Kokoweef Caverns & Mines

[go_browns79]

I had the privilege of visiting an active/working mine site that connects to the Kokoweef and Crystal Caves that has a bit of history and mystery.... as the story goes: " A legendary large cavern supposedly exists below Kokoweef Peak in southwestern California. Earl Dorr, a miner and prospector, followed clues given to him by Indians. He entered a cave in the thirties and followed a passage down into Kokoweef Mountain until he attained a depth of about a mile. There, he entered a large cavern which he proceeded to explore for a distance of eight miles. At the bottom of the cavern, a river flowed, rising and falling with the lunar tides, and depositing black sands rich in placer gold along its banks. From this monumental cave, and underground river, they recovered $57,000 in gold at $20 per ounce during a 6-week stay. One day, crazed by fever, Dorr used dynamite to seal shut the entrance to his fabulous cavern, and started a legend that still lures men to seek the fabled wealth below Kokoweef. In 1957 Earl Dorr died as a result of a mining accident, not leaving behind the answer to one of the world's great mysteries ... the secret locations of the Kokoweef River of Gold and its closed entrance."

We also got to see some "recently" abandoned miners shacks, looked down on an open-pit mine from up on a mountain, saw an underground bridge, visit the working Carbonate King Mine. This was a great day of exploring.















This is just a small portion of what I got to see. I got 150 pics up at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...3&l=dc7df52c6a or http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/...ua97/Kokoweef/

Here's a couple links that explain more about the history http://kokoweefinc.net/mine.html and http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep...e-kokoweef11/2

Hope you enjoyed, I know I did.

[Derek]

Thanks for sharing!

[Joanne]

Bill, looks like you guys had a GREAT trip! Thanks for posting the pics.

Joanne

[Stuart]

Wow, this is AWESOME!!

I love reading about legends like this and the maps make it even cooler!! Thanks for sharing!

[Devin]

Thats cool! Mines, Caves, and Gold...the best of all worlds. Legends like that are always interesting, makes me want to get out there and do some exploring!

[rhartill]

Ep Dorr wrote about his find in a 1940s issue of the California Mining Journal, and there has also been a lot of court documents generated in the 1990s and quite recently... See:

http://www.kokoweefinc.net/court_docs.html

and

http://www.kokoweef.com/

[Joanne]

When I looked at the web site and saw the name Larry Hahn I was quite surprised. I sometimes shop in a military surplus store right around the corner from my work named Hahn's World of Surplus. Yep, same guy. Seems like a nice enough guy in the store. A bit ironic that they have a large book case of ghost town and gold mining books. They also carry some prospecting gear.

Small world....

Joanne

[Norman Johnson]

About fifteen years ago, a buddy and I visited Kokoweef. No one was around so we explored the trailers and residences, and had a look at the mine buildings. Then we started to drive off and Larry came up the road. We stopped and chatted and he needed help unloading an ATV from his pickup. We returned and helped him. He next pitched us on the idea of buying shares in the tunneling efforts to find the lost river of gold. I seem to remember it was about $300 bucks and that came with a yearly share-holders party and BBQ out at the Kokoweef site. I was tempted. Not for the gold but for the party and BBQ. In the end Larry let us go up on the ore dumps and collect some cave onyx. We got some nice samples of stalagmites and the like.

NJ