![]() He didn't want to or couldn't afford to use the easy way which was still very hard physical work. He began by cracking the rock with a pick, a four-pound hammer and a hand drill. He had no access to modern tools and equipment although they were in common use at the time. ![]() Schmidt had no formal training in mining technology, simply learning on the job, mostly alone. I see something in his expression of wonder, delight and fascination that I am experiencing also. They have all been carefully secured to the wall with small nails and handmade cardboard washers. Later we go to the cabin and study Schmidt's walls, a giant collage of newspaper headlines, advertising pictures, and tea bag labels. Interior: William 'Burro' Schmidt Cabin, Last Chance Canyon, 2011 | Photo: Osceola Refetoff Some mysteries of the desert remain impossible to understand rationally. I am not sure we can fully understand or empathize with it. This is the strange mystery of a hardscrabble life lived in the Mojave. To work for more than thirty years, day in and day out, to burrow into solid granite, straight, level. I am impressed with the accuracy of Schmidt's tunneling. After several hundred feet we can still see the entrance, not much more than a pinhole of light at our backs. The walk through the tunnel begins straight and even. When I experienced seeing Schmidt's vandalized cabin and walking through the tunnel, I also became fascinated by his story. I am thrilled he is opening up the door to this little world of wonder. This is the land of the seductive glitter of gold even today! Three advertise "cash for gold and jewels" and the fourth one the Golden Arches. The small weathered sign for Burro Schmidt's tunnel is located between four large billboards, two on each side of the highway. On Highway 395, in our separate cars, we roar right by the marked entrance to the rutted, dirt road that leads to Schmidt Tunnel. In our search to better understand what the desert means to people and how it shapes their lives, Osceola and I went to photograph and explore Schmidt's land and work. He was labeled as crazy, but was he just different from the rest of us? The mystery of Burro Schmidt and his Mojave Desert tunnel remains to torment imaginations and curiosity until this day. He lived the last part of his life in a nearby town.Įntrance to 'Burro' Schmidt Tunnel, Infrared Exposure, 2011 | Photo: Osceola Refetoff Then he packed up and left Copper Mountain and the Last Chance Canyon. It took thirty-two years of sweat, determination and backbreaking labor for this desert hermit to achieve his goal. Soon after he broke through to daylight on Copper Mountain, he walked away, deeding his mine/tunnel to a fellow miner. There is no record that there ever was a true gold strike, although the legend continues. When the effort became unnecessary because of a new road, he still continued the tedious, grueling enterprise for many years, day in and day out. Schmidt explained he needed to create a short cut to bring his gold ore to market. Ripley's Believe it or Not called him "the human mole." A loner prospector living a hardscrabble life in Last Chance Canyon, Burro Schmidt spent thirty-two years single-handedly drilling a tunnel nearly a half-mile long through solid granite. When his six brothers and sisters had all died of consumption in his birthplace of Providence, Rhode Island, William "Burro" Schmidt escaped to the desert of California to begin his life's work. Our search for answers to the mysteries of the desert has begun. We stand at the entrance to one man's personal tunnel. The desert is haunted by emptiness, dreams, false promise and greed. Together, writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff will document human activity, past and present, to inform decisions about future development. High & Dry surveys the legacy of human enterprise in the California desert. William 'Burro' Schmidt Cabin (at left) and Abandoned Caretaker's House, Infrared Exposure, 2011 | Photo: Osceola Refetoff
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