Large Scale Central

My 2015 Nevada/Mojave trip

General Discussion
#1

I finally finished organizing the photos from my trip and getting everything posted to my website! The report on my trip begins here:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2015_Part_One.html

I had some car trouble again this year, and definitely need to find another SUV before my next trip. Also had a very scary near-wreck. But mostly I had a really great time and saw a lot of amazing stuff, including mines, mills, mining camps, pioneer ranch buildings, and a huge steam tractor. Here’s a list of some of the places I visited this year:

Mazourka Canyon, CA

Black Eagle and Alhambra Mines, CA

Kearsarge, CA

Sylvania, NV

Sylvania Mine, NV

Four Aces Canyon mines, NV

Four Aces Mill, NV

White Wolf Mine, NV

Grantsville, NV

Nevada Cinnabar Mine, NV

Ione, NV

“White Ranch”, O’Toole Ranch, “Adobe Ranch”, Hess Ranch and others in the Reese River Valley, NV

Diamond Tunnel and Diamond Camp, NV

Eureka, NV

Willow Creek, NV

Keystone Canyon, NV

“Ground Zero” at the Project Faultless nuclear test site

Two mills in Eden Creek Canyon, NV

Clifford, NV

Tonopah, NV

South Klondike Hills, NV

Brannigan Mine, CA

Paymaster Mine, CA

I also added a lot of new reference photos to my Modeler’s Resource pages:

http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Modelers_Resource.html

Enjoy!

#2

.Ray D.

I seen this tractor you are showing a photo of around Goldfield with some rocks and timber up against it at a mine with sand covering some of the wheels. Long story/short … in 1956 right after I got married and my new 1956 Chev Bel Air, wife and I took a trip to Los Vegas and stopped for Gas at a store and had Shell gas, one post office and right across the Hi-way 95 ( Two lane road) was this old three story boarded up hotel.

Like a young dummy… I ask the old timer where are some old Ghost towns and old Mines around these part. After a chewing out on what the heck you think Goldfield is. I brought there one page news paper on how Goldfield was going to hit it big again. More Gold and Silver will be taken out as soon as they get more money and backer to fig. out how to get thru the Lave rock at 900 ft. Oh…Also, not by chose…we fill up the car with gas and almost buying the store out on bunch of munchies.

Anyway… getting on the good side of the old timer store keeper, he took us across the street and unlocked the old hotel that was boarded up to see how thing was in the old days when this was a big town. He said his Grand Dad told him in the hay days you could see tents for miles.

In this old hotel he showed us the marble floors in main room and one great big long massage bar. Must of been a real classic hotel. We made it up to the second floor and look in one hotel room that had about 10 ft celling, but it was very narrow rooms with one small long bed and a small wash table. The top floor was not safe.

The store owner and his wife showed us a map to a few mines closes by to drive to.

We had fun played around pushing some old Ore carts around on tracks. Even had a turn table for ore cart by the mine head. It looks like miner just dropped and left everything. like just walk away at one site and then …

Yup… in you photo you showed this with lots of sand covering part of the wheels.

This has then some places of dark blue paint on it if I remember and that was odd for a tractor color. I don’t see any part of the wooden top it had on your photo. Course there wasn’t much there anyway. There was few more pc. of equip. left there.

There was a big steam hoist there by the mine head, but can’t remember the name of the mine we were at. Maybe Ray… you know some of the Mines names East of Goldfield… there was three Mines close together about 20 miles going down a dirt road after you turn East by the old post office that was boarded up. The store was next to it on the corner of the Hi-way and the dirt road…

Boy… this was in 1956 when I was there and you sure picked up a lot of old memory’s for me.

Oh. forgot to say something about Railroading, so we left there and went to Rhyolite, NV. to see where three differ R.R. met at one spot. The UP, SP and something else R.R.? Plus the old train station gift shop and bottle house. LoL… Noel

#3

Thanks for the info, Noel! Yes, the Goldfield Hotel was really something in its day. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt even stayed in it once.

The three railroads that met at Rhyolite were the Bullfrog Goldfield, coming in from the north; the Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas & Tonopah railroads coming from the south. If I remember correctly, the LV&T was (or became) a subsidiary of the UP.

#4

Ray Dunakin said:

Thanks for the info, Noel! Yes, the Goldfield Hotel was really something in its day. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt even stayed in it once.

The three railroads that met at Rhyolite were the Bullfrog Goldfield, coming in from the north; the Tonopah & Tidewater and the Las Vegas & Tonopah railroads coming from the south. If I remember correctly, the LV&T was (or became) a subsidiary of the UP.

Sorry I didn’t know you were on as I was still correction my spelling when I seen this. Ok I couldn’t remember the R.R. names at Rhyolite. Did you see the bottle house? There must of been some party to have enough to build a house… lol

Anyway great stuff you wrote and photos. Took me a few hr’s. to go thru them… lol.

#5

Good stuff Ray!

Always check your spare tire before a trip and make sure the pressure is good and it’s not dry rotted!

(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#6

Very, very nicely presented, Ray… Fantastic images…

#7

Another most fascinating trip Ray. You seem to take your Guardian Angel with you always, luckily. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Another rainy day here (well it is August, holiday time, so what can you expect) which allowed me to spend an enjoyable time reading the logs of your 2015 expedition. It is truly remarkable what artefacts remain - despite the thieves - in these remoter areas of SW USA.

It is sad that so many of these old mine workings ceased so long ago, but that, I guess, has ensured the relics and former structures remain to be seen. If they were still working, or had longer working lives I doubt visits would be possible today. That would make the area far less remote and presumably the spoil heaps would be much larger.

#8

Thanks again Ray for putting another trip on your website. I think if you are going to keep doing this, a newer rig is needed. :slight_smile:

#9

Thanks. Yeah I plan to replace the Trooper sometime before my 2016 trip. The old one is getting too unreliable, and parts are getting more expensive and difficult to find. (They stopped selling Troopers in the US ten years ago.)

Biggest problem will be finding something else that has all the practical features, serious off-road capabilities, and comfort features of the Trooper. So far nothing I’ve seen comes close.

#10

Toyota Sequoia

Toyota 4 Runner

#11

very interesting story and pics.

i copied the pic with the front of that general store.

it might end up as part of my planned mexican town.

#12

Ray I’m surprised you went so far off the beaten track without making sure your spare was in good condition before leaving.

I’m very surprised no one has removed or salvaged either of those old Dodge trucks or that battery critter.

Great pics as usual. :wink:

#13

My old Isuzu Trooper has a great combination of features:

Practical features: Lots of places to hold drinks or store maps, tools, etc. Massive cargo space. Four doors. A rear door for easy access. Spare mounted on the rear door. Good instrumentation (tach, electrical gauge, temperature gauge, etc.) Plenty of power without being too much of a gas guzzler. Manual transmission with overdrive.

Off-road features: High clearance. Skid plates protecting the oil pan, tranny/transfer case, and gas tank. On the fly 4wd with limited slip differential.

Comfort features: Lots of head room, both overhead and side-to-side. Plenty of leg room. Power windows, locks, and mirrors.

Most SUVs these days are built more like cars than like trucks. They’re so streamlined and stylized that they lack the head room and cargo area that a boxier design would have. They barely have any off-road capability, are lacking in clearance, and aren’t built tough enough to handle serious off-road use.

Worst of all, most have hatch-backs instead of doors. I hate those things! For one, they’re a head injury waiting to happen. Two, if you’re hauling anything on the roof that sticks out the back, you can’t open the hatch. Third, eventually the mechanism wears out and you can’t get them to stay up. Fourth and worst of all, they eliminate the only logical place to store the spare tire. As a result they end up mounting the spare under the vehicle, where it inhibits clearance and you have to crawl around in the dirt to reach it; or they put it inside where it wastes valuable cargo space.

#14

Ray yea. I agree. I want a rugged truck chassis under my butt, and I want enough ground clearance so I don’t have to worry about it. I do like the hatch on the back though. It lets me stand outside, out of the rain (with it open)

#15

Ray, from the sounds of it what you need is an older Jeep Cherokee that has been ‘tailored’ to your application. Not sure of your viewing tastes, but there is a show on ‘Spike’ TV called ‘Xtreme 4x4’. Don’t let the name throw you off track, yes the do what the name implies, but they also do budget minded family style trail rigs. Generally increasing the capability of the otherwise ‘grocery getter’ the auto industry is calling a ‘utility vehicle’. I doubt you will find something ‘off the shelf’ any more that really suits your needs.

I feel your pain…

#16

Ray,

You ain’t kidding about modern SUVs… they are a JOKE. I was interested in the new Jeeps, the Renegade or the Cherokee, right up until I found out the Cherokee in ONLY available with an automatic tranny and BOTH come standard WITHOUT A SPARE TIRE.

I was going to check them out but now I’m seriously LOSING interest in them, I am angry at manufacturers for taking away something I consider a MAJOR safety item, namely the spare tire.

The dealers will try and weasel out of it by saying nobody uses the spare (really? I’ve used mine 5 times) and the cars come with a “patch kit” and a pump…to which I ask:

“What do I do if I’ve shredded the tire?”

“Ahhhhh…call Roadside Assistance”

“Ok, I’m 150 miles north of Las Vegas on a dirt road near a big rock that looks like a chicken”

…silence

…and even if they offer a spare its often only the little frisbee spare, Yeah I’m on a dirt road and I’m going to drive out on that? The only way to get a full size spare these days is if you get the fully loaded “off-road” packages which has so many luxury add-on’s it often double the base price of the vehicle. Its getting ridiculous!

#17

I would have to echo Bob’s suggestion of a earlier model Jeep. I was actually going to suggest that but didn’t want to seem like I was throwing out absurd suggestions. I have 2 Jeeps which I love. A 79 CJ-5 and an 81 J-10 Truck. The J-10 is just finishing up a complete restoration and I only need to put the bed back together and sit it on. I have almost 10 grand in this truck, but I have replaced everything. All new rubber and weather striping every where, new stainless gas and brake lines, new upholstery, new carpet, paint, shocks, lift springs (only 2 inch), and the list goes on. If you’re remotely serious about an older full size Jeep let me point you to this site:

http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/

Link to my build:

http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4332

These guys do amazing things and are very helpful. It does sound like it could be right up your alley. There are places that will build or restore it for you If you don’t want to get into all that at home. Almost anything you buy will need something done to it. There are even lots of guys that have removed the whole drive line and replaced it with a modern fuel injected motor and trans. Those rigs do come up for sale sometimes.

Oh by the way fantastic trip and pictures!

#18

This with a camper shell would be a great desert exploration vehicle.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281781952605?rmvSB=true

#19

A cabover Jeep. Looks like it needs a lot of work, but it is unique.

Ray, if I was doing what you do, I’d probably have a good heavy 3/4 ton 4X4 pickup with an 8 foot camper, pulling a Polaris RZR or Ranger. Best of all worlds. Camp near your hunting sites and roam the desert in the UTV.

#20

Ray, you are one prolific photographer! Modeler too. I get tired just watching everything you do.