My niece stayed home from school today due to a bad cold, so I thought, "Hey what a good remedy for a cold than a hike in the cold with fresh air!!" Much to my surprise she agreed!!! So we were off to explore some local history in Red Town.
First we crossed the road to see a mine shaft , locomotive turntable site and hopefully the Cinder mine shaft. We saw some cool stuff along the way, old foundations
Old foundation piece
, cement pad from the turntable, new erosion from recent rains, mine shaft opening
Unamed mine shaft
but no Cinder Mine.(we couldn't find it A really cool sighting was that of the creek diversion made of 2x6 lumber
Water diversion
, that section was about 6 feet wide and about 25-30 feet long.
We returned to the parking lot and ventured off to the Red Town Dam site. Most of the dam is pretty much gone but the underlying lumber is still there and now sit as the nick point for the creek.
Site of Red Town Dam #3
At one time there was about 12 feet of earth above the lumber.
From there we were off the the Steam Hoist site which is where the cable for the Ford Slope shaft coal cars was wound up at. That pic didn't turn out so hot Last stop was the Ford Slope Mine. This was the highlight for my niece. She got to see an old coal car and an actual shaft opening.
Summer and a coal car
200 feet below sea level!!
Ford Slope mining shaft. Now sealed shut
She was a little wierded out by the danger sign that warns about possible gases by the shaft opening (currently sealed shut). Also we saw a piece of track
Profile of rail track
and 1920 painted on some old concrete piece
1920
From there we headed back to the lot and returned to Kirkland
Red hat leads the way back to Red Town trailhead
Pano
A fun day to get out and spend some time with my niece and subject her to some of this area's cool history
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