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| Hiking | 1.70 Miles |
900 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.70 Miles | | | |
| 900 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I camped at the Billy Lawrence trail head for two nights and did a couple of exploratory short hikes in the area. The road to this site is shown on my gps as NF145 - not sure why Grasshopper's description calls out FR235. There were fantastic views to the east from my campsite overlooking Cherry Creek canyon. While doing a walk-about around my campsite I discovered an old trail which headed across the hillside below the cliff at the Billy Lawrence trail head. I decided to follow this "Mystery Trail" and see where it went. The trail showed signs of being a substantial trail at one time with rock walls holding back the steep hillside in several areas. It had obviously not been maintained in a long time because large bushes had overgrown the trail in many places. After following it for about 3/4 of a mile it seemed to disappear but I kept going across the steep hillside on approximately the same contour line. After bushwacking for about 300 yards I spotted a pile of old weathered boards and headed in that direction where I discovered an old mine shaft. I did not venture into the mine shaft beyond the first 10 feet but it appeared to open up into an area about 20 feet wide. Outside the mine shaft was an old compressor tank, a 50 gallon oil drum, a long length of 3/4 inch steel cable and several rusty sheets of corrugated sheet metal. Above the mine shaft against the cliff wall was the remains of what must have been a cabin with two rusty bed frames and parts of a wood stove. One curiosity was a 1/2 inch diameter galvanised pipe line that snaked from the mine's mouth down into a deep gully which I think is the head of the Billy Lawrence creek. The old jeep road which is now the Lucky Strike Trail is on the other side of the gully but inaccessable from the mine by most folks because of the cliffs in that vicinity. I took a couple of side scrambles up to the cliff faces above the trail looking for a couple of cliff dwellings in this area (V:1:162 & 163) but did not find any. I suspect the sites are on higher cliffs in a slightly different area based on site elevations given by Lange in "Echoes in the Canyon". So I had to be happy with just finding the old mine and pondering how the miners got the ore out of this site - maybe they packed it out by mule on the "Mystery Trail"? Maybe they never hit paydirt and never had to worry about how they would haul it out.
Oct 17, 2012 update: I just found a 1955 report on asbestos mining in AZ. The mine below the Billy Lawrence trailhead was actually an asbestos mine called Metate No.1 Prospect. The initial claims were made in 1950 by the Metate Asbestos Mines, Inc. The company constructed a 1000 foot aerial tramway from the mine to the flat on which the road is located. This explains how they got the ore up to the road. It also explains the thick steel rods driven into the rock on top of the cliff above the mine and the mining shack debris back in the woods on top of the cliff. The 1955 report says the property was idle in the fall of 1953. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
