We had decided that we'd seen enough of the show at Tucson and bought enough rough for a good long while, so DH and I took off for the Four Metals Mine near Nogales. In the books it said that there was good collecting of Rhodocrosite and pyrites at this mine. We do know that a person shouldn't believe everything they read and now it's sort of our motto. What we did find was an abandoned mine shaft and roads that where most likely used by "coyotes" to ferry their charges across the back country and into the cruel deserts to the east of Tucson.
I don't expect that many of you would go down into an old gold mine but if the opportunity presents itself, don't ever do it, please. Several years ago, when I was a very young rockhound, I had just returned from a day of exploring gold mines and having the time of my life. My rockhound friends were agast. They told me hair raising tales of how silly idiots, like myself, had fallen hundreds of feet down vertical shafts that had been covered over by the dust and grit, while the planking that the miner's used to cover them slowly rotted away and left a death trap for the unwary. I always look longingly at them but never, ever, go in them anymore.
The places that we go to in the desert are so quiet. There's nothing like it, even the ocean is not this quiet. There's something mystical about this silent peace.
You are one courageous woman, going into an old mine! And thank goodness that you no longer do that.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's courage and then there is ignorance. I'm always up for edgy adventure if it's not going to get me killed, so this time I blame ignorance. I still like old mines that have been maintained. I'll go down in them. It's very cool inside. Like a cave. I could live in a cave. It would be fun.
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