Bats fluttered past our heads as we walked deeper into the mine.  The only light was that provided by the flashlights we held.  We walked slightly stooped over and the hard hats we wore scraped along the ceiling of the tunnel of this gold mine hand dug and blasted over 100 years ago.  

Our tour guide, “Smokey,”a certified miner and ranger for the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State park in Nevada, stopped along the tour to point out this escape route.  “In the event of a mine collapse and I am no longer with you,” Smokey told us, “this ladder will lead you to the surface.”  The surface was hundreds of feet up these ladders!

Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park is located in rural Nevada near the town of Gabbs.  We toured the fossil beds, the ghost town and mine this summer.  The gold mine and ghost town is “Berlin.” and the “Ichthyosaur” are the dinosaur fossils discovered nearby.  Explore this site online and plan it as part of an exciting wild west trip soon.

We are visiting family in Vegas, among other things, then off to Shoshone, California for their annual Western Days celebration as part of the “Old Fashioned” Art & Crafts show.