Fall 2023. The author and the rock.
I thought that I better lighten things up a bit, after sharing one of the more difficult times of our lives. This week we are venturing back to the Ruby Mine area. As explained in earlier installments of Southwest Sierra, in 1975, the little cabin next to the Golden Bear Mine Bunkhouse was occupied by the Hall Family. My family lived in the Mott Cabin located a mile away. After a year in Alleghany, in late 1977 my family moved into the newly refurbished bunkhouse. The Halls had moved to Goodyears Bar.
As you leave the little cabin and bunkhouse to head towards Alleghany, there is a straight flat stretch of road then a steep hill. During times of snow or mud, and depending upon the vehicle that you were in, a running start was often needed to get up that hill. The Halls had a van when they first moved to the cabin and that hill was often the thing that kept them from being able to drive out. The alternate route is in the opposite direction, across Rock Creek and past the main Ruby Mine Portal to Mountain House Road, and there was no bridge across the creek.
Near the top of the hill there was a rock in the middle of the road that stuck up about six inches. The exposed portion of the rock was about 2 feet in diameter. That rock took out many oil pans! It often caused a loss of momentum that meant having to back all the way down to the bottom to either try again or give up. That rock was a problem.
When we lived at the Golden Bear Mine, Dad was in charge of road maintenance. He knew a lot about it from his father who put in and subsequently maintained Box Canyon Road in Chatsworth in the 1940s. Dad often let one of us kids ride along on the loader when he worked on the roads, be it clearing snow or doing general maintenance. He drilled it into our heads that drainage is the MOST important thing. We were all trained to throw rocks out of the road whenever we walked anywhere and to unclog ditches whenever we could.
Well Dad and that rock near the top of the hill had an antagonistic relationship for many years. He tried time and again to dislodge it, only to make things worse! He could not get it out!
Don Bell on the loader 1978, Golden Bear Mine. Photo by George Lepp.
When Brush Creek Mining and Development got control of the property in the early 1990s they had a major shareholder who owned a paving company (at least this is what I was told). They paved the road from the Golden Bear Mine to the main Ruby Portal. They also put in a concrete “bridge” with large culverts at Rock Creek. I can only imagine how this must confuse people who are unfamiliar with the road today. When traveling a dirt road and hitting pavement most of us think we are approaching civilization. In this case, after a few miles of pavement, you find yourself on a dirt road again. Pavement to nowhere, but back to that rock.
Dad and my brothers worked for Brush Creek Mining and Development Co. Possibly Dad influenced their decision to remove the rock. This turned into a major project. I’m not sure why dynamite wasn’t used but they did succeed in digging it out. The rock is still where they pushed it, off to the side of the road (see photo).