Lost Fortress
Sitting just off the beaten path and hidden in the thick woodlands south of Mohawk stands an impressive monument of stone and concrete. Like an abandoned English castle, this ancient structure lies hidden within natures foliage-weaved shroud. Fighting our way through thick underbrush we suddenly found ourselves at the base of its towering outer walls. Rising a good three stories above our heads, these walls were a work of delicate art – crafted from stone and brick
Inside the Walls
This building held a large hoist, a more modern steam powered machine then other hoists along the lode. The large trench in the center of the building was home to a machine of some girth, and the large opening afforded the hoist drum suggested a machine built for a deep mine. While the roof has long since collapsed, the high walls and cavernous space above our heads gave us an awe inspiring sense of scale. This hoist was huge.
Mohawk or Ahmeek?
When we first found these ruins just south of Mohawk (including the impressive hoist building featured yesterday), we weren’t sure what mine we had found. Being so close to Mohawk, our first thought was that it was part of the Mohawk mine. But there are two mines in the vicinity of Mohawk, the other being the Ahmeek Mine. Looking at a map of the area, we discovered that these ruins were in fact right smack dab in the middle of both the Mohawk and Ahmeek mines. These ruins could be part of the Mohawk, or the Ahmeek Mine. Figuring out which one it was, required a little investigation.
The Tower
Rising a good four stories above our heads the tower sat perched on one of two parallel concrete walls. It was in reality a concrete column wrapped in an iron blanket that had begun to peel off. The tower was new to us, but the concrete base was unmistakably that of a rock house; the gap between the walls once straddling a rail line the once brought copper rock from here to the mill down at Gay.
Crushing and Sorting
Mining is simple. You drill holes into rock, you stuff explosives in those holes, and you blow the rock up into smaller pieces. From that point on everything at a mine – people, machines, buildings, and railroads – all work together to remove that rock from underground and separate any copper found within it. The first stop for the rock on this journey is the rock house.