Mining
A. Morrison Ranch Jasper
5. Life at the Mine -- May 17, 1989
The year was 1989 and I was just getting
started on that years operation. The notes in my pocket calendar tell of installing a new
battery, rebuilding the master brake cylinder, and replacing a brake slave cylinder in the
loader on Saturday May 13. On Sunday I cleaned and repaired the steep road down to the
Christine Marie mining claim well enough to use the Scout the next day. Monday I drove the
Scout down the canyon to within 200 yards of the Old Boot Dig. That night I made a note
about working through over one ton of rock and only recovering one pound of jasper yet my
other notes sound optimistic like there is going to be good jasper under the next rock.
That Tuesday, working with the loader, I reached the point were blasting was necessary.
Wednesday, May 17, I worked on getting the compressor close enough to the site to do the
drilling. The last written entry in my log on that day said, "hope to get the
compressor running tomorrow and blast on Friday."
I remember that day as a beautiful partly cloudy warm day but by the time I made it back up to camp it was looking nasty. The wind was blowing hard and the sky was spitting. I did my chores, started the fire and went to bed listening to the howling wind and pelting rain. Sometime in the night I remember it got very quiet and I fell into a deep sleep.
There is a window right beside my bunk in the cabin. The light of the day awakens me each morning and the morning of May 18th was bright. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see anything and I had that strange feeling of not knowing where you are that you get sometimes sleeping in many different places while on a trip. Then the reality hit me. Everything was white—the sagebrush was white, my Scout was white, the dozer was white—the rain had turned to snow. A rare May snow storm had dumped six inches of snow on the Owyhee River Canyon. There would be no mining today!
Good morning May 18, 1989 at the Morrisonite mining camp.
Nothing to do but keep the fire going and enjoy the views.
Sage brush?
Everything was white and the valleys were filled with white foam.
As the sun moved higher in the sky, the clouds started to rise out of the canyons below.
View from the point on Sheepshead Ridge looking north across the valley to Red Butte. Burn off clouds rising out of Blue Canyon.
Looking north through Blue Canyon, across the Owyhee River to Red Butte and beyond.
Blue Canyon with Red Butte in the distance.
Looking southwest toward Birch Creek.
Looking west down onto the Christine Marie mining claim. The cabin and fuel station can be seen 600 feet below in the lower right center of the photo. The river seen at the top of the photo is another 1000 feet down the canyon.
Looking north into the Owyhee River Canyon from the Jake's Place claim. Burn off clouds from the valley below add to the whiteness of the other side of the canyon.
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