EISPIRATEN

jeko1034 wrote: ↑Those guys in Thompson ranch literally block access to the canyon below and I personally believe it's to keep people out of their canyon. Something fishy is going on...

If that's a public road they don't have any legal standing to block it, even if it does run through their property. Property owners often try this sort of thing and every time it ends up in court they lose. If it's a private road that was built and maintained by Thompson Ranch, or the prior owners of the property, then they can block access. If that's the case they would have to explain building that road across all that public land.

Anyone who wants to go to tge Andrew mine hit me up ,im Charles Curtis the son of old mine owner ,im willing to take anyone in if you want call me personally if you like to go i have no problem with taken anyone in and explain why we have stopped mining ,call me (909)360-9957

So im reaching out ,I just want you all to stay safe and not die, cause you think its cool to go underground its cool but its not safe.
Thank you
Charles Curtis, former vp and safety expert for Curtis tungsten.

Oh by the way Thompson ranch is private property just contact me .

SGBob wrote: ↑

jeko1034 wrote: ↑Those guys in Thompson ranch literally block access to the canyon below and I personally believe it's to keep people out of their canyon. Something fishy is going on...

If that's a public road they don't have any legal standing to block it, even if it does run through their property. Property owners often try this sort of thing and every time it ends up in court they lose. If it's a private road that was built and maintained by Thompson Ranch, or the prior owners of the property, then they can block access. If that's the case they would have to explain building that road across all that public land.

No its private property, so stay out they have all permits to build there road do your research more .

SGBob wrote: ↑If it's a private road that was built and maintained by Thompson Ranch, or the prior owners of the property, then they can block access. If that's the case they would have to explain building that road across all that public land.

That road was built in the 1930s when Harold Thompson lived at the ranch. He owned the Camp Baldy stables. The road was also used to truck mining material to and from the mouth of Coldwater Canyon. My understanding, based on some research, is that it's a forest service road (2N06) with restricted vehicle access (due in part to impact on bighorn sheep and the wilderness boundary). The permitted users, however, assume responsibility for maintaining the road, as it provides access to their property. The gate helps them limit vehicular access, so that daily trip quotas are not exceeded.

It’s a great area to see Nelson big horn sheep. That area is a lambing area for them...

I use to work at this mine in 2008 and 2009.
Crazy to see its gone. I have seen the assays great ore.
Took many breaks in that office.
Good to see those pictures
Man have I moved many rocks out of that road to get to work. The worst was when we opened after the rains and everything was washed out, we walked the whole road behind the D9 throwing big Rock so we can drive. Great experience and fun.
We also had to be closed during the sheep lemming season. Lots of big horn sheep and they would just sit and lock on all the rocks we would have moved around, the natural minerals in the rocks etc.
I got really excited before I wrote this, where the giant shaker tables still in the room?

charlescurtis1984 wrote: ↑Anyone who wants to go to tge Andrew mine hit me up ,im Charles Curtis the son of old mine owner ,im willing to take anyone in if you want call me personally if you like to go i have no problem with taken anyone in and explain why we have stopped mining ,call me (909)360-9957

Charlie i want to go back!! Dont know if you rember me but you rode in our truck to the mine every morning. With my Dad and I

Im 63. In the middle 80s I was a cable TV installer out of Glendora. One install in Upland I notice all these rocks and stuff around the living room. So I asked the woman about it.
She told me the Curtis Mine story. I had saved some money and asked I could invest. I met Ron at the Baldy access and went up the long slow road with breathtaking scenery and drop offs. Helped throw pipe of a huge load on a flat bed.. dangerous. People bitching to get in there. If its private property and you get hurt you can sue, so I'd limit access too) Long story short I gave 1000 dollars to Ron and got a stock cert showing me the proud owner of 2000 shares (50 cents a share). Years later Im waiting for that miracle that China runs out of Shelite Wolfermite ore and Rons mine could compete, price of tungsten to labor and operations made it unprofitable back then.. i was told...

Any who I was thrilled to read this thread. The people complaining about the equipment being there. Eventually there will only be steel and concrete as the Bighorn Sheep eat everything ... wood , rubber ... paper...

And I remember the story of how the Forest Dept was illegally trapping big horn by spreading hay and then netting them by helicopter and moving them to canned hunt area in Saugus.

There's way more to the story than even I know obviously. One of the bigger investors was Grabber Olive family... I called them once and a member of the family told me they invested 80 grand and know now they will never see a penny.

I remember Ron as a "Tough as Nails" miner and I believed him and didn't think is was just a scam...

I had a fist sized piece of granite from the mine. It was half solid white half granite. I once showed it to a rock collector. He had a UV light and showed me a piece of rock had with shelite/tungsten in it. The lite illuminated little purple flecks in the rock. UV'd my rock. Half the rock glowed purple, the white stuff is the shelite and it glows purple under UV.

Nice story.

Incandescent light bulbs are the everyday use of tungsten that I know of. They're going to be outlawed fairly soon if they aren't already. So I looked it up...

Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include scheelite and wolframite, the latter lending the element its alternate name.

The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all known elements, melting at 3,422 °C (6,192 °F; 3,695 K). It also has the highest boiling point, at 5,930 °C (10,706 °F; 6,203 K). Its density is 19.30 grams per cubic centimetre (0.697 lb/cu in), comparable with that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead. Polycrystalline tungsten is an intrinsically brittle and hard material (under standard conditions, when uncombined), making it difficult to work into metal. However, pure single-crystalline tungsten is more ductile and can be cut with a hard-steel hacksaw.
Tungsten occurs in many alloys, which have numerous applications, including incandescent light bulb filaments, X-ray tubes, electrodes in gas tungsten arc welding, superalloys, and radiation shielding. Tungsten's hardness and high density make it suitable for military applications in penetrating projectiles. Tungsten compounds are often used as industrial catalysts.
Tungsten is the only metal in the third transition series that is known to occur in biomolecules, being found in a few species of bacteria and archaea. However, tungsten interferes with molybdenum and copper metabolism and is somewhat toxic to most forms of animal life.

Wolfram is the coolest name too.

It would be a very "tough" world without tungsten cutting and machine tools and it would be mpossible to do any TIG welding without tungsten electrodes.

Tungsten is also used for a lot of xenon arc lights such as those found in movie projectors and lots of vehicle headlights.

Armor Piercing bullets and razor blades .. Oh, I play darts, I have Tungsten darts, thinner grip but keeping some heft for penetrating the board. Wow says it's toxic in your post.. bummer. hope it's not in guitar strings.

I used to hike from baldy parking lot to the Sierra Hut a lot. Twice to the peak of San Antonio. Once the hard way, once from the ski lift, then down the hard way.

I completely forgot!!! My darts are tungsten too. Doh! It's been 30 years since I was on the dart team at the John Bull in Pasadena.

bradbees123 wrote: ↑I use to work at this mine in 2008 and 2009.
Crazy to see its gone. I have seen the assays great ore.
Took many breaks in that office.
Good to see those pictures
Man have I moved many rocks out of that road to get to work. The worst was when we opened after the rains and everything was washed out, we walked the whole road behind the D9 throwing big Rock so we can drive. Great experience and fun.
We also had to be closed during the sheep lemming season. Lots of big horn sheep and they would just sit and lock on all the rocks we would have moved around, the natural minerals in the rocks etc.
I got really excited before I wrote this, where the giant shaker tables still in the room?

Shaker tables are still there.

Hi Charles,

Any chance that you have ore available for trade or sale. I'd love to go up there with you but I'm 60 and coming off triple bypass surgery. I love ore specimens and especially scheelite.

Charles, this is Kevin Brady and I visited the mine with your dad on a few occasions. You offered to take people up, I would definitely enjoy doing that if you have a time in the late summer or early fall. Also, if you have any rich specimens remaining from your dad's collection or your own, I would be interested in viewing and possibly purchasing. I am in Rancho Cucamonga. You can text me at 323-303-9688...Kevin

After a heavy winter here at Baldy 2023 I decided to have a look at the tungsten mine site to see what all the snow and rain did to the area.
Quonset hut along with the roof over the shaker tables has collapsed probably due to heavy snow and or Ice build up...?
There is water most of the way up to the mine and still flowing nicely a good ways above the site. Noticed many bear tracks and scat but didn't see any sheep this time.

Wow that is amazing! That giant garage that collapsed had some trucks inside and a whole shop in the back. That’s amazing that it all collapsed. I lost all my photos of this trip so it’s cool seeing these photos again!

Someone got their fee fees hurt. ?

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑2023-10-17_6-22-30.jpg
Someone got their fee fees hurt. ?

Damn, Rico, he trash talked you for trash talking his trash.

I feel like it is time for a group hike to the mine to see what the big deal is. ?

It's a real slog to get there.

How about I lead the hike? ?

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑How about I lead the hike? ?

Only if you bring some trash bags.

Where does the next highest grade tungsten come from?

I’m down to go back! It was definitely a memorable trip but it’s also super gnarly of a hike up that wash. No trail and just boulder hopping for miles while completely exposed. @charlescurtis1984 wanna join us?

jeko1034 wrote: ↑

dima wrote:Speaking of trash, did you see the 5-gal buckets next to the first bulldozer? Is that used motor oil?

I did find them and they are filled with dirt. Possible for panning

Maybe that's the actual tungsten. Apparently the final product looks like beach sand and they hauled it out in metal barrels.

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑2023-10-17_6-22-30.jpg
Someone got their fee fees hurt. ?

Oh, and they didn't start mining the claim until the '70s, so you've been alive longer than the mine, and therefore earned the right to say anything about it.