Weekend Rambler: Updated

This weekend's ramble took me to the Kentucky mine, I live in the valley dust so any excuse I can make to head for the foothills I will. Talked to a fellow working his claim with a suction dredge, cool set up I tell you. I had to play dumb tourist from Alabamaer to get him to talk but it worked because I was a dumb tourist from Al. Not anymore....I bluffed, I won, secret kept. I know where to look now and how to do it.

The stamp mill for the Kentucky mine where they crushed and refined the gold ore, they have tours, but the next one was too long a wait so I will return. I didn't note anything of when it shut down but I would assume it was about the same time as the Empire mine in Grass Valley and the crash of hard rock mining in the early 1940s. There is a nice little museum on site and I met a tourin' Aussie and after a nice chat I clued him to many of our hidden bits of history including the Empire mine .

The view from the top, while gorgeous, also shows how it worked, the track on the right leads to the tailings, bad rock, and the one on the left sent the rich ore to the mill. The Chinese immigrants made millions catering to the crazed gold rushers and built most of the infrastructure, roads, etc. They had much success reworking the tailings of careless, inexperienced miners, as well as they moved on. There is a monument for them in the picnic area surrounding the museum.

This is the mine entrance , basically a workshop of what was needed to run a mine as it disappears into the mountainside, carpenter, blacksmith, all powered by the "Pelton wheel", basically a high tech water wheel for its time. Many of the miners built their houses right above the entrance to their mines in order to protect them and they dot the hill country still today and can give driving down some back country dirt roads a true "Deliverance" feel . There is a lot of marijuana grown and methamphetamine made in those hills and lonely dirt roads. I try to blend in and not look like a tourist at those points and stick to the road, a 4x4 truck just bumping down the road is nothing to to look twice at.

A look inside the mine entrance, the Pelton wheel is is just outside the bottom right of the picture, and the spring that powered it still flows, it ran the various compressors and pumps sending air in and pumping water out shown here. There is still a whole lot of gold in the hills of the Mother lode country and I am going to try and find me some of it, the saga will continue ....

Update: Dragonlady Gayle has a very important post up and one not quite so ,in fact if you understand country life and want an eye watering laugh, you may want to pay her Den a visit.

Had to nab Gayle's video as well as a Chuck Norris fan too.

Yep,that's what we need to do!

Update:I know, I haven't posted any cool magic tricks in a while so check out this Copperfield masterpiece.

This one is pretty dang good by an unknown.

For my fellow beer lovers, why isn't this living with us, maybe we can keep him in the garage, Lance Burton

I will give the Moonbat W.A.S.P his due for this tip,a good Christian band video.