Exploring Arizona- abandoned, wrecked cars & trucks, old hiways, etc

Just stopped by that pile in Benson, lots of stuff gone, torch cuts everywhere.

 

That really SUCKS ROYALLY!!!

 

Yeah, that wierd little car that was on top is gone, too.

 

Sounds like some parts are getting used again instead of just sitting there.

 

If you ever make it into Mohave County let me know. I didnt read all 29 pages to know if you do come here. But there is a lot of what you like in the Oatman area. Lots of wrecked cars and open mines.

 

When are you guys going again? I'd love to go out on an outing with you guys.

 

PM sent. Next outing is sunday the 28th.

 

I am thinking about tagging along on this one. I dont think i am working next weekend. Remind me saturday night.

 

Ford Vicky

 

Ok, I have some to contribute. Found these this weekend while jeeping with friends in the Sierra Ancha Mtns.
I not sure what this is, but I am thinking non GM/Ford. Maybe Mopar or an independent. Late 30's?

 

Also found this truck in the same area. Looks to be a Dodge Power Wagon.

 

Great pictures Curley!!! That really looks like a power wagon!!!! Keep ane eye out up in your area. We like the old less traveled roads that was used way back in the day. If anything interesting is in your area, please let us know. We would love to take a drive & go exploring!!!

 

1941 chevy.

 

Heading back out in the morning!! Lets see what we can find!!

 

one man's trash could be my next patch panel... thanks for sharing.

 

Awesome thread! I grew up in Arizona and this thread has brought back some pleasant memories. Thanks

 

We returnd to the area where we found the 40 chevrolet truck in Febuary. We found the exact spot. Sadley, the truck is gone. From the burn marks on the ground & small parts we found, it looks like it was cut up and hauled away for scrap metal. We also returned to the 36 Oldsmobile I found on the last outing. This car is off the road down in a wash. Its pretty demolished as a flash flood has wrapped it around a tree & lots of debri is piled up around it. Here is a pic of the hood where the Oldsmobile emblem used to be & also a shot of the side of the hood that has chrome squares down the sides. This was th only way I was able to identify this car.

We hiked several trailes we had not been on before & found a bunch of old tin shacks on the side of a canyon with junk strewn everywhere. One of the shacks looked like it was a maint building of some sort. It had lots of old parts laying around. A couple of oil bath air filters & several different headgaskets laying around. We intend to return to this area later to explore further. Last pic is the view from the tin shacks. the few trees in front of the shacks hide the canyon. If you go stand next to one of those trees, you are standing on the edge of this canyon with a good 800-1000 foot drop off!!

 

These are some more pics of the new (to us) shed area. This is a steel tower that they used to lift ore up from the mines in the canyon below.



This is at the base of the tower looking thru it over the side. Looking thru the tower you are looking across at the next ridge wall where we found the new mine opennings. The canyon cuts back to the right about 200 yards and comes around again under the tower.
On this road we followed another creek bed all the way down to this place that must have cut out this canyon area. The creek bed drops at a faster rate and drops lower than the road, so, thinking back, we should probably walk down the creek bed and see if it leads to a possible easy entrance to the canyon floor??? Or ends in a water fall like the others we have found so far. This marks the third creek discovered with two ending in waterwalls, and a third if this one also ends in one too.



And these are the mine openings across the canyon cut. It appears the tower/cable system brought the ore up from across the open canyon to this working area. We were guessing that they probably did some maintenance in the shed on equipment there. This is a shot down a ways to the left of the tower, looking across to the mine openings. There are two visable openings and a possible third that looks to be closed off.



In the pic, about center and a little above center, you can see the most defined openning, that small round hole just above the little bit of a tailings "falls" there. Then looking directly above the second tree from the bottom right of the pic, you can just make out the long but short rectangular opening almost to the bottom of the white strata. It appears to have been partially filled, hence the smaller rectanguler shape. To the far right, at the very bottom edge of the white strata, and almost touching the edge of the pic, is what I think is a third opening. If it is then it has been blocked by a wood wall and if you could see well enough, it looked like a single wood post directly in the center that could possibly be a support for that wood closure. It was hard to see and I had left my binoculars in the truck. We will be going back so we'll know better next time. If you look toward the top left of the pic, you can see very distinctly, the mine opening and the large tailing "falls" on the next ridge over where the big mines are that we explored in earlier trips. There are actually two mine openings over there but one is blocked by the ridge in the foreground.
One puzzling thing. The openings on this side of the ridge in the foreground have no visible means of an entrance support. Meaning, it's a sheer cliff wall with no trail/road cut out, no visible structure such as steel beams etc to support a "porch", or something that equipment, men etc can stand on to work the mine from. We have seen where they have worked the mines to a degree that they have gone completely thru the ridge and exited out the other side. This I would have suspected would have been the case here, but when you are standing way over on that other ridge at the big mine. Then you look across from that canyon wall to the back side of this closer ridge. There are also mine entrances on that far side, again in the cliff wall on a shear face. Again with no "porch" or means of support at the entrances. With a good 500 foot drop right outside the opening. So I suspect that there is someplace that they have entered the mines on a more supported place that we have not discovered yet. After the pic above we discovered another road/trail that led down the ridge edge that I started to follow. Towards the top someone had graded up a berm, probably to prevent ATV's etc from going any farther. So I continued down the trail. This shed area turned out to be another ridge sticking out into the canyon. Following the trail/road down it brought me to the point of the ridge.
This is a pic from the edge of the ridge where the road made a complete 180 around the ridge end and started down the face of the ridge again cutting back into the next canyon openning.



As you can see, the ridge point is a very gentle slop that may have led all the way down to the canyon floor.
On the way down this road, as this ridge continued to narrow, I could see into the next canyon over and I found another mine entrance that was above my level and into the next ridge wall face. It had a road that looked to follow the inside of the canyon wall and up to the shed area. So next time we are there we can explore that one. I continued to follow the road down which led to a major rock fall that blocked the road but I was able to get over that. The road led to another switchback. So I suspect that this road may eventually lead back around and under the area where the tower is and possibly to mines cut into the ridge we were standing on. Previously, we had seen mine openings in this area when we were looking across from the big mine area (third pic above) so I suspect now that it is those mines we saw. Meaning this road would have serviced the mines directly below that tower. But if memory serves me correctly, they again were on a cliff face wall, with very little road/cut out in the wall. So that could prove to be a very dangerous place to go. Again we'll know more when we go back there. I stopped at this point because I was getting tired and we had a long, uphill walk back to the truck. I'll add the rest of my pics in the next reply.
Mark L

 

Looks like a good hike guys! I'm always floored at how stunningly beautiful the Salt River canyon is, and how few in this state even know it's there.

 

Forgot to mention that the tower in the previous post had cutting torch evidence that someone had tried to cut down the tower, probably to scrap it. It had aprox. 6 legs and three had been cut through.



This is a shot looking up at the buildings and wrok area. You can see the maintenance shed, some concrete stands, likely for an ore bin. Center is what appeared to be a boiler room, and to the left of the tall stack is a heavy beamed structure of unknown use. Possibly to dump ore cars from??? Looking just up hill from that heavy structure, it appeared to be two short concrete bases again. I suspect it was the top of the Tower/lift cable system, with what appeared to be a base for an engine (to drive the cable system) and it was directly in line with that heavy wood platform structure and the tower over at the edge of the canyon. Directy above and behind the "maintenance shed" to the right of the pic, is the remains of that road I talked about in the last post that must lead over to the mine I saw from the next ridge over.



A good pic of Keith standing in a debris field. There is junk and sheet metal assemblies laying all over the area.



My son and daughter-in-law were along for the hike.



More pics of the work area.

Mark L

 

It's too bad that so many of the items you have pictured lasted for so many years untouched, only to be cut up and scrapped recently!

 

Exactly! A real shame

 

This Saturday is the Pontiac Buick Olds event that I host at Speedworld with drag racing, parts exchange and car show. After that, sometime next week, we are going to take a road exploratory drive.
We plan to cover a different area of Arizona. Going through Wickenburg, Yarnell, Mingus mountain area, Jerome, Cottonwood, Prescott, Sedona and on to Flag ( not in that order, perhaps ). I doubt we will cover this entire distance as we plan to make many stops along the way to explore and look around at anything interesting. We'll probably drive until it gets dark and than head back to the valley. The next trip will pick up where we left off.
If anyone has some things to share that may be of interest to us along this route, please share. We are NOT going on salvage runs. We just want to see old, abandoned vehicles, mines, roads, buildings and anything of interest. Of course, we'll post pics too.

 

Keith and Mark- It looks like I missed a good one. We'll have to head back thatr way sometime. See you Saturday at the Fall Fest

 

Yes Steve,,,Was a great day!! Wish you could of made the trip. Mark & I definately want to return to that area!!

Between yesterday & today I have had several conference calls & one face to face meeting with the managers of the Tonto National Forest here in Arizona.... I have provided them with Photos of the damage that has been happening & photos of the truck that has been scrapped. I have also provided the authorities the GPS locations of the areas that have had vandalisim/scrapping happening. Also provided was a discription of a truck & occupents with a lisc. number that was in the area. The truck occupants told us that we were in a private property area & we had to leave. (National Forest??) The managers were very alarmed when I show'd them evidence of a cutting torch being used in the National Forrest!!! The fire danger in Arizona is allways very high year round. Hopefully they catch the persons involved & they are punished to the fullest extent the law allows! As we continue our hikes/outings around the state, we will be keeping an eye out!!! This is land that belong to everyone!!! Not just the few who are out for a few dollars profit!!

 

Seems like a lot of work for maybe a couple hundred bucks in scrap-a days hard work, $50 in gas, cutting and loading the iron, etc. but I guess that's the "scrapper mentality"!

I'm guessing that the horizontal shaft openings pictured in the broad side of the cliff faces served as a means to ventilate the mine network via push and pull fans. They'd also serve as an easy means to dump unwanted tillings without having to hoist them up a vertical shaft.
I bet they were accessed via a vertical shaft that isn't obvious. It may be overgrown with brush or covered or filled to prevent anyone from entering (or falling in) the shaft.

 

We are going to make our next exploratory road trip this Monday to the places I listed earlier in this post. Hoping to find some neat stuff.

 

I am sure your efforts are well intended but, hope they do not have negative affects on us explorers. Hoping they do not close off the area because of that- or take some other action to keep us from exploring the areas.

 

I remember asking a lady who worked at a state park what are the laws reguarding the removal of an abandonded vehicle while exploring and stubbling upon it. I think she said if it is more than 7 years(?) old it belongs to the state and it is illegal to remove.

 

I brought that up in the conversations. They said the only thing that will temporarily close an area is the fire danger. They called again this morning with more questions. They say there has been issues in the past in that area. There currently is only 1 ranger to cover the Tonto basin (Roosevelt lake area) & the eastern Tonto forrest area. They are now going to relocate 2 more rangers to that area. The last hike where the big gantry crane is located, I was told there used to be 2 more further up the hill. Both of those are now gone. We saw the pilings where they used to be. Those have been taken some time this year. They were not aware that the 40's chevy truck is now gone. Was told we were more than welcome in the area & if we see anything suspicous, to not intervene but try & get lisc. plate numbers & discriptions. I was also informed there is 3 small areas up there that are private property. Its whats called "Patented land" This is property that claims were filed on before it became national forrest land. They are sending me a map of the area that shows where the private land is. They also sadi they were not aware that anyone was occupying the "patented land" areas. They were very interested about that!