The last two times I have been in the Pecos, we have gone searching for a "lost" mine. No, it isn't lost, as we have seen it on several maps. But our guide couldn't quite remember where it was, and the first time we went, we couldn't find it, even with Bart's GPS. Turns out we were less than 200 yards away from it, but one wrong turn took us the other direction!
On July 4 we found it, and I thought it was thrilling. One of the shafts was collapsed, but the ore car tracks were still there, and one shaft was open. Of course we didn't go in, but we thoroughly enjoyed looking around! Imagining how the mine operated, with ore cars, tracks, dumping areas, and the like fascinated me. I find it unfathomable that the miners used hand tools to create the shaft pictured below!
The road up to the mine was extremely bumpy - the Jeep scraped bottom several times. How Johnny Jones took his ore out with a wagon and a team of horses is beyond me. There is no doubt that people were tougher back then!!!
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