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Crazy like a fox.


Subdeacon Joe

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Posted

Interesting story:

 

Located southwest of Black Mountain, in the Last Chance Canyon, is the Burro Schmidt Tunnel (35.41033°N 117.87583°W), a half-mile long tunnel dug entirely by hand, constructed over a 32-year period by William "Burro" H. Schmidt (1871-1954). Schmidt, who was mining gold, was faced with a dangerous ridge between his mining area and the smelter at Mojave, California. Schmidt said that he would "never haul his ore to the smelter in Mojave down that back trail" using his two burros. Thus, he began his tunnel in 1906. The tunnel was about six feet tall and ten feet wide, but it cut through solid granite and required little shoring. The path was not straight, but took several turns. Schmidt was trapped many times by falling rock and injured often, and eventually installed a cart on rails. In 1920 a road was completed from Last Chance Canyon to Mojave, eliminating the need for the tunnel, but Schmidt claimed to be obsessed with completion, and dug on. In fact, it was not a desire to punch through the mountain that motivated his digging, but a vein of gold extending in that direction. Schmidt simply claimed an irrational desire to dig through the mountain to prevent others from moving in on his find. By 1938 he had achieved his "goal", having dug through nearly 2,500 feet of solid granite using only a pick, a shovel, and a four pound hammer for the first portion, and carefully placed dynamite with notoriously short fuses for the majority. It was estimated that he had moved 5,800 tons (5,260 metric tons) of rock to complete his work. Interestingly Schmidt never used the tunnel to move his ore. Instead, he sold the tunnel to another miner and moved away. Schmidt's cabin in Garlock has been largely abandoned and stands as it was in the 1930s, preserved by the dry climate.

 

 

Taken from: http://www.summitpost.org/black-mountain-6/499131

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