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My wife (and I) belong to the Prescott Gem and Mineral Club. Last Saturday they had an outing to Robson’s Mining World.
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/Robson.jpg)
It’s at a mining site outside Auguila, AZ, in the middle of nowhere. The sign by the road
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/indian.jpg)
(picture from: www.jimwitkowski.com and much better pic than I could take) is an old beat up indian which doesn’t create much interest. Easy to drive by at 70mph which we’ve done many times. But this time we turned in and got the tour.
If you look at their website it appears to be a thriving resort destination with horse back riding, jeep tours, etc. In reality it’s not. It hasn’t seen much upkeep for a long time. The current caretakers are doing what they can but it is still run down.
It was first a gold mine, literally, the Gold Leaf, 1917, then Nella-Meda, 1924, mine until the second world war, 1942, when “nonessential” mining was curtailed by the government. Charles and Jeri Robson took over the property in 1979 and in the late 1980s embarked on an extensive restoration and expansion. It looks like they collected everything they could from old mining sites all over the southwest US. Which brings up the point of this posting, they collected a lot of early engines of all sizes. I took some pictures but didn’t have time to study any of them. Here’s a sample:
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-1.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-2.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-3.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-4.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-5.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-6.jpg)
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And some more:
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-7.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-8.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-9.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/engine-10.jpg)
The entrance was bordered by a flywheel, in two halves, each taller than our truck.
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/flywheel.jpg)
Most were early gas engines, hit and miss vintage. Few easily visible tags on them, but I didn’t have time to look closely. One large steam engine was tagged Nordberg. It was used for electrical generation in Kingman AZ a very long time ago.
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/Nordberg-2.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/Nordberg-1.jpg)
It was re-mounted on a concrete foundation. I’m sure they had dreams of using it again, but I saw no evidence of a boiler.
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They had a machine shop with two lathes.
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/lathe-1.jpg)
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/lathe-2.jpg)
They flier we have indicates the lathes are late 1800s. It also states “Six engines have been restored and are in running order on a line drive”. If they used this machine shop to restore the engines it was some time ago. It’s been a long time since these ran.
I found it interesting that MANY native indian metate grinding stones had been collected and build into the rock walls.
(https://lister-engine.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10011/metate.jpg)
This only scratches the surface though. The site and buildings are filled to overflowing with mining equipment, antiques, rocks, minerals, etc. If you find yourself in the area I suggest a tour of Robson’s Mining World is well worth the time and $15. And it’s not too far from Nothing, AZ.
Just thought you all would be interested the the engines.
Thanks.
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A nice find Hugh!
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Lots of cool stuff there Hugh, thanks for sharing.
Dave
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That looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing the pictures! It's the next best thing to being there :)
Kim
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Hugh
Very interesting and great pictures. Unfortunately I will never get there (The US won't let me in without a full visa).
If someone tidies up the site and makes a go of it as a tourest attraction (unlikely given the location) it is likely that some of these engines will be lost. In the UK they would have probably gone for scrap 80 years ago.
AVTUR
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Huh, we camped at Alamo Lake State Park last night, less than 60 miles from there, but I didn't know about it! I'll be making a note of that place for next time.
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Ron:
It is well hidden in plain sight. We've driven by the indian several dozen times and wondered what was back there, but it took an organized tour for us to turn in. Enough of interest for at least a full day.
There's a slot canyon, Maggie Wash, just north of Alamo I've been trying to get to for several years. I'm not sure it's accessible from Alamo though. Hopefully get there this winter.
Huh, we camped at Alamo Lake State Park last night, less than 60 miles from there, but I didn't know about it! I'll be making a note of that place for next time.
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thanks for sharing that. I really enjoyed the photos.
Mike