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| Here are a few photos from a recent trip out to what is known as the the Bluelight mines. These are tucked away behind some of the older houses on the right at the end of Silverado Canyon road. All of the photos with the imprinted date are from before I had a digital camera and are digitized from 8mm video. All others are courtesy of Andrew and his cool Sony Mavica. |
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| To the right is my good friend Andrew. He is the quintisential outdoorsman and picker-upper of crawly things. Here we see Andrew holding one of many California Newts that he had come across on the trail. We were fortunate to to still have water in the creek in June to see these guys. |
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| Bug spray gives the skin a high lustre |
| Left: You naturaly see a lot of survey markings and symbols in the mines but this one escapes definition other than the obvious. Next time I wont wear my best shoes and will be careful about where and what I touch. |
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| Left: The original Blue Light mill. Photo courtesy of the Silverado Library. Right: The mill site as it stands today. Locals say the Forestry Dept. tore down the structure in the 70's citing it as a hazard in it's dilapidated conditon. |
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| Above: Silverado from 2350' The Blue Light mines had 7 levels. This was looking from near level 3. Left: One of two flooded entrances on level 7 |
| Above Left: Ruins of level 7 ore shute. Above Right:: Well that phrase "they don't make them as good as they use to" doesn't apply here. This Flywheel seen here, upon closer inspection, is made entirely of formed sheet metal. Even the spokes are thin gage metal sandwiched together. Miners of the time were a thrifty bunch. The local librarian had mentioned the use of chinese children in the smaller tunnels. |
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