Last month I went to see my BFF, Annie, in the sweet little town of Ajo. I rode along with my other rock hounding friend, Alice, and her cousin, Dawnella. (And I know I just massacred the spelling of Dawnella’s name and I’m sorry.) Somehow I didn’t post any of my pictures. I just don’t know how this could have happened…especially since I’m desperate for new pictures and here I have a file of 128 shots available to share. Don’t worry….I won’t share them all…maybe. :)
You can travel to the link above and learn all about Ajo. It was a company town built originally for the miners of the New Cornelia Mine. But I thought I would start off this series of posts with pictures of the open pit mine.
You can see the many layers of material that have been taken from the mine. This was a copper mine but has been shut down since 1983 when the price of copper dropped.
Is this photo you can see the lake formed at the bottom of the pit by a spring. The roughly round pit measures one and a half miles across and 1,100 feet deep.
This is a close-up of the “lake”. In the middle left of the picture there is a metal shade cover. That cover stands 60 feet tall and 120 feet long. But even as zoomed in as much as I was, it looks like a toy.
I’m on the fence about mining in all forms, but there are convincing arguments on both sides.
I’ll have more to share with you about Ajo in the next couple of days.
7 comments:
Spectaculaire...
Pierre
oh wow...as ugly as mining itself is...the symmetry in this is pretty amazing...
I haven't been to Ajo in ages! This should be interesting. I'm glad you explained how big the building is at the bottom to give an idea of how huge this pit really is.
Sad commentary on our times. But still as Brian pointed out the symmetry is pretty amazing.
What did you find rock hounding?
I love bees too and that is a good looking swarm. MB
Show us the rabbits! :-)
That's really cool.....I haven't been to Ajo in a looooooong time. That's a fascinating little town:) I didn't know there was a "lake" from within.....very interesting:)
Wow, you've managed to bring out the character in an abandoned mining pit! Pretty amazing. Thanks for those stats to give us an idea of the massive size.
Post a Comment