Abandoned mine and prospecting club's claim PICS ADDED pg 2

Bushman, I would venture a guess that the welding machine that burned those welds was built onto a trailer and pulled up the road. The second mine we went in (still trying to come up with a name, not what I had been lead to believe it was) had a single wire (romax) running along the wall above head height, fastened to the rock wall. Old fixtures were spliced in every so often. We counted ten fixtures, only one of them had a bulb in it, and it did not connect to anything outside. There is no electricity to the immediate area, although there are homes (with a superb view, I might add!) five hundred feet higher along the ridge line.  Electricity/service probably comes down from Julian to those homes. I would imagine a gas generator would have supplied power to the mine, at least the second one we went in.

James, thank you for your patience! I had to look up some more information for you and Anne.

The "W" mine was one of the first to be discovered in the area (1870) and one of the last to be extensively worked (1957). I have been told it was worked on a small scale much later than that.  I forget the amount, but hundreds of thousands of dollars (will try to find that reference) worth of gold were removed from it over the years.  After operations ceased, the rail track was repurposed by the Descanso, Alpine & Pacific Railway in Alpine. 

The mine was in operation intermittently until 1957. In 1962 the county declared the mine a shelter that could accommodate roughly 220 people. Provisions were stored inside. Three years later, the mine experienced a partial collapse and the stored provisions were removed. Perhaps underground shelters aren't the best idea across a canyon from the Elsinore Fault? I know I had thoughts of what would happen if we had an earthquake right now? You can see a portion of the fault across Banner Canyon along the base of Volcan Mountain.

A steep road, the Wilcox Toll Road was put in in 1871, going from Julian to Banner. 

Before the road was built, mining machinery in this area as well as provisions for the miners were lowered more than 1,000 feet down these steep slopes by a “stone sled, attached to ropes with a tree tied behind the sled to serve as a brake.”

Wilcox charged 3 cents per head of cattle, sheep, goats and other livestock; 12.5 cents for saddle horses; 25 cents for one-horse carts and wagons; 50 cents for two-horse rigs; and $1 for a loaded four-horse wagon.

In 1874, the road was purchased by the County of San Diego, and made a free road. It remained in use until the present-day Banner Grade highway was opened in 1925.  It remained in use until the current As far as what the hulking, rusted structure it, I have seen three different references to it.  One said it was a processing mill, another simply said:

You can still see the metal fittings of an old tower and the concrete forms surrounding some openings.

One other source said it was a "ball mill structure."  Your guess is as good as mine, but believe it did process ore somehow.

As for water, I saw a photo online of a water tanker that may have been used to bring water in.  In one of the abandoned home/dump areas, there were several of the metal cages that hold a plastic container for holding liquid.  They may have (in more recent years, anyway) trucked those in.  At the old caretaker's, there was a catch system for water on the hillside, consisting of black plastic sheeting.

We had heard that the owner had died recently, and that his son now owns it.  We just wanted to check it out, having never been to it before.  The entire area is riddled with old mines, and there are some unsavory people in the area.  Large, rusted metal structures, mining equipment, and old cars I would expect to see, but tweekers have pretty much taken over the area, and now it looks like a dump.  Lots of abandoned vehicles and trailers dumped haphazardly at wide spots in the road.  A person in our party had spoken with the "caretaker" of one of the mines about a year ago.  His mess and abode at the side of the road almost blocked the road to traffic. I did not take any photos of those unpleasant sites.  Locals are not friendly to hikers/explorers coming through, would prefer you leave.  Maybe a few of them are, but they are the exception.  Did not see anyone while we were there, but a (dirty, hippy-looking) couple was walking up the road in the heat as we were on our way out.  They were carrying supplies up the hill to wherever they were staying at.  Reading through a lot of blogs online, and the comments under YouTube videos, I understand there is a lot of pot growing going on up there.  You don't want to accidently stumble on someone's grow operation. 

I hope this makes some sense, I have assembly the above from a half dozen different sources.