Name/Title
Print, PhotographicEntry/Object ID
2025.0.137-186Description
Collection of 50 color photos taken by Robert E. Dawson. They were a gift from Mr. Dawson, but seem to have not been accessioned upon receipt.
"I will start to describe the pictures in the order that a person might encounter them on a trip into Beverage [Beveridge] and the Keynot Mine from Swansea. Corresponding numbers appear on the map in close proximity of where the picture was taken."
2025.0.137--#1. Looking East from the road going up to the Burgess Mine where it crosses under the old salt tram; two separate towers can be seen, one in the saddle and another right in front of it.
2025.0.138--#2. After leaving the end of the road from the Burgess Mine area and getting upon the plateau near New York Butte, looking Southwest into Owens Valley.
2025.0.139--#3. Whitney Portiles, with Lone Pine in the foreground. Same general area as #2.
2025.0.140--#4. Looking almost due North from New York Butte, with Keynot Peak in the center and Beverage [Beveridge] Pass directly between you and right in front of Keynot Peak. Off to the right, just above the trees, is what I will call Goat Flats. That's the name that was given to me by a hunter in the area when I first started looking around those parts.
2025.0.141--#5. Looking back to New York Butte, from Goat Flats.
2025.0.142--#6. Saline Valley from Goat Flats.
2025.0.143--#7. Looking down Beverage [Beveridge] Canyon from Goat Flats. On 09/20/72, three of us went into Beverage [Beveridge], then up to Cove Spring, and then up the small canyon below the arrow on a well-worn trail up the mountain to what we thought was a good cabin that we could see from here (with binoculars). The cabin proved to be badly riddled by the wind, but the trail continued on to the Keynot Mine and there was a very good tin cabin at the mine.
2025.0.144-148--#8-12. This is the first cabin you come to as you start down the canyon. It is right at the first spring that you come to, and there is good water there. This is the way it looked when I first saw it in 06/04/71, 06/04/72.
2025.0.149--#13. Then on 09/20/73, when I went back, I met this young man from Bishop at the cabin, he had repaired (where the front had fallen down), and was planning to spend the winter there in the cabin.
2025.0.150-153--#14a, 14b, 15-16. This cabin was also in very good condition, and had just about everything in it.
2025.0.154--#17. Old Spanish arrastre [arrastra] (an ore crusher).
2025.0.155--#18. A newer type of an arrastre [arrastra] made of cast iron.
2025.0.156--#19. Rather a poor picture, but it will give an idea of where everything was.
2025.0.157--#20. Looking across the canyon, the roof os the workshop dug into the bank. Immediately to the left is the boiler for the steam engine, which is right in front of the 5 stamp mill and just off to the left in line with the drive pulley.
2025.0.158--#21. I understand that the stamps are now gone, but that's the way it looked (like much of the other things).
2025.0.159--#22. It is what it is.
2025.0.160--#23. The steam engine that drove the stamp mill.
2025.0.161--#24. This was the chow hall, and I don't have a picture of the inside, but there were all the cooking utensils, a big wooden table, and a large Franklin wood stove, with a lot of nickel work on it. It must have been the show-piece of town.
2025.0.162--#25. It is what it is.
2025.0.163--#26. Looking down the canyon with the outhouse roof in the corner, you can just make out the tops of the large wooden vats in the background (more of them later).
2025.0.164--#27. What was probably mixing boxes for their water and sinaid [cyanide?] solution for processing their ore. Notice the water distribulating [distributing] device.
2025.0.165--#28. The two large wooden vats that were just visible in #26. Both tanks were full, and when it was a solution it was agitated by a big set of paddles in the liquid, which were both driven by belt from a one-lung gas engine.
2025.0.166--#29. There was also a work shop area with benches, pipe fittings and a drill press. In the same area as #28.
2025.0.167--#30. This was the next mill that you come to. The cable tram brough the ore from a mine 1 1/2 miles away (more of that later).
2025.0.168--#31. The ore was brought down to this point and dumped, then to the small wabble crusher in the center of the picture. After crushing it was run over a shaker table, that is under all the bushes in the background, to recover all the loose gold.
2025.0.169--#32. Looking up at the end of the tram station from #31
2025.0.170--#33. The working part of the wabble crusher.
2025.0.171--#34. Their operation had built a good-size rock dam across the canyon, and was using hydraulic power to drive the machinery. This was a small water turbine.
2025.0.172--#35. Don't know what this used to drive, and have not been able to find out what kind of engine it is.
2025.0.173--#36. This is the third operation we found. I don't know if it was in operation and then they started to take it apart, or if it ever worked at all. But the tanks are full, so maybe it did work at one time. It was a complete operation with crushers, shaker tables and sinaid [cyanide?] tanks (that was a far down the canyon as we went).
2025.0.174--#37. Up at the mines at the other end.
2025.0.175--#38. Up at the mines at the other end. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.176--#39. Up at the mines at the other end. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.177--#40. Up at the mines at the other end. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.178--#41. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.179--#42. Up at the mines at the other end. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.180--#43. Up at the mines at the other end. Of the first cable tram in #30.
2025.0.181--#44. Another small-sized stamp mill at Cove Spring.
2025.0.182--#45. A very good but small jaw crusher in Cove Spring.
2025.0.183-185--#46-48. I have a picture of the outside of this cabin on the dump of the Keynot Mine, but it is so poor that is hardly worth sending. This is what it was like on the inside on 09/20/72.
2025.0.186--#49. Looking South with Owens Lake in view through the clouds and Goat Flats just visible in the foreleft.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Dawson, Robert E.Role
Photographer