2007 03 Eastern Nevada

2007 03 10 Caselton, Cathedral Gorge

Today I met the caretaker for the portion of the Caselton mine complex that is still owned by Kerr-McGee, although it has been shut down for some time. All of these structures are "over the hill" (The Pioche Hills) from Pioche. I was able to get into the hoist house, the generator and compressor room, and an office building. The Lincoln County Power District has a field office next door. All of the mine facilities on the east side of Hwy 320 are owned by someone else and not Kerr-McGee. This includes the huge crushing and milling buildings and the tailing ponds and flotation tanks.

The first two shots here are of the parts of this complex I was able to get in to see today. You can see the headframe and hoist house with the offices to the left. The structures on the left in the second shot are part of the complex I could not see today.

Next two are giant air compressors. The big circular "wheel" is the electric motor. The lower parts of the machine are the pistons that do the compression. There is one on each side of the relatively narrow motor. The large chamber that is high in the air contains the compressed air and regulates it on the way out.

These two are in the "hoist house". The operator of the hoists sat in a high chair that is on the right in the left picture, behind the sheets.

Two shots of the changing room, which is now used for storage. You can see some of the chains and baskets that were used to keep the miners clothes up near the ceiling. The explanation I heard for this is that the warmest air in the room is always near the ceiling, and this is the best place to dry work clothes that are always wind up wet.

One of the administrative offices. The binders on the wall in the right photo were filled with incredible detailed descriptions of ore samples and production. All in very very neat and beautiful penmanship that is I think a dead art. The pages of these books would look good framed and on gallery walls.

Another office, which appears to have been in use as late as 1989 or 1990.

At the end of the day I went to Cathedral Gorge State Park, which is about 10 miles south. I had been here a number of years ago but have always wanted to return and shoot some panoramic images. The most interesting thing about the park is that you can't tell without some context how large these features are. They could be 400 feet tall or 12 feet tall. You decide.