Eldorado Canyon

Today was another old mining town, but a lot closer to home. The Eldorado Canyon is just 20 miles SE of Vegas, and 10 miles south of Boulder City, and unlike Rhyolite, it's still slightly alive. The mine is all dried up, but now it's open to tours by a company housed in one of the old buildings here. They also run a Kayaking tour of the nearby Colorado river. The main building is surrounded by old west decor, old cars, and machinery from the mining days. It's a museum without even trying.

The Canyon was home to Paiute and Mojave Indians before being run off by gold seeking Spaniards in in 1775. Those fella's didn't look hard enough, and moved on. In 1850, white faced prospectors showed up and ended up taking multi-millions out of the place over the next 90 years. At first, a select few mining teams kept the location a secret, but then as steam boats began to make their way down the Colorado river, the location of the gold strike became public knowledge, and the are was mobbed by prospectors who blew holes in every other rock face and dug mines. As you drive through the canyon, all the old mines are still there, boarded up and looking untouched for the last 100 years. Amazing!

The Techatticup mine was one of the most lucrative in the canyon, and few places in the west have more recorded history behind them...

It is said that many of the miners here were Civil War deserters, AWOL and hiding out in the desert, and arguments over gold and women, resulting in lots of violence were commonplace. Lawmen refused to enter the canyon before long, as killings became a daily occurence. Eventually, Federal troops posted a small battalion here to keep order, watch over the steamboats transporting the gold, and keep an eye on nearby Indians who had begun to raid the town. An infamous Indian who raised hell in the canyon was Queho, who murdered 23 people here in the early 1900's, and always avoided capture. A local posse claimed to have found his remains in the canyon in 1940.

The canyon is also home to stories and legends of the ghosts of dead miners, Indians and pioneers. There is a long history that exists to this day of people exploring the area seeing the ghosts of dogs. Miners used to keep vicious attack dogs to protect their property during the turbulent times, and there were hundreds of dogs here in the gold rush days. The locals call them the "Hell Dogs of Eldorado" . Cool!
Legends continue to be created. On the inside of the door at the mine tour building was a picture of a man holding a huge snake someone had recently hit with a car. it was 9 feet long and weighed over 100lbs. Someone had written on the photo, "Eldorado speed bump".

The mine remained active until 1945, after which it had produced more than $250 million in gold, copper, silver, etc. After the mine closed, the population of the town dwindled from it's 500 miners to nobody at all. The site lay abandoned for the next 50 years. Over 100 years of mining, the Nelson mining district and it's many mines produced over 500 Million.

A twin, but cant nail down the type....

Just beyond the old mine site, as I was heading for the Colorado River, I noticed a chained in yard filled with the fuselages of what I think are old Corsairs in coastal Navy paint, with no rhyme or reason for them being there. I would have taken a closer/better picture, but I could hear what I'm sure was a rattlesnake somwhere nearby. I havent seen one in the flesh yet, and I had no plans to see one today.

Finally, the road dead ends at the great Colorado River. You can pull right up with your car and hop out and go swimming, as there is no current here. Locals were enjoying the water, and nearby there was a 20 foot cliff that people were jumping from. Have to remember my swimmies next time....

The road out of the canyon, NV highway 165. Pretty quiet out there.