Finally made it back up to the Emily C Mine cabin. I needed a break from all of the work on the house. No bears, packrats or mice got in.
I did some digging around in front of the cabin to see what I might find. Within a few minutes I found an old rusty file and this heavy cast iron part. I don't know what it was used for. I don't think it was a mine cart wheel.
The cabin needed a door latch so I spent Sunday morning making a bolt latch out of pine from the firewood pile.
I used a hand forged spike for the bolt handle on the outside.
A friend discovered some buried burlap and ore near the mine entrance some time ago. I did some digging around there and found that someone had buried the ore in burlap sacks and had hidden it there. It was pretty rotten but in better shape than you would expect after being buried for ?? years.
I gathered up about 10 pounds of "high grade" galena which is a silver-lead ore. When the rocks are first broken, the galena is a very shiny. It gets dull after awhile as the lead oxidizes.
