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Searchlight, NV
The most likely story as to how the town received its name was when George Frederick Colton was looking for gold in the area in 1897, he supposedly said that it would take a searchlight to find gold ore there. Shortly thereafter he found gold, leading to a boom era when Searchlight had a larger population than Las Vegas.
A couple weeks ago I took a quick trip down to Searchlight, about 60 miles south of Vegas. I've drove through a few times but never had the chance to get out and do any exploring. Coming into Searchlight you see the head frame of Colton's Duplex Mine, right off the highway.
We headed to the dirt roads and quickly found an area worth exploring. We parked the truck and headed out on foot. We immediately found an entrance that seemed to be intentionally collapsed. Of coarse I had to climb down to make sure it was completely closed, and it was. While down there looking around I ended up face to face with a large barn owl, the kind with an all white face and HUGE beak. I was definitely more scared than the owl was and lost my footing, fell down, bumped my head (good thing I wore my helmet) and started a small rock slide. The owl calmly walked away unharmed.
We left here and didn't have to look long before seeing a tailings pile up the mountain. It wasn't a far hike but it was a little warm out, about 105. We got to the adit and found it only went back about 100' but it was nice and cool inside so we took a quick water break and headed back out.
We found a few small prospects before coming to this adit.
We chose to go in the left entrance and made the right choice. We didn't have to go far inside before coming to the first false floor. It went down about 100' and was a very narrow cut, the cut also went up above us about 30', just as narrow.
looking down
looking up
After carefully crossing the false floor we found a couple nice chutes and a work area with some old dry cell batteries.
We continued on and came to a shaft that was about 100' deep and almost 90 degrees vertical. The ladder looked to be in good conditions but without proper gear I didn't think it was a good idea, not to mention all the wood in here showed signs of slight moisture damage. Guess I'll have to come back later to see what's down here.
We headed back out and continued to search the area. We found a couple more small prospects and signs of recent mining activity. We also found a few good relics laying around.
We headed further down the road to another area and found a couple gated mines and barb wire fences covering any hole they could find, some only going back a few feet.
We looked around a little bit and found another small mine that had been recently worked. It had a couple full 55 gallon drums and 5 gallon buckets with samples from some of the mines in the area. This mine had some thin metal straps bolted to the ceiling, which seemed pointless to me but nothing fell on my head so maybe I'm wrong. We didn't get very far inside before we saw a giant white face flying right at us. We quickly ducked and watched the owl fly right over our heads.
We headed back out and saw a cabin just up the path so we decided to check it out. First thing we noticed was the door had been ripped off its hinges. We looked inside and found a news paper less than 2 weeks old. I have no idea what they were looking for when they broke in, there were 2 Coleman stoves (1 still in the box), a nicely stocked bar with half bottles of Jack, Everclear, Bacardi and an unopened bottle of Jim Beam. The beds were still made and nothing was stolen or broke, except the door. There was also an interesting sign on the exterior of the cabin, which I assume is in Russian.
Even though I've been shopping around for this exact Coleman grill, and someone else is going to take them we left the cabin just as we found it and headed back out. We found a couple more small prospects and another owl in one of them, this one was all brown.
We thought we were done for the day, and started heading back towards Vegas until I saw a small headframe in the distance.
We headed over there and found some nice old machinery.
We headed over to the headframe and looked down the steeply inclined shaft and saw another large bird. It hid before I got a good look at it, but I'm guessing it was another owl. This whole area had danger signs but this shaft had a unique one that I'd never seen.
The white spots are from the large bird that lives inside here.
We looked around the area and found a few deep shafts but no tunnels to explore. For a spur of the moment, minimally planned trip we had a great time and got to see a lot. Of coarse there is lots more to see in the area, and only an hour away I'll be back.
you can see the complete album at: http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/...7/Searchlight/
A couple weeks ago I took a quick trip down to Searchlight, about 60 miles south of Vegas. I've drove through a few times but never had the chance to get out and do any exploring. Coming into Searchlight you see the head frame of Colton's Duplex Mine, right off the highway.
We headed to the dirt roads and quickly found an area worth exploring. We parked the truck and headed out on foot. We immediately found an entrance that seemed to be intentionally collapsed. Of coarse I had to climb down to make sure it was completely closed, and it was. While down there looking around I ended up face to face with a large barn owl, the kind with an all white face and HUGE beak. I was definitely more scared than the owl was and lost my footing, fell down, bumped my head (good thing I wore my helmet) and started a small rock slide. The owl calmly walked away unharmed.
We left here and didn't have to look long before seeing a tailings pile up the mountain. It wasn't a far hike but it was a little warm out, about 105. We got to the adit and found it only went back about 100' but it was nice and cool inside so we took a quick water break and headed back out.
We found a few small prospects before coming to this adit.
We chose to go in the left entrance and made the right choice. We didn't have to go far inside before coming to the first false floor. It went down about 100' and was a very narrow cut, the cut also went up above us about 30', just as narrow.
looking down
looking up
After carefully crossing the false floor we found a couple nice chutes and a work area with some old dry cell batteries.
We continued on and came to a shaft that was about 100' deep and almost 90 degrees vertical. The ladder looked to be in good conditions but without proper gear I didn't think it was a good idea, not to mention all the wood in here showed signs of slight moisture damage. Guess I'll have to come back later to see what's down here.
We headed back out and continued to search the area. We found a couple more small prospects and signs of recent mining activity. We also found a few good relics laying around.
We headed further down the road to another area and found a couple gated mines and barb wire fences covering any hole they could find, some only going back a few feet.
We looked around a little bit and found another small mine that had been recently worked. It had a couple full 55 gallon drums and 5 gallon buckets with samples from some of the mines in the area. This mine had some thin metal straps bolted to the ceiling, which seemed pointless to me but nothing fell on my head so maybe I'm wrong. We didn't get very far inside before we saw a giant white face flying right at us. We quickly ducked and watched the owl fly right over our heads.
We headed back out and saw a cabin just up the path so we decided to check it out. First thing we noticed was the door had been ripped off its hinges. We looked inside and found a news paper less than 2 weeks old. I have no idea what they were looking for when they broke in, there were 2 Coleman stoves (1 still in the box), a nicely stocked bar with half bottles of Jack, Everclear, Bacardi and an unopened bottle of Jim Beam. The beds were still made and nothing was stolen or broke, except the door. There was also an interesting sign on the exterior of the cabin, which I assume is in Russian.
Even though I've been shopping around for this exact Coleman grill, and someone else is going to take them we left the cabin just as we found it and headed back out. We found a couple more small prospects and another owl in one of them, this one was all brown.
We thought we were done for the day, and started heading back towards Vegas until I saw a small headframe in the distance.
We headed over there and found some nice old machinery.
We headed over to the headframe and looked down the steeply inclined shaft and saw another large bird. It hid before I got a good look at it, but I'm guessing it was another owl. This whole area had danger signs but this shaft had a unique one that I'd never seen.
The white spots are from the large bird that lives inside here.
We looked around the area and found a few deep shafts but no tunnels to explore. For a spur of the moment, minimally planned trip we had a great time and got to see a lot. Of coarse there is lots more to see in the area, and only an hour away I'll be back.
you can see the complete album at: http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/...7/Searchlight/
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