Old Assayer's Vault Ruins

This is the ruins of the Gold Assayers Office in Cherokee, California. The impenetrable stone gold vault is in the left corner. Built in 1853 Cherokee was once ...
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This is the ruins of the Gold Assayers Office in Cherokee, California. The impenetrable stone gold vault is in the left corner. Built in 1853 Cherokee was once a boomtown with a population of over a thousand -- its mines busily kept 300 men working three shifts . Welsh miners, migrating from England in 1853, built stores, perfected mining techniques, and named the town for the industrious Native Americans who had preceded them. The Cherokee diggins were rich -- very rich. Electrified mines (Thomas Edison was one of the owners) allowed 24-hour operation year round, and miners wages were high for those times -- $3 per day. Along with the quarry operations, the town grew: three churches, eight hotels, three schools, and seventeen saloons. The countries first running water was in homes here. Todays ghost town has a population of about twelve residents.
f 5.6 125-sec 18 mm Nikon D 5300
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