The morning was spent checking out campsites located on BLM land to the south and southwest of the town of Ajo, with Scenic Loop Road being the main access road from Darby Wells Road.
Lots of campers and sites spotted and catalogued for possible future use. Kept following trails that led closer to Ajo Peak and ended up a bit further west than I intended to be, and so, ended up negotiating FR1833F which proved not bad but with one highly technical spot.
Mariko handled the spot just fine of course, so no drama to report. It was basically a steep drop into an old creek bed, with a steep incline climbing out of it on the other side. Add it some deep ruts, a couple of boulders and it was all very "interesting".
Views of Ajo Peak
I got to the museum sometime after 1230 I think, it's located within what used to be an old Catholic church. The museum is run by the Ajo Historical Society and has no entry fees, though of course they do accept donations.
Tools from a blacksmith shop
The Militaria alcove and in the center, something for Martha
to reminisce about:
The Cowboy Section
Statuette of a Buffalo Soldier
Among the many old time memorabilia, the following two amused me. Boy it sure didn't pay to play cards at school, back in the day:
The mine shut down in 1985 I think
The mine back in 1949
A view of Camelback Mountain, with the cross on top
and the museum buildings in the left foreground
Rest of the afternoon was spent at camp, doing minor chores and maintenance. It was another warm day, with a high of 82 degrees....it's supposed to be "much colder" tomorrow according to the weather guessers with a high of only 72 degrees!
6 comments:
Looks like a very interesting place. That is an area I need to visit.
Fascinating history of the Ajo mine. Thanks for talking about it.
Doesn't look like much when just riding through Oz, but yeah, worth some time.
You're welcome CCjon....I just repeated what the museum shows.
I remember stopping and taking a picture of that open pit mine back in the mid-70s. It was still in operation with huge ore trucks on the roads.
I've seen those big ore trucks! It was at a gold mine in Colorado, they were huge! Apparently they got 1 oz of gold out of every truck load after processing.
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