Back on the July 4th weekend, we traveled south from Lake Riverside to visit the historic town of Julian. It is about a 50 mile, one-hour drive through beautiful countryside from Aguanga, through Oak Grove, through Warner Springs to Julian. We have visited many times but not for the last couple of years. But on all of these visits, we have not gone to the Eagle & High Peak Mine tour.

Yes, you do walk into the hillside.

The entrance into the Eagle Mine and the starting point for the tour.

The whole reason for going is the tour, of course. This tour has a good guide. He not only looks the part, he is very knowledgeable and presents the content well.

Our tour guide was knowledgeable and presented the material well.

We were shown how to pan for gold. Pretty standard for a gold mine tour. The gold-bearing silt was from Alaska. Not much local gold left, I suppose.

This gold was from Alaska but you got the idea

Getting close, you can see into the mine.

Dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew

The mine is well lit and well maintained. But there isn’t any mining going on so I suppose that makes it easier. It is also easier since it is dry and relatively high above the water table as it bores into a mountain rather than deep into the earth.

The horizontal passage in the mine is a drift or adit

The gold is in the quartz rock and the drifts and stopes of the mine follow the ribbon of quartz rock.

The gold is in the hard quartz that in some cases has been folded by rock movement over time

The gold vein followed by the miners

Know your fuse burning speed.

Always note the rate at which your fuse burns

Then we head out.

From the dark to the light, the exit for our tour.

Two mines were adjacent and you now walk in one mine and out the other.

Very much a fun tour.

And now, for your enjoyment, the lyrics to Dark as a Dungeon

Oh come all you young fellers so young and so fine
Seek not your fortune in a dark dreary mine
It’ll form as a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Where it’s dark as a dungeon damp as the dew danger is double pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls the sun never shines
It’s a dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

Well it’s many a man that I’ve seen in my day
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard with his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine
And pray when I’m dead and my ages shall roll
That my body would blacken and turn into coal
Then I’ll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner digging my bones
Where it’s dark as a dungeon