Exploring and Informing: Blue Bell Mine Cabin

On the abyssal edge of Death Valley is a small canyon containing a silver location dating to the early 1870s and some of the first Italians in the region, the Nossano brothers. The claims were worked, reworked, relocated and renowned for almost a hundred years until the last efforts built a sturdy tin cabin and cableway.

The Garibaldi mine changed hands many times until it became the Blue Bell in the 1880s, and a more elaborate history on it will be written in that post. The mine that led to the construction of this cabin was the Hanging Cliff Mine, across the canyon from the end of the tram, which was patented as the Hanging Cliff Mill. No evidence of any milling activity exists here anymore. A look across the canyon reveals much equipment left at the Hanging Cliff Mine, but with no clear way to access it. It should be mentioned that this, along with all other mines in the park are no longer active claims, but collecting and prospecting are not allowed.

This cabin was built in the 1950s or 60s by the same people who built the cableway and worked the Hanging Cliff location, the last in a series of mines dating almost 100 years. The road to this cabin was open until Death Valley became a national park, and was maintained by users until then. It was a nice place, two rooms and a kitchen with shag carpets and linoleum flooring. The junk lying around reeks of the mid 1960s, and it adds to the charm of the scenic locale. Unfortunately the tin half of the cabin blew apart much like the Bald Mountain cabin has in recent years, so the elements are taking their toll even more rapidly. The frame is very solid though, and the remaining room is structurally sound. The roof has holes and the floor is rotten, a shame to see to such a nice cabin in such sad shape.

The hike out here follows a now closed road littered with unexpected junk; a cable running for several hundred feel, a fluorescent light, tools, and an old trailer. Once the road leaves the broad valley it enters a small canyon piled with tanks and piles of ore. The ore piles have some really nice mineralizations with azurite and malachite, maybe some other minerals that I didn't find as well.