Found something interesting on a prospectin trip...

[FinalVestige79]

Went out prospecting on Sunday for a quick little jaunt didn't expect to find anything...but came upon this place nestled in a box canyon. Appears to be a 1930s - 1940s era miners compound...complete with chicken coop, smelting house / workshop, 2 car garage, animal pen, main house, guest quarters, adit (tunnel) behind the house, and the remains of a really cool fountain out front and about 200 feet in front of the house is the mine where this guy worked...head frame is now collapsed mine non accessible..

The inside was all torn up, nice fireplace in it tho, all masonry same as the buildings probably a mix of local rock and tailings mixed with mortar. Shoulda brought my metal detector...

View from where I spotted it, road leading off the upper left takes you right to the mine and collapsed headframe.

Back side of main house looking towards guest quarters..

Front of main house with tunnel in back..

Looking into the adit not very deep...looks more decorative than anything else.

L->R Porch of main house, garage, smelting house

Same but different view...

I forget what this building was, the columns are the same as the main house but this is off the right of it, chicken coop in the far right.

View of the house...

 

[Dr Doran]

How utterly cool. Is the land for sale cheap? Perhaps the owner does not know that a house is there.

 

[Diamondback]

Interesting find... good place to have a front-company acquire and surreptitiously develop into a bolt-hole.

 

[Miss 1929]

This looks like every place we ever went on vacations as a kid... my mom is a serious rock hound.

It is lovely and unspoiled! Probably lots of good specimens for collectors, although the mine is no doubt tapped commercially.

 

[FinalVestige79]

How utterly cool. Is the land for sale cheap? Perhaps the owner does not know that a house is there.

Nope just abandoned...no owner. The place is dead. I might be interested in it myself tho would make one swell retreat. Land is probably suuuuper cheap. I wouldn't say that just yet....I took some samples looks good enough for some small time stuff still. In the smelting house I found metal lids marked cyanide, this was once a big time operation. Owner probably hit hard times or the mine wasn't producing enough to be profitable. Not the richest stuff I have seen but it would keep me coming back...which is exactly what I am doing this Saturday!

Lots of quartz in the mine tailings on the upper ridge and in looking at the sat. feed, there is something else near this property I may have missed...

 

[Dr Doran]

Nope just abandoned...no owner. The place is dead. I might be interested in it myself tho would make one swell retreat. Land is probably suuuuper cheap. I wouldn't say that just yet....I took some samples looks good enough for some small time stuff still. In the smelting house I found metal lids marked cyanide, this was once a big time operation. Owner probably hit hard times or the mine wasn't producing enough to be profitable. Not the richest stuff I have seen but it would keep me coming back...which is exactly what I am doing this Saturday!

Lots of quartz in the mine tailings on the upper ridge and in looking at the sat. feed, there is something else near this property I may have missed...

Honestly, I think you should buy it. Keep us posted.

 

[Diamondback]

Like I said, though, not directly--if you keep things on the down-low and don't let anyone see that you're upgrading, might make a good place to stash supplies and bug-out to in case of another Watts/Rodney King/Other Civil Unrest scenario.

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Now playing: John Barry - 007 Takes The Lektor
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[FinalVestige79]

I agree...the buildings are for the most part intact all it would would need would be new windows, doors, security fence, some drywall and refurbishment...just gotta keep the shooters from getting in. The buidlings are shot up pretty bad.

Will do. I'll take better pics the next time.

 

[Dr Doran]

It's a perfect hideaway also in case of a zombie epidemic -- Diamondback, you didn't list that one, did you, smartypants?

 

[FinalVestige79]

Like I said, though, not directly--if you keep things on the down-low and don't let anyone see that you're upgrading, might make a good place to stash supplies and bug-out to in case of another Watts/Rodney King/Other Civil Unrest scenario.

I know...I was thinking about it when I was investigating the tunnel...bomb shelter came to mind. Thing that sucks about it is...its not exactly a secret, 4 Wheelers, Shooters and hikers know about the place upgrading it without someone saying something is gonna be a test. But then again the world is a very large place...

 

[Diamondback]

From the size of it, looks like you'd need to either dig a bigger basement or expand the tunnel for any kind of serious supply-cache, and if I were doing this I'd want tunnels connecting main house, guesthouse and garage.

Doran, that was cryptically referred to--some gunboards don't like Zombie or other similar-level Worst-Case Scenario discussion, so we who do discuss it tend to speak in a kind of "coded language" about the subject. Out in the middle of nowhere... the good news is clear lines of sight and fire, the bad news is noise carries a long way, so the first inopportune noise would draw every shambler for miles and you'd be going it alone with no backup and no easy way out to another bolt-hole.

I know...I was thinking about it when I was investigating the tunnel...bomb shelter came to mind. Thing that sucks about it is...its not exactly a secret, 4 Wheelers, Shooters and hikers know about the place upgrading it without someone saying something is gonna be a test. But then again the world is a very large place...

This, young Padawan, is why you do your legal and paper work up front to establish a small, utterly uninteresting holding company to make the acquisition... and then you start with a decent fence, and then you start making your renovations only between an hour after dusk to an hour before dawn. Light and noise discipline will be musts, and I'd suggest new doors, heavy-duty window-glass and blackout-curtains (to be kept permanently drawn) for first steps to help with that. Padlock and hasp on the door through the early phases, so it doesn't look like someone's movin' in...

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Now playing: John Barry - 007 Takes The Lektor
via FoxyTunes

 

[FinalVestige79]

I like the way you think...good thing I have friends with experience in hard rock mining. I also have access to seismic monitors, and some thermal cams. there is only one road leading into this compound and then its butt up against the mountain side.

 

[Diamondback]

Good news is, keep it quiet and it'd be great for laying low for a while... bad news is if anyone takes an interest, you're looking at Alamo Redux. Take it from a descendant of one of the last of the Alamo Martyrs to fall: just like Pearl Harbor, on such things it really is better to give than to receive...

 

[FinalVestige79]

Roger that.

 

[Diamondback]

That said, before you do anything subterranean, you may need to consider future consequences on your domestic life. A gal who's into interior-decorating may not be up for Doin' the Mole Thing... which is part of why the fully-aboveground version of Rattler's Den is so massively overdesigned with its 12"-thick steel-reinforced-concrete walls and similar-thickness optical-quartz windows.

 

[FinalVestige79]

LOL I don't see that being a problem for me, right now no time for girls. 40+ hrs a week plus school, and prospecting...ha. not exactly girl magnet. Most people don't even know what prospecting is...so I have to give the "The thing they do at Knotts Berry farm..." explanation. Its a good conversation starter though.

 

[Diamondback]

Just saying, you might also need to take longer-term considerations into account--what seems like a great idea at the moment sometimes also brings unforeseen long-term consequences.

That said, segueing back to something to keep any passing triggerhappy BT's from nuking the thread, it's a good example of Old School solidly-built construction.

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Now playing: John Barry - 007 Takes The Lektor
via FoxyTunes

 

[FinalVestige79]

Roger that, and yeah testment too good old fashioned construction, the way the rocks are used is pretty cool very strong and secure building hasn't crumbled yet.

 

[Diamondback]

Roger that, and yeah testment too good old fashioned construction, the way the rocks are used is pretty cool very strong and secure building...

Unless you have a nasty breakup with Holly Newcastle or another such gal whose idea of "fun" is Soviet-milsurp Rocket-Propelled Grenades... lol

 

[Harp]

At a minimum, fix site locus and run a deed search for clear title.
Or, just opt adversarial possession.

Great place for a hunting retreat with library and well-stocked bar.