Classic Old Baja Book from 1951 (Las Flores shown)

Max Miller is also the author of 'The Land Where Time Stands Still'.



Great photo of an osprey feeding the chicks!

Here is the back cover:



The map shows the area covered by the book and the beginning is about the founding of San Diego.

From inside, a photo I found most interesting...



That's Dick Daggett at the Las Flores jail, which is unchanged. However, the railroad barn that was once at Las Flores is cool to see, as it is vanished long ago (my first visit was in 1976, and it wasn't there, then.. or at least with tracks leading to the adobe ruins that were there).

Quote: Originally posted by Jack Swords

Interesting photo of the "jail", David. Also the other building is interesting too. We followed the narrow gauge track (mound) up to the canyon and hiked up to the mine. Any idea where the second building was located relative to the mine? Still lots of mining debris around. Thanks for posting.

Hola Jack,
After reading the book, it is pretty clear they did not venture past Las Flores town area.

Dick Daggett took Max to see where the saloon was and there were only broken bottles. The jail was between the town and the saloon, so any workers who were intoxicated spent the night in the jail... grabbed as they walked past it going back to town to sleep.

The building is called a mill in the caption, but interesting that it looks like a train garage.

The railroad line is interesting to follow 5+ miles south from the jail to the terminal platform where the tram bucket line came down the mountainside from the San Juan mine, 4,000 feet + up the mountain!

Here are some of my photos or the railroad bed, and the platform....



Las Flores Railroad 1895-1910



The next day, Doc (Dr. Abraham Vazquez) and I followed the Las Flores railroad bed five miles to its terminal. There, over two million dollars in gold and silver ore was loaded.



Where the ore buckets dumped into the train cars.
The giant turn-around wheel for the 2.5 mile wire rope tram was where Doc is now standing.
This large stone platform is not visible from the Jeep trail.
Park near N28°44.44' W113°32.77' and walk north.

Last time I went to the platform, April, 2003:


Operated over 100 years ago, this narrow gauge train brought
gold and silver ore from the cable tram to the town of Las Flores, 5 miles away. Photo at the south terminal.

Last time I walked around Las Flores, Jan., 2009:






Railroad line by jail.


Railroad line north of jail, see it in the distance, on the left.


Grave of Dick Daggett, west of jail.

To see the terminal platform, continue south from Las Flores on the graded road (east of jail) for 2.4 miles where the graded road makes a bend towards the left (top of the climb). The old road onto the platform continues straight. About 3 miles from the graded road the old road curves right and ends. The platform is off to the right (north) before the end of the road. A trail continues east into the canyon where the tram line ran from San Juan. Hike up to the mountain top possible. Before the tramline was installed, mules brought the ore down the mountain.

An idea of the area:



More in my article: http://www.bajabound.com/bajaadventures/bajatravel/las_flore...

Just returned from Baja--visited Las Flores. Had a great discussion with the delegado of Bahía de los Ángeles about the history of the town. His grandfather worked at the San Juan mine and Las Flores. He said that although everyone refers to the brick building as "the jail," his grandfather said it was actually used to secure dynamite.

here is some silver (in the original container) that I got out of the building when it was still intact - lotsa laboratory stuff inside at the time. Have more artifacts, will have to look for them.

The platform David mentioned, photo taken about a year ago.



The view looking down the valley from the platform. The clearing in the valley is the Las Flores town site.



The remains of the adobe building that was reused as the mining office.

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In the background the red sand is visible where once was one of the giant cyanide ponds used to work the tailings.
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P>*)))>{

p.s. The one Las Flores mystery I have yet to solve is the location of the second cemetery, somewhere on the other side of the road. I was there once many years ago and have yet to be able to find it again.



[Edited on 15-11-2015 by Paulina]

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

here is some silver (in the original container) that I got out of the building when it was still intact - lotsa laboratory stuff inside at the time. Have more artifacts, will have to look for them.

Quote: Originally posted by 4x4abc

it's already promised to a museum in San Diego I have given all my Baja finds to places that need them more than I do however, if the flask were already in a museum, you would not be able to see it here museums tend to horde thousands of artifacts until (maybe) some intern sheds some light on accidental finds underfunded and understaffed museums hide their stuff jealously

Quote: Originally posted by Paulina

The platform David mentioned, photo taken about a year ago. P>*)))>{ p.s. The one Las Flores mystery I have yet to solve is the location of the second cemetery, somewhere on the other side of the road. I was there once many years ago and have yet to be able to find it again.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

Ralph, Harald lives in La Paz.

Quote: Originally posted by David K

INAH is so underfunded in Baja, they knowingly cannot even protect all the 250-year-old mission sites or stop farmers from plowing them up... Someone who picked up some bottle that is maybe 100 years old is not going to be prosecuted (even if removing 'trash' was a crime), in my opinion.