Natural Air Conditioning Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Marko Ramius: Hello, I am a volunteer for Geocaching.com and this cache has come to my attention during the course of my usual administrative duties. I appears that this cache was originally listed as a traditional cache but has recently been converted to a virtual cache. Since November, 2005, virtual caches are no longer accepted on the Geocaching.com website. You can list this cache, however, on the Waymarking.com website. The Geocaching.com guidelines require that all traditional caches need to have at a minimum a container and a logbook - http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#traditional

Please feel free to respond to this issue by sending me an e-mail at markoramius.ro@gmail.com. Please don’t forget to include the GCxxxx code for the cache. I will be happy to un-archive this listing once the issues with it have been addressed provided that it meets the listing guidelines at that time.

Thank you for your understanding and for your contributions to the sport!

Marko Ramius
Volunteer Cache Reviewer

More
Hidden : 11/26/2002
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

An underground ghost town and the remains of a copper smelter a short distance off I-15 between Baker and State Line. Note: The cache itself has been removed. However, this is a popular geocache that should not be deleted. To claim it, count the number of dwelling and email the answer to cache owner.

Miners had a hard life. Living conditions in the middle of the Mojave Desert (sans air conditioning) were brutal. In order to moderate the heat, some miners followed the lead of early Native Americans and tunneled underground to build their homes.

Not far from this cache you can see the remains of homes that used this natural form of air conditioning. There are other above-ground ruins and a graveyard nearby that provide clues as to who the inhabitants were. A slag heap in the area provides insight into what they did. CAUTION: These historic features are protected by law. Please use good sense and act responsibly to protect them and the area around them.

Update on the history of this area: My topographic software shows a town called Valley Wells here. However, according to volume 2 of Bill Mann's book Guide to 50 Interesting and Mysterious Site in the Mojave, the settlement was called Rosalie and served as headquarters for the Yates Ranch from 1894 to 1952. The town's population primarily supported the operation of a (50 ton furnace) smelter for the Copper World Mine which operated from 1899 to around 1918. Sporadic periods of activity driven by fluctuating copper prices reawakened the mine and smelter occasionally until after WWII. The existence of plastic pipe embedded in the ground near the smelter site indicates to me that there was even later activity.

To get to the cache, exit I-15 at Cima road and go north (Kingston Rd). Watch for a pretty good dirt road that angles off to the right toward a black slag heap and the only tree in town. Although you can drive closer, you'll want to park at the tree and walk to the cache so you can explore the slag heap and naturally air conditioned homes. The cemetery and standing structures are on the opposite side of the tree.

The tree is no more than 0.5 mile from the paved road; you could easily park and walk in from the road.

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