| The eastern adit of the War Eagle might not look like much but it
leads to miles of drifts, inclines, and stopes. |
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| This dumping ore cart has tipped off of its base. The guys "manned
up" and put it back in place. Like many ore carts in these mines, the wheels
are long gone. |
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| The cart would pivot on one of four pins on each side. Quite an
ingenious design! |
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| Even I can tip it over. Of course it isn't filled with ore or I
would have a much harder time of it. |
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| I don't know if this mine was operated by Anaconda or if the mine
owners just purchased surplus carts from them. |
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| These carts are a more traditional design. Once again all of the
wheels are long gone. |
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| Here's Bill crossing over an open stope. It's important to have
good balance when you walk the rails. |
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| Ken found an old cache of dynamite. Fortunately it is in a out of
the way drift. |
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| This old compressed air tank was riveted together. It's neat to see
old pieces of equipment like this. One day it will all be gone. |
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| This is the example of a couple of drill holes. Dynamite would have
been loaded into the holes and blasted. Little by little the miners drilled,
blasted, and mucked until the ore ran out. |
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| Once again Bill is climbing down a set of rails. I didn't look
nearly as graceful coming down them. |
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| This area had a partial collapse and has been shored up. A small
winding passage allows us to explore the expanse of the mine beyond the
collapse. |
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| This is a testiment to the fact that these mines are only
temporary. |
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| After returning to the camp and having some dinner we decide to
head back into the mine for some exploring. Day and night don't mean much when
you are in a mine. |
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| After winding our way into a very remote part of the mine we came
across this pile of dynamite. It looks as if it was left there yesterday. I
figured it was best if I just left it right where it was. |
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| The mine is just HUGE. An explorer could spend days discovering all
this mine has to offer. |
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| You just never know what you will find. This bunch of fuses was
just sitting on top of some timber. |
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| This is one of the features that the War Eagle is known for. It's
the dual track inclined shaft. It continues down five levels. Going down is
easy. Coming back up is a bit more work.... |
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| Stairs down the left side of the incline makes it easy to explore
this section of the mine. I'm still waiting for the elevator though. |
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