Southern California’s Red Rock Canyon State Park and surrounding terrain provide excitement for 4WDs, ATVs, and motorbikes. The park’s canyons are scenic and were once home to colorful characters that have left behind fascinating and well-preserved landmarks.
Burro Schmidt Tunnel Trail begins near the ghost town of Garlock, 24 miles south of Ridgecrest. Several rickety wooden and adobe buildings remain at the forsaken site. The site grew from “Cow Wells" watering hole and stage stop into a town of several hundred residents named Garlock after a nearby gold strike back in the 1890s. Ironically, those same expanding gold mines doomed Garlock by creating the nearby towns of Randsburg and Johannesburg.
Interestingly, Garlock Fault runs through the region. It hasn’t shifted for thousands of years, but is capable of causing an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the Richter scale. Generally the fault runs east to west and meets up with the southern Sierra Nevada (near Cantil) and then bears southwest until it intercepts the San Andreas Fault.
From Garlock, the trail proceeds through Mesquite Canyon. Here, evidence of many old mines remains. Prospectors scoured the canyon and worked short-lived claims for gold, copper, and coal. Among the hopeful hunters, Burro Schmidt caught gold fever and moved to the area from Rhode Island in 1871. He staked several claims. A series of small gold strikes encouraged him to keep digging for “the big one."
Industriously searching for his mother lode, he began digging a tunnel through the mountain to the southwest, hoping for a big strike along the way. After all, he would need a better transportation route out of the El Paso Mountains when he struck it rich.
Though it seemed a good idea at the time, he found no gold in the entire 1,872 feet of the monumental tunnel. Although a small man of sickly ancestry, he managed to dig the tunnel through solid granite almost entirely by hand! His main tools were a pick, a four-pound hammer, and a hand drill. Later in the project, he occasionally used dynamite, a wheelbarrow, and eventually a set of rails and an ore cart.
Schmidt had started his tunnel in 1906 and saw daylight on the south side of Copper Mountain in 1938. Over the long tunnel-building years, he sold off several of his other claims in order to survive, and began living as a hermit in his lone cabin. Locals started calling him Burro Schmidt because his main companions were his burros.
Although many people asked him his reason, he would never say exactly why he kept digging. It seems tunnel fever overtook his gold fever. Schmidt finally sold his tunnel claim and moved to another claim. He passed away in 1954 and was laid to rest in the Joburg Cemetery.
The cabin and astonishing tunnel remain today, along with a now-deserted caretakers cabin. Schmidt’s old one-room house still has a stove and the walls and ceiling are lined with old magazine and newspaper pages dating back to the 1920s. Outside the cabin is a spread of old mining and various other artifacts. The amazing tunnel is a short distance beyond the cabin. Past the tunnel, a network of steep, narrow trails crisscross the ridge leading to good overlooks.
Burro Schmidt Tunnel Trail also features numerous intersecting ATV and motorbike trails, the sturdy, old wooden Bonanza Gulch post office building, and the Holy Ash Cleanser Mine. A tank and several mining relics surround the mine’s huge white caverns hollowed into the cliff.
This mine was once a direct competitor of the Old Dutch Cleanser Mine, located on the adjacent Last Chance Canyon Trail. The Old Dutch Cleanser Mine is visible high on the cliffs to the northwest near the middle of the trail. The mine was once quite extensive with steep, deep tunnels and a tramway system.
The white, chalky rock layers that have been excavated from both mines came about from ancient volcanic activity. Layers of fine ash settled on a once-lushly vegetated area. The result is a white pumice ore. The finest ore went into polishing substances and the coarser forms were used in plaster and agricultural products. Dutch Cleanser as a brand name is still popular today as a fine polishing and cleansing agent.
Last Chance Canyon was likely named for explorers and prospectors who found water at the brink of death by dehydration. In other instances, the name refers to prospectors who found worthwhile ore deposits during their last search of the El Paso Mountains. Similarly, Last Chance Canyon also may have reflected the difficulty prospectors had finding any minerals worth mining.
Grubstake Hill, located near the northern end of the canyon, is the perfect example. The hill was known to contain gold, but the ore was so hard to extract that prospectors turned to it only as a last resort. Any ore the hill yielded represented their last chance to buy the new supplies they needed to move on to more promising areas.
Last Chance Canyon’s vividly colored walls are incredibly scenic and the wash and trail through them provides an exciting and technical drive. Some sections of the trail offer the choice of traveling in the sandy wash or along the formed trail. Beware if you choose the wash, sandy sections are deep and loose enough to slow down a vehicle and rocky sections require careful wheel placement. One challenging section that can not be avoided is a short, steep low-traction climb.
Other highlights of the trail include the concrete and stone foundations at Cudahy Camp and extensive remains at Bickel Camp. Walt Bickel prospected the region and lived in an old cabin built back in 1937. When he died in 1995, he donated the cabin and mining memorabilia to the BLM. Bickel Camp is now an open-air museum for the public to enjoy.
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information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
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