Alabama Hills Mine

The Alabama Hills consist of two rock types, Mesozoic granite and Triassic metavolcanics, which are in fault contact with one another. The metavolcanics are exposed along the eastern part of the hills and are more blocky than the granite, which erodes into the familiar rounded shapes. This is one of the mines that was excavated along the fault zone. The miners in the area, who were mostly Confederate sympathizers, named many of their claims after the warship "The Alabama". In 1864, The Alabama was sunk by the Union warship The Kearsarge. Shortly after, miners to the north who were Union sympathizers, named the region after The Kearsarge.
Thanks,
Rudy

You know your history Rudy....Very nice find and the BW conversion was a great choice too. This was probably a gold mine and the tracks are for the ore cars to dump into the ore chute probably to load wagons to haul it away for smelting, or trucks depending on how long this mine was in operation. Probably not for long though. I wonder if the ore was milled and smelted at Swansea near Keeler on the East side of Owens lake. Ever been to Cerro Gordo? Fat Hill in Spanish. It's really neat about 9,000 ft on the crest of the Inyo Mts.

Paul

Paul,
In the summer of 1985 I spent 6 weeks camped out in the Cerro Gordo area for a geology field course. We used to go down to Keeler every few days to shower and buy beer. I'm hoping to get back up there this winter to shoot more mines.
Rudy

Great geology and history lesson, Rudy. I would love to hear more, so feel free to post more topics that include both. Good stuff!!

Nice shot, Rudy, and I like the bw treatment. As many times as I've been in the AH I never heard anything about mining in the area, as Harley mentioned, fill us in

Thanks for giving the history of the area. Your image could be on the title page
of an article of the area.

Very nice, Rudy! I really like the full scale of tones and the clouds framimg the structure.

Thanks for the geology lesson. It's nice to know there is another 'rock nut' in the crew! Is the contact zone here along the Owens Valley fault, whose rupture in 1872 caused the massive Owens Valley quake? Did you find any nice specimens ehre? Contact zones are usually pretty good, unless they've been picked over.

It would be great to meet up one day, do some photography and talk about geology! I love this stuff!

-P

Rudy,
Nice B/W image. It got nice tonal values. I love hearing about the history too. Best Regards.

Really nice b-w conversion, Rudy. Nicely framed and well-chosen POV. Thanks also for fleshing out the background of your subject.

Where is this? On the Cerro Gordo road, or somewhere along the eastern side of the valley? Never seen this big thing in the A Hills.

Thanks for the comments.

Preston, the fault that caused the 1872 quake is actually more to the east of this location, closer to Lone Pine and near the foot of the Alabama Hills. As you know, there's a lot of great geology along the east side and I'm always looking for someone to help me explore the area.

Jeffery, this is in the Alabama Hills. The easiest way to describe the location is to use the arch parking area as a reference. From that parking area, proceed east and then north on the main road for about a mile or two. You’ll come to a fork, with the left road going to 395 and Moffat Road. The right fork goes to the east and will take you down an east-west trending canyon where the mines are located. They’re also shown on the 7.5 minute quadrangle of the area.

Craig, hey neighbor.

Rudy,

Great image and an even greater history lesson. Like the others, I really enjoy the stories and the education - and having this information brings a much better experience when we're out there in nature. So thanks for that.

Lon

Rockin' shot! Love the comp, tones and subject matter. But I really enjoy the pattern, where the clear sky looks like steam coming out of the mine apparatus. Well done!