[RexBuck]

Visited a couple of the old mines. Not a lot to see as they were mostly underground. The original mines before a little technology was introduced had the natives squeezed into tight spaces, little shoring and digging by candle light. Here are a couple of painting depicting their techniques then. Pretty rough life.










Looking across the city at one of the early mines – the structure that looks like a fort





At the fort, here is the top of the shaft going down some 1700 feet. When you think about it, that is a long way down.





There were a series of these circular walls that were used to process the ore hauled out of the mine. I’m suspecting they had some sort of donkey powered grinder where the donkeys walked in circles pulling on a big lever turning a grinding mechanism. Same as they grind down the heart of agave plants for Mezcal /Tequila.





Over at another mine which remained in production with the introduction of some 20^th century technology – some of the turn of the century compressors





Some idiot playing miner (don't get a lot of pics of myself so have to seize the opportunity)






Active mining continues in the area.