Terese Habitation Site - El Paso Mountains

I've posted a lot of photos from my trips to various Indian habitation and rock art sites. This spot, called Terese, doesn't have fancy pictographs, caves, or rock shelters, but it still just might be my favorite of them all. It wasn't discovered until the late 1990's and is just about as pristine as can be. It is also very large (I've yet to see all of it).  

The great places are usually hard to get to and this one is no exception. Folks, don't try this road in your car or mini-van.

A kitchen with all the built-ins. A mortar, a slick and a metate. It's the trifecta of milling stones. All we're missing is a Cuyamaca Oval. There even looks to be a few cupules.

 Another large, but broken milling stone. 

There were many sleeping circles in the area. The next several were all in the same area. 

Finally to the pictographs. This was my favorite of the day. The largest image appears to by a mountain lion, or maybe a coyote.

The large image is a Coso style Bighorn Sheep. Based on that and what appears to be an "Atlatl" in the right lower corner. These petroglyphs are likely to be from 1000 to about 2500 years old (plus or minus). The atlatl was a dart/arrow "launching device" that pre-dates the bow and arrow. This site is also thought to be the most southern known location of the Coso style rock art.

I believe the symbol in the middle represents a medicine bag or pouch.  

We didn't get to see a lot of the site, because it was getting dark.  Next time...

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From the Ends of the Earth

A few months ago, Jeep sponsored a contest named, "From the Ends of the Earth." To enter the contest you had to submit up to five, adventure themed photographs involving a Jeep. Five winners were to be selected from the entrants.  Each winner would receive five-thousand dollars.   Guess what?

That's right people! Five grand for a single photo...

My wife did all the work (what little there was), but she somehow forgot to ask me to sign a model release form. Hey, people make mistakes, right? That is why I gave her a break and only demanded half of the money...

If you are wondering where we found this jeep, just follow this link.

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Sheep Springs Petroglyphs - El Paso Mountains Wilderness

Not long ago (yes, I'm way behind) I visited the Sheep Springs Petroglyph site, located in the El Paso Mountains Wilderness Area. A beautiful, rugged and isolated area that is chock full of history. I had never been to this site before. The details of how that happened are located after the last photo.

We had already been to a few stops this day. We are are now headed toward those mountains. Big beautiful and wide open. 

It looks pretty far, but the road is looking pretty good. You've heard that from me before, right?

 Still pretty darn good!

 Here comes the fun part. For those of you that haven't done this, it really is fun.

Somehow, I have no photos of the transition from vehicles to rock art. There are a lot of petroglyphs here and this is one of my favorites.

This one also

Human form (Anthropomorphic) petroglyph

Animal form (Zoomorphic) petroglyphs (mountain sheep)

Anthropomorphic/Zoomorphic hybrid (left side of rock)

Close up of the part man, part animal petroglyph

Here is another example of the hybrid. I know there is a better word for that, but I can't think of it just now.

Many designs are made of four parts. I've read several explanations relating to them. The four seasons, four main directions, four phases of life, etc. I also read that it is just a shield....

 A very old milling or grinding stone. Usually referred to as a "metate" or "slick."

I have no idea what kind of creature this represents, but it is very cool  Maybe a centipede? 

There is a lot more information available about these petroglyphs, but I'm not going to include much. Some of you will remember when my blog posts were mostly words with a few photos. Too much info isn't necessarily a good thing for a blog. However, I will tell you that these petroglyphs are thought to be at least a couple thousand years old. 

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This FWD expedition was organized by Death Valley Jim. In addition to being a good guy, Jim is an explorer, scout, wilderness guide, writer, photographer and master of all things desert related. I've been around the desert a lot more than most folks and I know where a lot of great "non-tourist" places are located, but I have to admit that I'm not in the same class as Jim. I'm trying though...



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Boriana Mine (abandoned) - Hualapai Mountains - Yucca, Arizona

First off, I apologize in advance for my TERRIBLE proof reading. I just now corrected a ton of errors in this post. 
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Last week we were once again in the (Ghost) town of Yucca, Arizona (more on that in a later post).

A very nice young lady working at the little market on the Golf Ball House property told us about an old abandoned mine up in the mountains. Not too many minutes later, we were headed there. I have to admit that it was pretty hairy in parts and we weren't sure if we were going to make it without breaking something. The only way to make it up that road is to have high clearance and four-wheel drive. If we had broken down, we had everything we needed for the long hike out of there. You should always have a second vehicle on a trek like this. Of course we didn't, but as mom and dad always said, "do as I say, not as I do...

The primary production years of the mine were from 1915 to 1943. The mine produced Tungsten, Copper and Gold (in that order). It seems to have been quite an operation in it's day and there were at least a dozen out-buildings in the area. 

Then

 (photo courtesy of: Library of Congress and Wikipedia)

NOW

Our little trek originated pretty close to the base of that far mountain range. As you can see, the mine is in ruins. When I took this photo, I was standing on a HUGE mound of mine tailings.  

We are just a couple of miles off the I-40 here and were pretty happy to see what a great dirt road this was. 

 As usual, that nice road didn't last long.

 The road was deteriorating rapidly.

 This was not a very reassuring sight.

Yep, there are people actually living out there. "There" is in the middle of nowhere. I think this stuff belongs to some miners. That little blue trailer is an old classic. 

 Not much of a road anymore

You can tell by the wildly swinging "no headache" charm hanging from the rear view mirror, that this is not a smooth ride.

This is where we considered getting out of the jeep and hiking the rest of the way. We didn't, but only because we thought we were pretty close by then.

At last! After about 14 miles of that road we spotted our destination. All of that orange/yellow and grayish material is mine tailings.

 The obligatory abandoned vehicles

 A lot of old equipment was just left here to deteriorate.

 One of the few, still standing (sort of) structures around the mine.

 This was on the drive in. Some folks really want to get away from it all. 

A stove and oven, now in it's second career as a target.

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While I was looking for info on this mine, I saw an article from the Kingman newspaper advising people to stay off the Boriana Road. Apparently, rescuing people off this road (especially in winter) is a normal occurrence. If we had known about this first, I'm sure we'd have done it anyway.


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