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Just North of El Arco there are several old mining towns that have interesting debris to explore. Pozo Aleman is one of these. The photos show left over dry washers, and rockers to separate the gold from the dirt. These are use for placer mining (ancient waterway deposited gold as it eroded veins of gold. No processing needed here as this would have been free gold. The "dugouts" in the side of the hill attests to old miners' living conditions, some still have stove pipes and furniture.

Home sweet home for miners hoping for the next shovelfull to be rich!

Lastly, on our hike to Mission San Pedro Martir, we ran into old mining operations. Really old was this arrastra, used by the Spanish where ore was placed into the circle of rocks and the stone with the hole in it was pulled around and around by some lucky burro or oxen. The end result was crushed ore ready for processing. Rumors abound about gold in Baja, and many are based on fact.

Really great stuff .... was much gold taken out of the area...

The last picture is really something ... that is a very large tree in the picture ... never been in the foothills or up any mountains in Baja ... thanks much to see what it looks like...

Was getting some fire wood when down and in some of the fire wood delivered there was "foothill oak" and was just kinda surprise for some reason to see "oak" for fire wood... but, with that tree... can see that there is oak around in places...

The guy said he was getting it from some place outside Tecate ... have never been there either... have always been on the Pacific side and on the "beach" ... for a many years.. but, have never gotten off the beaten path so to say ... so again thanks.. I'm getting a grand tour and lots of information ...

I wonder how old those ruins are?

The "Cradle" and the different "Sluices" look like to be in the 30's to 40's. That is so cool. I personaly love that stuff. When I was 21 to about 28 I was a weekender. I would use a dredge, Pans and sluice boxes to mine Gold just outside of the town of Mariposa in the Siera Mountains above Merced in Northern cali. I mined out several onces on a good weekend.One nugget was 1 - 1.5 onces.I read all kinds of books about the area. Some where one of a kind.
Just going out there is a great Hobbie here in Cali. but there in Baja how are the laws about walking out to those ruins.? Are there signs saying "Stay out" or no signs? After moving there to SQ later on i would love to check out those places like that. Just look no touch though. Keep the pans at home.

Originally Posted by airgar

The "Cradle" and the different "Sluices" look like to be in the 30's to 40's. That is so cool. I personaly love that stuff. When I was 21 to about 28 I was a weekender. I would use a dredge, Pans and sluice boxes to mine Gold just outside of the town of Mariposa in the Siera Mountains above Merced in Northern cali. I mined out several onces on a good weekend.One nugget was 1 - 1.5 onces.I read all kinds of books about the area. Some where one of a kind.
Just going out there is a great Hobbie here in Cali. but there in Baja how are the laws about walking out to those ruins.? Are there signs saying "Stay out" or no signs? After moving there to SQ later on i would love to check out those places like that. Just look no touch though. Keep the pans at home.

I lived up above Jackson Ca. for a while several of the guys I knew carried portable dredges in the back of thier truck and always worked the cuts through the mountain along the highway after the rain's.

The last photo of my friend at an arrastra is on the way to San Pedro Martir mission in the sierra. Lots of large trees and running streams. Similar large trees can be found in Sierra de la Laguna above Todos Santos.

As to the remains of the mining town with the dry washers etc., no one was there. Took only photos, kept on hiking. Very remote places in Baja are still pretty pristine. How much gold was found? Who knows. We use a dry washer, pans in N. CA with limited success, but that is not the intent, just being there.

The first time I was in Pozo Aleman I noticed those dry washers, they are in excellent condition. They would make a wonderful display in the BoLA museum. I went back to PA this past march and found that someone has secured all the buildings. Can't tell if the dry washers are still there. Also all of the old truck bodies are gone, probably hauled off for scrap. Too bad, alot of history there. I really enjoy exploring that area, lots of old mines and ranchos. Also some spectacular cave paintings. A future trip I am planning is to go out there with quads and set up a camp and explore the area further.
Larry
Heree are a couple of shots from the san Juan mine. Nothing to do with Pozo Aleman.




Here is a picture of Roger Mears at the cave paintings near Pozo Aleman

That is so cool Larry - would love to see more photos if you have them...

I recently was looking through a book on the Baja mines, and spotted a photo of some miners in front of those underground homes seen in Jack's photo... It gave the date around 1910.

Originally Posted by Jack Swords

Home sweet home for miners hoping for the next shovelfull to be rich!

Pretty Cool!

Thanks much...