Hart Township
From the plaque placed by the Ancient and Honorable Order of E.
Clampus Vidas at the site: "Gold was discovered in the nearby
Castle Mountains in December 1907 by Jim Hart and the Hitt
Brothers, Bert and Clark. The town of Hart quickly sprang up. Its
five hotels and eight saloons served a population of about 400. The
relatively quiet town had neither a church or a school. Hart had
its own newspaper during 1908-1909. The nearest rail connection was
3 1/2 miles northwest at the siding of Hitt. The mines played out
after ten years and the town was deserted." It is apparent that
mining continued past that point but there is little evidence of
the town besides the occasional piece of lumber and the tin cans
that remain.
There is a cement chimney and wooden head frame still standing
at the site.
We spent the day trying to locate the cemetery and were
unsuccessful. It is noted on topo maps and one website has a photo
of the site "http://www.robertwynn.com/HartC.htm". We tried to
match the photo to our view of the mountain from as many of the
existing roads as we could and ran out of daylight so we placed the
cache near the mine.
If anyone finds the cemetery site please post the coordinates in
your log so that we can revisit the area. High clearance vehicles
are recommended although four wheel drive is not necessary. The
cache is in an ammo can and is in an area that requires a bit of a
scramble a short distance up a hill. Enjoy the area!
Thanks Doc And Ski we are going back to your coords this
week...11/22/07