Over the last several hours that I'd been wandering, the sun had arisen and was now bright and hot in the morning sky. A short time ago I'd noticed the guys were awake and I was slowly angling back towards them. This would be our last full day here for Keith and I, and Seth would be leaving later today. With a ton of fun still ahead of us, once I got back and we all loaded up, we were soon off, rumbling across camp again, driving up to the mines for more exploring and collecting.

As we drove by, it was fascinating to note all the wildlife we saw that day, there were quail, jack rabbits, even an old scraggly looking coyote, the hills were alive, though you'd never know it with a casual glance. We'd be working new targets today, scrambling outside up gullies or traversing over to distant prospects. We drove to some and hiked to most and it was a super day, one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

At one point I'd split off from the guys and was catching up to them, crossing over from one site to another, when I angled up towards a small tailings pile which had come from a shallow declining twenty foot deep prospect pit. There I found my first treasures of the day. There were two pockets and both were wide open exposed and several feet across. One lay in the back wall of the pit while the other was off to the pits left side. The deeper pocket had one large plate of calcite that was just sitting there waiting to be lifted free and I was happy to oblige! The plate is almost a foot long, about half that wide and is about four inches tall, it's quite lumpy and bumpy and it's completely covered in a thick dense crust. With the easiest treasure retrieved, I made my way up and out and checked the much larger, deeper pocket outside. The calcite in this pocket had much the same appearance as the material below only this time, everything was tight and solid. Still, with a bit of diligent work, I bet I'd be able to collect the entire outside facing wall of this pocket, producing a specimen that would be somewhere in the two foot range and likely over a foot tall.

I packed up my specimen and noted where I was and then got to gettin', hightailing it north over towards where we'd all agreed to rendezvous. I'll clean this piece when I get home and if the material warrants a return, we can do so on another trip when we've more time. Back with the guys, we geared up and prepared for another big day underground. We accessed this newest property through a fenced off and secured glory hole ( a glory hole is an opening in the ground created by the miners when they followed an ore bearing vein or structure to the surface ). Through this expansive timber supported space we descended.

As these were all new properties, I really did my best to pay attention to all the many twists and turns we'd take as we dropped deeper and deeper into the mines. Still in the end, I was just plain thankful the guys had had so many wonderful opportunities to explore these old tunnels. Because one thing's for sure, we were moving fast and I didn't have a clue where we were! Unerringly, the guys were taking me somewhere, or maybe it was more appropriate to say, towards something...

Over the years I've explored my fair share of underground workings and have always enjoyed the experience. Especially so when a property comes alive and shares its tales of not just the rock, but of the people who'd once worked there too. One example of this type of human expression is created when a miner uses the soot produced from his mine lamp to sign a name, to give instruction or to vent one's creative passion, on the rock or support surfaces underground, some call this mine art, others mine graffiti (christuckerminerals.com) (www.strahlen.org).

The section of mine the guys had navigated us to was quite simply the most incredible example of this I'd ever personally seen and I was very impressed. Especially since right before this I'd become so very unimpressed by my surroundings! We'd been walking a long straight featureless drift that eventually took a featureless boring turn to the right and then surprise, everything changed!

All about us the walls had metamorphed from barren rock into an explosive profusion of old signatures. Names and dates were scrawled in a random confusion all over a thirty something foot long section of the tunnel. Both sides of the tunnel were used freely, but the left hand side was the one most preferred and most heavily adorned. Dates written along this section covered a fantastic seventy plus year span and ranged from 1883 to 1957. As impressive, I was charmed to discover a fantastic profusion of women's names written by who, lovers, husbands, sons, brothers, after all these many years, sadly, who's to know? I snapped off at least a dozen photographs before we eventually gathered our gear and made our way back up to the surface leaving the "Signing Wall" far behind, more explorations yet awaiting us!

With the hours winding down and Seth's need for departure looming, the guys opted for one more stop, fantastically, one especially for me! We drove over to another locked portal and parked. After unlocking the door, Keith motioned me inside and said I'd soon find treasure within, not sure of what to expect, cautiously, I walked inside. First a hundred feet and then another and then soon thereafter the light from my headlamp leapt and danced and twinkled all about me... treasure! Keith, knowing of my fondness for calcite, knew of this very easily accessed section of tunnel cut by a calcite crystal lined fault and pretty as you please, offered it up for me to explore, I was thrilled!

I came back out of the tunnel with a big ol' smile on my face and grabbed up my pack, scrounging for tools, before heading right back underground to do a bit of collecting. I used my hoepick to open the fracture, first moving out several multi-hundred pound blocks. Beyond these lay a glittering pile of crystal covered slabs, fragments of broken wall rock and every one covered top and bottom by forests of crystals. It was awesome collecting, I just reached in and pulled out specimen after specimen and smiled till my face hurt! It was great and I had a spectacular time, but like all good things, this one had to end. The day was waning and Seth still had to pack and commute his way back home tonight. No matter, I was more then satisfied, and loaded down!

Later that night, with the dust swirling red in the fading brake lights of Seth's departing truck, Keith and I sat out and enjoyed the scenery. The sun had just set and the shadows were growing black. We talked about this and that, mainly reminiscing about the last couple days and of those days still yet to come. All about it was quiet, both in general and for the sprawling old mining camp called Darwin. It'd be gettin' cold tonight and it'd be hot again tomorrow. It's the way things are here.

The next morning, we both woke before sunrise and began packing everything away. A couple of hours later, we too were pulling out of Darwin. Unlike Seth though, we'd be continuing on, traveling to yet another mine in another area for another couple of days collecting. Just like when we'd pulled in, as we left, I was very excited. What adventures were yet before us, only time will tell.

I'll have another story coming out real soon of our continuing adventures, your not going to believe what happens next!

All the very best everyone, take care,

John Cornish

While searching through a modest accumulation of popular mineral collecting literature, I found reference to Darwin in the following:

Darold, J. Henry., California Gem Trails, (1948), First Edition, Pg. 55.... A quote from that page, "Just out of Darwin at the foot of one mine a huge calcite crystal was picked up. The driver had only to lean out of the car to pick it from the dump."

Darold, J. Henry., California Gem Trails, (1957), Third Edition, Pg. 32.... Quotes from these pages, "Some of the finest mineral collecting in the state is in the Darwin District."..... "There are cabinet specimens good enough for the largest Museums or the smallest rock cabinet."

For your further reading consideration see...

Dunning, E. Gail., Yves, Moelo., Roberts, C. Andrew., Cooper Jr, F. Joseph., (2006) Ag-Cu-Pb-Bi Sulfosalts New To Darwin, Inyo County, California. www.MineralogicalRecord.com Axis. Vol. 2, No. 4

Stolburg, S. Craig., (1984), The Mines And Minerals Of Darwin, California. Mineralogical Record. Vol. 15, No. 1, 1984