dzJeepChic 2,565 Posted July 10, 2021 (edited) I saw a post on Facebook about Burro Schmidt's Tunnel. The poster had taken this photo which intrigued me, so I so I looked it up. Found this tidbit on a Visit California website, which enabled me to actually find the location on google maps. https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/burro-schmidt-tunnel/ See a wacky-weird 32-year effort to dig through a mountain—by hand If there was ever a road to nowhere, this route through the heart of a remote mountain in the vast Mojave Desert might just be the most head-scratching route you’ll ever visit. The tunnel is a roughly 2,000-foot-long tube dug out of solid rock by miner Burro Schmidt; it starts at his still-standing cabin compound, then heads through Copper Mountain to emerge on the other side, on a remote ledge at an elevation of 4,000 feet. What’s even more bizarre is that Schmidt, who started the tunnel in 1902 and kept digging for more than three decades, scooped it all out by hand, with just a bit of help from a few well-placed explosives. The site, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is about 40 miles north of the town of Mojave. Follow State Highway 14 northeast for 20 miles, then, at the fork, keep right on Redrock Randsburg Road. (Redrock Canyon State Park is on your left.) Continue 11 miles northeast to Mesquite Canyon Road (a dirt route best traveled via high-clearance 4WD), then left onto dirt EP15 for 2.7 miles to the half-mile spur road that leads to the fenced but visible Burro Schmidt Tunnel and homestead. “We don’t encourage people to go in the structures or the tunnel,” says BLM field manager Carl Symons, “but you can see his cabin and where he was trying to get through the mountain—no one knows why.” The BLM office in Ridgecrest offers informative flyers and can share details on road conditions and access; stop by or call (300 S. Ridgecrest Rd.; 760/384-5400). Turns out we've been been past it numberous times on the way back and forth to The Rubicon. It might be a cool place to camp for a night on the way to somewhere else if it's not too hot. Google Map Link Edited July 11, 2021 by dzJeepChic 4 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 4,175 Posted July 10, 2021 that's wild! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shellback91 1,851 Posted July 11, 2021 That's very interesting, thanks for posting. People in the past did some weird stuff for reasons we may never know. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4WLNRN 558 Posted July 11, 2021 My dad took me there when I was a kid. We used to stay @ Red Rock Canyon State Park all the time as a base for wheeling. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgaz 606 Posted July 11, 2021 That tunnel is very interesting 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
