Mike's Southwest Travels: The Ruby Mine

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The Ruby Mine

December 3, 2005

   

Location: West face of the Organ Mountains,

Las Cruces, New Mexico

Are you ready for some real adventure?  Welcome to the Ruby-Hayner Mine.  I have a plan, a big plan.  I need only a few materials to enact it.  Bah Bah Ha Ha!!!  Err... How much of that did you hear?  Maybe I've been out in the sun too long.  Anyway, let's take a trip to dangerous, old abandoned mine.

An old Hoist—It just needs a little oil and it will work fine. I put it in the back of my truck.

 

The rock wall remains of the mine offices.

Oops.  I cropped out that ominous-looking sign over the mine that cryptically said, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter."

Shaft #3

Feldspar can still be found in abundance at the mine.

Here we experience our first genuine hardship and loss of the trip.  My cell phone fell down shaft to the left.  Luckily, it belonged to the bank, so I experienced no personal loss, but I could not call for that pizza I planned on having delivered when I exited the mine.

Shaft #1

 

I kept having the feeling that someone was following me.  Oh wait, that's my shadow.  Good thing I didn't shoot first and ask questions later.

Here I am hanging for dear life on to rock.  Oh, the adventure.

This place didn’t go out of business for lack of minerals.

Shaft #4

Bad smell

   

Undaunted, we enter Shaft #3, the opening chamber.  Damn!  No orcs yet.

150’ down.  Note how safe this all looks.

Here's a 45-degree shaft into the heart of the mine.  It was sorely tempting me.  Discretion won over valor this time.  

Two boulders lodged into hole

Back of Shaft #3

Amazingly, I actually found my phone.  Ironically, I would lose it for good down another mine shaft on another day.

After a stern lecture from the bank president's secretary (who actually secretly runs the bank and does adventurous stuff like rappelling into caves), I got a cool new phone out of the deal.  Neat!  I should lose more of the bank's stuff. 

120’ into the back of the shaft

Wall of crystal, lots of holes, I may start mining it myself.

   

We’ve made it out alive. And the scoffers scoffed at me.

On the way back, I was serenaded by a hippie singing and playing guitar outside of his van... wearing only underwear... and smoking a joint.  There's no point to me recounting this, other than the amusing mental image.  Yes, I should have taken a picture.

Meanwhile, 'A' Mountain beacons to me.  Somewhere on top, there’s a fluoride mine with my name on it.  I will have my crystal resonator.