of workings. I recently revisited [...]

“Alta Silver” and “Rock Eagle” Mines

Guy Starbuck — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:30:00 +0000

Way back in 2004, I met up with Dan, my dad, Micah, Lewis, his son Aaron, Werner, John and his cousin for a trip to some out of the way mines out in the Mojave desert.

Noonday Mine

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

We have been visiting this mine many times over the years. It is one of the earlier mines in the War Eagle mine group. It was successful enough that the owners built a tramway down the hillside and developed their own railroad to connect to the mainline Tidewater and Tonopah railroad. Now that’s a good [...]

Columbia #2 Mine

Guy Starbuck — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

These are various photos from our trips over the years to the Columbia #2 mine out in the Mojave desert. Part of the War Eagle complex of mines, it is well-travelled. The main incline has caved and no longer useable. I still haven’t been to it’s lowest levels and need to go back and finish [...]

War Eagle Mine

Guy Starbuck — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:15:54 +0000

We’ve visited this mine many times since first exploring it in 2001. It is well-known and well-travelled, but still fun to explore. The mine has miles of drifts and stopes across at least nine levels. It has a few hard to reach passageways and there are connections I still haven’t seen. You can easily spend [...]

“Eagletail Wilderness” Petroglyphs

Guy Starbuck — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:50:52 +0000

On a cold and overcast morning a few months ago, I did a little hike in the Eagletail Wilderness just west of Phoenix. I don’t get over to Arizona that often and a desert full of tall saguaro cactuses is a different experience for me. This is fantastically scenic country. After crossing mostly open Sonoran [...]

Tyson Wash Petroglyphs

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:11:19 +0000

We made a brief stop at the well-known Tyson Wash petroglyphs. The fact that the site has seen heavy visitation for years and isn’t vandalized is kind of amazing. The lighting wasn’t very good when we were there so my photos aren’t the best. We looked for a second site that is supposed to be [...]

Dripping Springs Petroglyphs

Guy Starbuck — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:59:31 +0000

In the Plumosa Mountains of western Arizona, a small seep drips out of a cave in a solid rock cliff. It is a small oasis for animals in the otherwise arid Sonoran desert; people noticed it too. Stacked stone walls of an old cabin remain just below the spring. On a nearby boulder, we discovered [...]

Arcturas Mine and Buckwheat Wash Dunes

Guy Starbuck — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:54:12 +0000

Down in the southern end of Death Valley, a small group of mines lies hidden in a low set of hills. First prospected for copper and silver in the 1880s, the deposits turned out to be small and the remoteness of the area made them uneconomical. Like many other mines of the era, they never [...]

Caselton Mill

Guy Starbuck — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:13:19 +0000

The mine, also known as the Combined Metals Mine, was first discovered in 1864 as a high grade silver deposit. Prior to 1941, the ores were milled in Utah, which was costly to transport but in 1937 an electric transmission line was put in from Hoover Dam just for the mines of this area. Work [...]

“Easy Pickings” Cabin

Guy Starbuck — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:04:40 +0000

This little, out-of-the-way, cabin has been in pristine shape for a long time. I first visited the place in 2001 and it surprised me to find it so clean. We made a return visit nine years later and found it to be in just as good condition. Amazing! If you visit, please take great care [...]

Perseverance Mine

Guy Starbuck — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:22:29 +0000

Back in 2006, we met up with a few old friends: Wild Bill, Lewis, Cat, Micah, Snow Nymph, Desert Mouse, Dezdan, Brian and family, for this hike to a forgotten and seldom visited mine camp. We stayed up a little too late the night before having a good time and reminiscing but everyone was smiles [...]

North Star and Gold Coin Mines

Guy Starbuck — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:01:16 +0000

Dan and I visited these mines in the autumn of 2008. I couldn’t find much history on either of these two small mines. They both look to have minor production and are seldom visited. We found an oven or furnace at the end of our trip. It’s origins and purpose remain a mystery. If you [...]

White Caps Mine

Guy Starbuck — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:41:06 +0000

The 75-ton mill is the first thing you see when you come to this mine site. The mine was discovered in 1905 and first worked in 1912 for gold, later for mercury and antimony as the ore tenor changed with depth. There are a few empty buildings in the camp, but the rotating furnace is [...]

Belleville Mine

Guy Starbuck — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:33:09 +0000

The Belleville is a small mine and mill camp tucked away in Telephone Canyon of the Pilot mountains of Nevada. The mine is caved in now, but was worked in the 1920s and 1930s for $42,000 in gold. It was lightly snowing when we stopped by for a visit a few years ago.

“White Cliffs” Canyon Petroglyphs, DVNP

Guy Starbuck — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:19:27 +0000

A couple of years ago, Dan and I went out exploring in Death Valley National Park. On one of the days, in this multi-day trip, we took a long hike out into the remote backcountry and came across a small canyon of white rock. Carved into the soft volcanic ash we found a series of [...]

Willis Well

Guy Starbuck — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 02:02:45 +0000

Willis Well is an interesting place. For centuries, native Americans camped at the spring, or seep, here. Numerous Desert Archaic petroglyphs cover the boulders near the spring. They are mostly abstract designs. Their meaning lost in antiquity. George and Mildred Willis settled on this land in 1915. George had been working in gold rush towns [...]

Day Break Camp

Guy Starbuck — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:26:46 +0000

I met up with Dan in 2006 and we headed out into the great Mojave desert to try and find an old little known camp called Day Break. The camp, also known as Five Points, dates from 1880s, but was most active in the early 1910s. Not much remains.

“Tin Can” Camp and the “Brass” Mine, MNP

Guy Starbuck — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:43:21 +0000

These are some old mines that were worked and re-worked over the years. “Tin Can” camp dates to 1867 and was worked for lead-silver and later for tungsten. The camp is neat for its remaining building that people have taken care of. The nearby “Brass” mine was worked for gold. Both are fairly remote spots. [...]

Montague Mine Cabin

Guy Starbuck — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:13:22 +0000

Back in 2011, we took a rough 4wd trip up to the top of the Sweetwater mountains and the Montague Mine Cabin. There isn’t much left of the mine or the cabin, but the view is simply incredible and worth the drive alone. The mines in the area were active in the 1880s and not [...]

Rosalie, CA

Guy Starbuck — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:11:36 +0000

Rosalie, also known as Valley Wells, was the brief site of a large copper smelter and camp for the Copper World mine from 1899 to 1903. It was active again from 1916 to 1918. Copper matte from the blast furnace was hauled to Cima and then to Garfield, Utah for final refining. The site was [...]