It had been a very busy season. Richelsen had placed the miners and the
mill crew on two shifts to complete the mining retreat plan by the
scheduled date. Twenty-four hour operations had been unusual in the last
ten years as production had slowed. But in the last few months the rush
was on. Now the closing date had finally arrived.
Just a few days before, Richelsen oversaw the closing of the Jumbo tram.
Just before that he had closed down the Erie Mine. The Erie crew moved
first to the Jumbo and then to the Bonanza site. Everything was closed
according to a carefully planned sequence of mine retreat to ensure that
as much ore and equipment was removed as possible.
All the salvageable equipment from the Erie and Jumbo was moved to the
head of the Jumbo incline shaft and was trammed out by the 18th. This
consisted largely of pneumatic drilling rigs, the larger series of
side-dump ore cars, and the telephones.
The battery-powered locomotive moved over to Mother Lode and was then
trammed to the surface at Bonanza. The locomotive had been used as the
hauler on the 1500 cross-cut to Erie ever since the cross-cut was
completed in 1924. The single compressor at Erie was hauled down the
Erie tram to the base at Root Glacier and then dragged on a wagon to the
main camp. Richelsen supervised that operation as well. Ore production
at Erie exceeded expectations to the point that production had delayed
the shut-down schedule.
At the closing of the Jumbo, W.A. stood by to watch as the head
electrician pulled the switches for the last time, sending the camp and
all the northern tunnels into a state of permanent darkness. Then the
electricians removed the large transformers in one final act of
salvaging. W.A. followed one of those transformers in the last bucket to
leave the Jumbo camp.
Now it was Bonanza’s turn.
His thoughts were interrupted as the ore bucket he was riding finally
stopped at the upper terminal where a tram attendant helped the
superintendent off at the landing. W.A. greeted everyone one final time
at the Bonanza loading dock, then he headed toward the long, tracked
inclined snow-shed leading up toward Bonanza building number two--the
main barrack and mess hall. This was the largest barrack ever built
anywhere at this elevation in Alaska. It was four stories high, not
counting the attic area.
This barrack had served for twenty-one years as a company showpiece.
Most official visitors to the mines had arrived at Bonanza first. Over
the years, this would be the single most photographed building outside
of the mill site. It was surely a magnificent appearing structure.
He had ordered the building repainted with a new coat of red with white
trim shortly after the mines reopened during the early summer of 1935.
But that was about the extent of the maintenance. The company did not
want unwarranted sums spent on buildings which would soon be abandoned.
It became routine to defer maintenance if at all possible. This practice
was in contradiction to the policy which had existed until 1925. In
those days the company seemed to operate on an almost unlimited budget.
Only one other mining camp building had the finished appearance the main
Bonanza barracks boasted. Number four at the Jumbo was the newest one
over there. It had been given a painted, finished look, because it had
tongue-in-groove siding as opposed to shiplap covered with tar paper and
lathe sticks. Number four was irretrievably damaged when the the edge of
the receding rock glacier it stood on gave way, causing one end to shift
fifteen degrees off of level.
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