Took the day off to go look at a piece of property yesterday. It’s a large parcel, around 80 acres, with a totally off grid house on it. It has a good solar array and a back up generator on premises, with another generator located by a small work shed. The house is nice, sits on the highest hill in the surrounding valley, and has a beautiful view of the valley lights through the hills at night. Some of the views from the house look like this.
Overall, a neat piece of property but at the asking price I was a little bit under-whelemed. Then we took a stroll around some of the acerage. There are some really nice parts to this property, lets hit the highlights.
Then I found out there were a couple of old mines on the property. I had to see them to see if they were just pits that someone calls a mine or more substantial. I’ve looked at a couple properties that have ‘old mines’ on them, usually backfilled and eroded to the point that they may be mines or may be a old trash pit. I was pleasantly surprised to be shown this.
Ok, looks like a mine. And anyone who knows me knows you wont be able to keep me out of it. Lol.
OOOOOh. Just inside the entrance the mine splits. Unfortunately the right tunnel ends fairly quickly, but the left side goes back 50 to 60 feet. It’s solid inside with good rock over the top and some side benches cut into the walls. You can see a big chunk of quartz laying there in front of the right path. The whole property is filled with veins of it.
Further down the left path you can see some old timbers and stuff. Overall, a pretty clean shaft. I didnt go all the way back because the owner didnt go in with me, he hung outside the entrance and I didnt want him to have to wait while I worked my way to the back face. I went in about 20 or 30 feet but I never saw the end, just more tunnel. The temp was nice and cool, the air dry, so I figure someone made me one hell of a root cellar if i bought the property. 😉
A pic from inside the left tunnel looking back out of the mine entrance. I didnt go see the other mine since we had already been looking at the property for quite a while and the realtor’s phone was going off constantly. I did however get walk by the tailing pile for it and I was impressed by the amount of material that someone had moved already. Based on the tailings, I’d say the other mine is as big or bigger than the one I went into. A pic of the tailing pile.
The property also has a small cemetery on it, another thing that is common on all these properties in the gold rush country. It’s one of the nicest private cemeteries I’ve seen, with a fence and nice marble markers. It’s in a meadow and I’m sure its really nice in the spring when the grass is green and growing.
Yup, I guess now I need to see if what they are asking is something I can manage.
