Trip down Old Abe Mine

Sunrise at the Little Casino , White Oaks 

 
The smell of coffee, bacon frying in a cast iron skillet and cigarette smoke causes the authors to stir from their last night beds aka the two pool tables in the private room . “Son of a bitch!”  Rob declared it’s too damn early for the sun to be coming up! Steve grunts his agreement. Its Sunday and only a few miners will be working today so it’s the day the authors are to descend 1,400 feet into a 10 x 10 foot square hole as John y Hewitt guests. On his third cup of black coffee and 10th cigarette of the morning Rob mumbles, “I don’t think this is a good idea dangling my life on rope” it’s kinda spooked me just the thought. Steve knows nothing on this earth spooks Rob.  A hundred years from now , sitting on the porch trust me, this will be an adventure you will want to spout off about Steve tells Rob. Your are right if course Rob replied let’s go. Dear reader reflect on your chances for adventure when right in front of you are not taken and the memory is lost forever. 
 
 
 
The boys are next door at Mayer’s stables. Fresh hay and oats. Brush down , feet checked , let them rest , the authors walk over to Culps lot 1 block 46 abutting the creek and Arroyo. See here .  Arrived via shoe leather express at mining engineer James Culp property in extreme North West of the original town plat. His house contains an assay bench. He has a 30 foot high wind vane with sheet metal vanes pumping 15 to 20 gallons of water a minute from a well he sank. Water collection is into a 20 x 20 foot above ground tank made of Adobe  5 feet deep. Plastered inside  can hold about 20,000 gallons. Culp sold water to townspeople occasionally one cent a gallon usually dumped in a barrel in a wagon brought by the citizens. The above ground tank is connected to a Worthington steam pump with a 4 inch live steam pipe from the boiler 700 feet further west at the Old Abe mine site.  The pump discharges into a 3 inch pipe emptying into a 30,000 gallon tank at the mine site and can deliver 100 to 130 gallons a minute. The live steam valve is at the boiler and runs on timing, it takes about 20 minutes to bring sufficient steam pressure to the Culp pump from the mine boiler. The water is used for boiler feed water. Drinking for the crews and animals. The stamp mill slurry station and the concentration tables. When in full operation the mine uses 25,000 gallons of water a day 
 
The walk up to the mine is not easy even though it’s only a couple of hundred paces. Its uphill, crumbling rock sitting on a thin hard cover of sand. Sparse vegetation,  the authors are sweating and panting as they arrive at the edge of the Old Abe mining complex. The first structure we come across is the ore load out dock where the ore concentration was loaded in 100 pound capacity burlap bags into ore wagons for transport to the smelter. The authors will be going backwards against the flow of ore processing, since we are coming from the down hill side. The cyanide concentration building is attached with 8 tables for the leaching process 
 
All the buildings are faced with rough sawed 1 inch by 10 inch planking . Internal structure was 10 inch x 10 inch beam, bolted together with 1 inch bolts with 5 inch washers. The timber came from Bonnell sawmill , the iron work was done by Biggs, blacksmith. Next is the large stamp mill , its two story plus roof to accommodate the 8 hammers , crushing rock. Go the right is the mine manager office and clerk station where all records were produced. To the left are piles of cast iron air and water pipes. Timber beams for mid sets. The main shaft had 10 foot x 10 foot timber boxes consisting of 12 -10 inch x 10 inch rough sawed beams bolted together to stop mine collapse. The horizontal drifts were usually timber framed as needed but not sets like the main areas . They chased the ore vein depending on the assay work . These were 6 feet wide 7 feet tall and sometimes had shoots going up or down again chasing the vein. Next comes a roofed. Open sided structure. Used by the crews for various functions. Another roofed but open sided structure houses the boiler 
 
Fired by coal brought by wagon from the mines down the canyon to the South of town. 13,000 lbs 115 rated horse power,  consumed 100 gallons of water per hour as there was no re-circulation used. The authors and crew installing the Old Abe mine stationary engine at their compound in central Florida in 2020. A leather drive belt ran to the stamp mill and via overhead pulley powered the shaking tables, the hammers the feed shoot vibrators. A full time fireman managed the boiler fire and a engineer managed the machines. A belt driven air compressor sat next to the engine and provided air for the drills and ventilation of the shaft. Next was a belt driven electric generator powering fans, lighting and telegraph. A separate roofed , open structure containing the winch. mine hoist powered by direct live steam sat next to the head frame structure 
 
 
 
 

The Life Dangle on rope and Old Abe

 

The head frame is built by 12 inch x 12 inch 20 foot long rough sawed beams bolted by Biggs handy work. The main cable was 1 inch wound wire rope. Inspected often. The wire came from the CCX winch drum up to the 3 foot diameter head pulley sheave.  There was an emergency brake at the winch drum and one mounted low on the head frame. The winch operation was controlled from a shack abutt the head frame base. The wire came to a four way splitter each anchored to a corner of the 8 foot x 8 foot platform that was raised and lowered down the main shaft. There were no guard rails on the platform. It was strongly built with two sets of ore cart gauge track. Every one and thing coming up or down rode this platform. There is a one foot gap on each side between the platform and the shaft wall and crib sets. Not really enough for a man to fall and we never heard of anyone having that fate from this rig. The main cable was marked with color coded paint allowing the host operator to bring the platform to the correct side drift tunnel to deliver men and haul ore carts up to the stamp mill.  A 1/8th inch wire ran through eyelets on the main cable and unwound with the platform. If it was pulled, a flag popped up on the hoist operator desk meaning emergency pull the platform up NOW ,never heard it being used except for the fire which comes later.

We get off at a drift 860 feet down , step over the gap and head down a completely dark space lit with only our carbide hardhat lamps as this drift was not electrified being it was not being currently worked. It’s dark and we mean dark.  its rugged. It smells dank, it takes someone completely different than the authors to work down here. Just unimaginable  for those not of that vent. The drifts are dug slightly ip hill to make it easier to push the 400 pound empty weight ore carts to the shaft once loaded with 600 pounds of ore .block and tackle is used as well where needed. No mules are used it’s not a big enough production to require animals and the issues they bring underground. Assay work is done every day to ensure the miners are on the vein , shores or up or down holes occasionally are dug off the drift as the assay suggests. Kn all cases as the schematic shown here indicates, were dug beyond the end of the main ore body ,just in case the body picked up again.

This is a hard rock mine, dust was not a big problem. Compressed air delivered via cast iron pipes powered the air drills. Explosives are put in drill holes, set off and hand shoveled into the ore carts on 20 inch, lightweight rail down the drift back to the shaft , drive onto the shaft platform. 6 carts at a trip. Hoisted to the stamp mill feeder box, dumped and sent back down to be reloaded . This system was very efficient owing to only handling the ore once . Down here you have to wonder. Despite their best efforts, just how much gold was missed, between the drifts top to bottom, or in the arc that only a 6 x 6 drift picks up on the circumference of the level. Would seem best, to dig it all out via a huge hole, but in these years it was not possible. Open pit mining would be the solution. Guess the remaining ore was not rich enough for some modern mining operation to reopen Old Abe. We remount the platform and descend to the bottom at over 1 400 feet. Here we are with John at the bottom. Reflecting. It’s a hell of an accomplishment, what they did here, back then. Their memories still bring a feeling of respect from those now living.  Looking back.

 

Old Abe Mine details Here