Burro Schmidt Tunnel
South entrance to the tunnel
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| Overview | |
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| Location | Kern County, California |
| Coordinates | 35°24.62′N 117°52.55′W / 35.41033°N 117.87583°WCoordinates: 35°24.62′N 117°52.55′W / 35.41033°N 117.87583°W |
| Start | 1902 |
| End | 1940 |
| Technical | |
| Length | 0.5 mi (0.8 km) |
| Grade | |
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Burro Schmidt's Tunnel
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| Nearest city | Ridgecrest, California |
| Area | 11.5 acres (4.7 ha) |
| Built | 1900–1938 |
| Architect | Schmidt, William Henry |
| Architectural style | Earthen tunnel |
| NRHP Reference # | 03000113 |
| Added to NRHP | March 20, 2003 |
The historic Burro Schmidt Tunnel is located in the El Paso Mountains of the northern Mojave Desert, in eastern Kern County, Southern California.
It is a 0.5 miles (0.80 km) mining tunnel dug with hand tools and dynamite over a 38-year period by William "Burro" H. Schmidt (1871–1954). in the El Paso Mountains of eastern California.
The tunnel is below the summit of a 4,400 feet (1,300 m) mountain. Its southern adit (portal) overlooks the Fremont Valley, Koehn Dry Lake, and the ghost towns of Garlock and Saltdale.
"Burro" Schmidt, mining gold in the El Paso Mountains, was faced with a dangerous ridge between his mining claims and the smelter to the south in Mojave. Schmidt said that he would "never haul his ore to the Mojave smelter down that back trail" using his two burros. Thus, he began his tunnel in 1900. The tunnel was about 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide. It was cut through solid granite bedrock and required little shoring. However, Schmidt was trapped many times by falling rock and injured often. He eventually installed a mining cart on rails.
In 1920 a road was completed from Last Chance Canyon to Mojave, eliminating the need for the tunnel, but Schmidt claimed to be obsessed with completion and dug on.
By 1938 he had achieved his "goal", having dug through nearly 2,500 feet (760 m) of solid granite using only a pick, a shovel, and a four-pound hammer for the first initial section, and carefully placed dynamite with notoriously short fuses for the majority portion. It was estimated that he had moved 5,800 tons (5,260 metric tonnes) of rock to complete his work.
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