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The Blue Bell Mines
Soda Mountains
San Bernardino County, California
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Well, the drive there was as good as I had anticipated. I had been looking forward to my collecting trip with John Veevaert for several months. John, owner of Trinity Mineral Company, had driven
south to Costa Mesa for a visit to the mineral show held in mid-May. This in an effort to purchase mineral specimins for general sale and also the on-line auction he produces. Via E-mail we made plans to drive out to the Soda Mountains and collect at
the Blue Bell mine. This had to be done soon because of the impending possible expansion of Ft. Irwin which would encompass the mine area, making it off limits.
J. V. spent the night in Barstow and dreamed, when he could sleep, of crystal lined caverns and pretty blue rocks. The next morning Dave, my brother, and I cruised up Interstate 15 from our home in Apple Valley. We met at the motel and after gassing up
the two trucks and checking supplies headed out to the mines.
Veevaert grew up in Orange county and during his junior college days in Fullerton made frequent trips to various localities in the Mojave. He recieved his degrees from Humboldt State University and after working several jobs for different mining
companies, he settled in Weaverville, CA. He has been ten years in the same job and sometime in July will make his own business his only business. I wish him the best of luck, although I doubt he'll need it. He maintains the highest quality for most
reasonable price and and has a committment to remain so. The on-line mineral auction he pioneered is fun and very well attended.
It had been unusually humid for this time of year making the late spring weather seem like August, hot, moist and fatiguing. In fact, the previous day had spawned several thunderstorms with some heavy downpours and lightning. Not a fun time to be out in
the desert but we were committed, had plenty of water and a lifetime of experience in the Mojave desert.
Zzyzx Road into the mining areas is well known to Las Vegas bound Southern Californians. From Interstate 15 if you turn to the south the road takes you to a desert studies center under the direction of the California State College system. It is worth a
side trip as it is located on the site of some springs where a health resort had been built some 50 or more years ago. This story isn’t about our recent history though. We’ll be going after something a bit older. We headed north, driving about four or
so miles up a sinuous dirt track to our
intended target.
We had with us the tools of the trade, hammers, chisels, buckets, plenty of cardboard flats and toilet paper for wrapping. Since we were going underground, also along were hard hats, artificial light sources and necessary safety equipment. I was somewhat
apprehensive as this would be my first collecting trip beneath a quarter mile of rock. I had been in mines before but not when they were being worked. There is a big difference!
Upon reaching the Blue Bell’s location, John was upset that several cabins that were standing on his last visit in 1986 had been burned to the ground. The pads were littered with chunks of charred remnants and
rusted hulks of old cars and trucks were scattered about the place. A far cry from the pleasant site that Veevaert had discribed to me earlier. Undaunted, we continued up the grade to the mine entrance. The road was steep but quite passable in our two
wheel drive trucks. It crested into a large level area on the “dumps” where we parked with ease.
Upon our arrival J. V. and Dave hoofed it up the nearest slope where they found very nice thumbnails of linarite, caledonite and micro dioptase. I took some videos of them and picked through the tailings for a while. John soon came down and we went into
the mine.
The first mine we entered was the original Blue Bell mine . It has two main tunnels which branched out of the stope, about 15 feet from the entrance. These two drifts go in opposing directions and end , the right hand one about 50 feet and the left a bit
less. We found nothing notable in these portions.
After coming out we watered down and then at John’s suggestion headed toward the silver mine. That was a hike! You see, I quit smoking about 10 months ago. Only one problem, I didn’t quit eating. I am looking at 35 more pounds that need to come off. If I
had to make that trek each day I’d lose it in a month. It is really only about a 1/4 mile or so but in that heat and humidity, carrying the tools one way and rocks and tools the other, it can wear a fellow out! We had to clamber over a large rough dike
to reach to mine and on the way across we got to observe a chuckawalla lizard as he did pushups announcing to us and any other interested parties that this was “his” rock. Once over the wall we could see the tailings and several minutes later we arrived
at the entrance.
The mine itself was a beautiful experience and well worth the effort. Veevaert’s dreams weren’t so unrealistic at all, pockets of blue and a crystalline cavern glinted back at us where ever we trained our lights. John led the way as I followed, trying
not to do anything stupid enough to cause us to become fossils, preserved for eternity beneath the tons of rock above our heads.
We really didn’t have to walk very far at all to reach paydirt. I found an area that had some pretty, light blue chrysocolla. The stuff was really crumbly, but I knew my students would enjoy some pieces of it so I dug away at it as John worked his way
further down the tunnel. Let me tell you, the first time you hear someone banging on the walls in a mine you are in leaves a lasting impression! Often I’d hear sand or pebbles coming down and occasionally they would strike my hard hat causing an
involuntary wince. I even felt the wall tremble a bit when J. V. busted into an especially nice, vuggy chunk of limonite. Shortly after that I had to go “out for some air”. When I had built up my confidence again, I re-entered the mine and resumed
picking at the blue crumbles of copper based ore.
In the next chamber, John kept beating on the limonite which eventually created a very dusty situation. Even though we both had painters masks on the dust got every where. When he had gotten enough specimens to fill a flat we went outside to look at
them in the sun.
As we looked over the material we found that this was indeed going to be a fruitful trip. On the limonite matrix were crystals of wulfenite, hemimorphite and beautiful, rare crystals of chlorargyrite. These were, as Veevaert puts it, “a micromounters
dream come true”. Apparently in Europe there is a strong market and deep interest in micromount collecting. Veevaert also remarked that the size of the chlorargyrite we
collected was larger than is usually available.
After watering down deeply, I left to go back to the trucks and see if Dave wanted to go over to the silver mine. I took a bucket of large chunks of matrix with me and trudged back over the rock strewn mountain side. Dave went back over to visit John and
brought back with him several specimens. Among them was a really cute wulfenite perched on the tip of the matrix. Unfortunately I destroyed it when removing the shade screen from the window of my truck, I knocked it to the floor.
I went back over to the mine to carry out some more specimens and shortly afterward John came down the hill. He looked like he had taken a dive into a great barrel of cinnammon. I dumped liberal amounts of water over his head for him as Dave had done for
me on my return from the dust tunnel. After relieving his thirst, he pronounced our trip a grand success, and we packed the trucks and drove away.
As I left it was with the knowledge that I may not be able to ever visit this area again. The United States Army has determined that in order to better fight a war they need the land upon which the Blue Bell mine is situated. In a current proposal
330,000 acres of mostly public land would be acquired to expand the National Training Center.
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Copyright, 1997 by John Alcorn
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