Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Finding an old mining town

Victoria and the New England areas are the places for the best deer hunting, around here there are the occasional Sambar and Red, but mostly just Fallow...but not many.

Roos are either shot commercially or for a bit of dog food on properties, and if I never have to shoot another I shall be happy enough as I don't have any issues with leaving them to go their own way...but if someone else wishes to do so it doesn't bother me.

My favourite all time endeavour is to take one of my 7mm Brno model 21's out to the sandhills and shoot rabbits from my hind legs...better than all the deer in the world...because I don't have to pick the buggers up and I can shoot all day.

If I want rabbit for dog meat or consumption I just drive around the paddock at night with the Brno 22lr, which is kind of like cheating as I shot rabbits for a dollar for 2 1/2-3 years prior to shooting roos for a living...absolutely no fun at all, just work.

Most work gets old after awhile but that doesn’t sound like a bad way to make a living.

It was the life of Riley...right up 'til it rained and the bills kept rolling in, just like roo shooting.

Town jobs are far more reliable and easier on the body.

Where you out toward Waldo or Takilma Roy? The old Sailor Diggings etc.

on the other hand those places might be pretty picked over, over the last century...

I've came across some old mining operation sites, up around Parker Mtn, on the Happy Camp Road...

but then, that area has been so burnt out from Forest Fires the last few years.... cross into California, and the fire damage is unbelievable.

I've been up at altitude and you look out at hill tops in 360 degree directions, and as far as you can see it is just burnt out ridgetops, as far as the eye can see, 40 miles or more in any direction. Lots of old mining camps use to exist out in those mountains... but unless its metal, all other signs are now gone forever.

Glad to hear you had a good time.

I hear ya. I took a job in town in a chemical refinery plant. Swing shifts are no fun but it’s easier on the body than the travel that went with construction work and is steady year around with better benefits.

Would you please post more pics if you go back...this is interesting.

It'll be two or three weeks before we make it back. I have tables at a gunshow this next weekend and Tim has a wedding the following.

Cool find FB!!

The top photo is the rim of a Pelton wheel, or overshot water wheel, most often used to generate DC power.

The old mining town

I seen that episode of Scooby Doo

I think mama cass was in it

lol

That makes more sense since the lugs have a curve to them
. I couldn't figure out why a horse drawn wagon would have cupped lugs LOL.

The western portion of Siskiyou County has no electricity and I know families who are still running Pelton wheels for electric power.

The most interesting part of all this is reconstructing in our minds the daily operations of something that happened 120 years ago just by looking at the clues left behind. We thought the wire hooks we found looked like lantern hooks and that would make sense if they generated power for light. Now I wonder did they run 24 hours a day or did they just have light for the camp at night?

We have another remote mine location where we found a cabin site carved into a hillside. All the lumber is gone but the bedsprings are still there half buried in dirt that has collapsed over the last century. We're gunna dig under the bed for the hidden treasure! LOL

Did they have electric lanterns in the early 1900's? Probly not huh?

I think they had them, but carbide and oil lamps were so much more reliable. The railroads, where life could depend a reliable lantern didn't go to batteries until the 1930's. I am older than dirt, and I remember as a kid, if you dropped a flashlight, it was toast, because the filament broke so easily. Got my skinny little ass fanned for that more than once.

Cool find.

No mines around in these parts.

I did come across an old cemetery once.

Buddy of mine joined a deer camp around Natchez MS. I went ( got suckered ) into helping plant food plots.

Riding around one evening drinking deer and seeing the property, something f caught my eye off in the woods.

It was an old cemetery. Tomb stones were mid / late 1800’s.

This was in the middle of nowhere. Most of been a church or homestead their back in the day.

Talked to a guy that owned land next door. His land has been in his family for many years. One of the original land grants. Said he has the paperwork.

Anyway. Said he grew up in that area. Never even knew about the cemetery.

Yes they did but at a mining camp it probably consisted of a bulb twisted into a socket hanging from a tree or pole.

Cool find you and your bud made. It'll be fun figuring it all out.

Super cool!