Calico

Help! How do I navigate this site?!?

So, one fine day, I was bored, didn't wish to go to work, and had no school. What did I do? I drove east, a few miles past Barstow on the way to Las Vegas to... Calico Ghost Town! Now of course, Knott's Berry Farm now owns this property, and they have restored the town considerably and made it into a popular tourist attraction. Unfortunately, this has caused the town to lose most of its authenticity, but nevertheless, its still a great place to check out. And so are the secret silver mines :)

Well, unfortunatly in my opinion, much of the town has been "restored" nearly two-thirds of the buildings are no longer original structures. While I was there, they were putting up a new building in fact. I can understand that Knotts wants to make some money off this place, but its kinda sad that the town has lost a lot of its feel for being an authentic ghost town. Still though, some of the structures are actually from the olden days. The gassy tunnel on the right is in honor of Paul :)

Ok, so Calico used to be a major silver mining town. They have a self guided tour which costs 1 dollar, and you get to go into an actual silver mine shaft (which of course has been cleaned up and has all sorts of fake crap in it unfortunately. I suppose little kids like that though). Still, it was interesting enough to take some photos of the mine.

The silver mine entrance, obviously fake signs, but still cool

Down further below in the mine, in a part you aren't allowed to go to :(

So, now we get to the juicy part. The mountains here are actually a honey comb of shafts which all connect to one another. The whole area of Calico used to be a gigantic silver mining area in the late 1880's and what not.

As you leave Calico, instead of making a right back onto the road which takes you to the 15 freeway, make a left. Continue on this road until you get to the very next road on which you can make another left turn, towards the mountains. (This is a short drive. It takes you past the Calico campground, and over to the next valley behind the mountain Calico is located at).

For this part, you need a 4wheel drive vehicle. JEEP FOR LIFE. Drive down this road as far as you possibly can, until it ends. At this point, you need to get out, and do a bit of walking, up the mountain side. The mountains here are littered with shaft openings, you should be able to find any one of them pretty quickly.

NEVER go alone. These mines are not maintained, very old, and HUGE. It is EASY to get lost in them. These mine tunnels are among the largest and longest I have ever seen. They consist of hundreds of tunnels, perhaps up to a dozen different levels, and have many, many different openings. Make sure you take at least 2 friends, have flashlights, extra batteries, and marking chalk to make a little trail so you can get back. And take plenty of pictures! :)

This is only near the entrance area of the shaft I went down. Since my camera is brand new, and because I was alone, I didnt take my camera down there, nor did I voyage into different levels of the mine.

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