Down the sandy and rough road we boondocked on is a tunnel. Not just any tunnel. Burro Schmidt Tunnel.
The historical Burro Schmidt Tunnel is a mining tunnel dug with hand tools and dynamite over a 38-year period by William “Burro” H. Schmidt (1871–1954). “Burro” Schmidt was faced with a dangerous ridge between his mining claims and the smelter to the south in Mojave. He swore he would never haul his ore to the Mojave smelter down a little back trail using his two burros. Instead, he began digging his tunnel in 1906. The tunnel was about 6 feet tall and 10 feet wide. It cuts through solid granite bedrock so it required little shoring. However, Schmidt was trapped many times by falling rock and injured often. He eventually installed a mining cart on rails that are still evident in places.
A road was completed in 1920, eliminating the need for his tunnel. But he persisted and dug and dug. He finally finished in 1938. It is estimated that he moved 5,800 tons of rock by hand. Seems foolish to me, but whatever. Schmidt never even used the tunnel to move his mine’s ore. Instead, he sold the tunnel to another miner and moved away. A Ripley’s Believe It or Not! cartoon celebrated the feat, calling him the human mole.
Our initial plan was to ride out to the tunnel but after a previous afternoon walk a bit down the road, we scrapped that plan. Too sandy for bikes. Instead we drove out to the entrance and then hiked through the tunnel. Don’t forget your flashlight! It’s somewhere over half a mile long and incredibly dark inside. If you keep going, it does make a sharp right and poke through to the other side. Spooky.
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