Re: Question about Opal Canyon
Posted by Chuck Goodenough on May 16, 2004 at 15:21:03:
In Reply to: Re: Question about Opal Canyon posted by Last Chance Rand on March 23, 2004 at 11:25:07:
Hi gang,
I was just there with my kids on Saturday 5/15/04.
We have never been there when the Barnett's were there.
I feel like we have missed something.
There is a site that looks dozed but that still has some paths outlined in rocks. It appears like there was at least one building with some parking area in front of it and some paths marked by stones.
It looks like the mine area is up oin the hill on the opposite side from the site that has been cleared.
I'm assuming that the Barnett's died and the land was absorbed or donated to the BLM. The BLM then decided that the buildings were going to cost too much to maintain or that they had no desire to maintain them so they were leveled.
On a previous trip about a month ago while hiking around just beyond and to the west of what I think is the Barnett area we saw some buildings and then bumped into someone who told us we had wandered onto the Nowak mine property and that we should walk back toward the old Barnett mine area to do our looking.
Is anyone aware of any source of photos or written history of the Barnett operation? We'd really enjoy seeing and reading about what we missed. Is there info in a local museum or historical society?
My kids and I are interested in hooking up with a local rock club so that we can learn more about local Mojave desert rock hounding. We found a buch of (really small) stuff and would like to know more about what it is and whether it can be polished and if so, how etc.