Someone asked me a while back what this pile of rock was.  It's a discovery monument.  Whe a prospector is out prospecting and he "discovers" an area he wants to mine, he errects a discovery monument.  In the DM, he will place paperwork.  The paperwork will give the name of the claim, it's location from a commonly known location, the layout of the claim, and the clainers name and date of location.  That information also has to be filed with a few gov't agencys and fees paid also.  The clain is 600' wide by 1500' long.  Normally corner monuments have to be errected also.  In the picture you will see a brown object with rounded ends, that a Prine Albert can.  It holds the current paper work, and is for public inspection also.  Assesment work or production work has to be preformed annually to maintain the claim.  With current, less then a year old, paper work some one can see if it is an active claim.  Woe be to the to one who would take that paperwork, it is a legal document persay.  It will also chap the hide of some miner.  You wouldn't want him figuring out you did it..

This is a picture of "Cousin Will" {Wm. [Billy] Hyder} and my grandmother, Mary Weaver Newman who were cousins.  The object of their attention is one of Cousin Wills cats, name unknown.  Fore thouse of you who might not recognise it, the picture was snapped in front of the Newman Cabin.  {I'll explain that name nest}  Cousin liked the company of the cats he had, plus the kept the mouse population in check.  Goler was the only place he could keep a cat.  At his place in Ballarat it was to open and flat and coyotes love dining on cats.  Up in Goler though, with all the mesquites around the cabin, it gave the cats the ability to hide and get away from Whiley.

In the previous picture Cousin and GrandMarry were sitting on a bench, long gone, on the left of the door as you look at the pic.  The Newman Cabin was actually named by the many people who travel thru and visit Goler, probably starting in the 1970's. I would have liked to see it as the Hyder Cabin, maintaining the history of thouse who actually lived there.   Cousin Will hadn't been in the canyon since the early 1950's.  Cousin Will passed away about 1954, spendining his last years at the Ruth mine and then with us in Riverside.  The last person out there that really knew Cousin was Charles Ferge, Seldom Seen Slim.  Seldom passed away in 1968 and is buried in Ballarat.  I met him once in Ballarat and as a young whipper snapper i was very impressed with meeting a real Desert rat.  With my dad taking over the assesment work when Cousin died, his name got to be associated with the cabin.  Place names are usually associated with people or features so . . . . . .  The cabin itself does have some noted history.  The 2x6's that make up the frame work were salvaged from the old Wingate Mono Rail when it  went toes up.  The 1x side walls were salvaged packing crates from the American Pot Ash and Chemical.   Company.  Cousin also had running water at the back door, talk about Five Star class, but that another blog.

I thought I'd go over some of my pix here.  I know I said I'm not a blogger and not to expect much here, hell, none of my wives believed me either. 

There is one pic, four gentleman in Ballarat.  The first,  Charles Ferge or Seldom Seen Slim.  Cousin Will and most all the old timers in Ballarat considered Slim a "new comer" who just stole their stories and retold them as his own.  I did have the dubious pleasure of meeting Slim one time in Ballarat.  The next hansom fellow is Wm. {Billy} Hyder.  He was a cousin of my grandmother.  She spent the better part of his adult life in Ballarat and the surrounding area.  He always called him self a prospector, not a miner.  He partnered with Shorty Harris and Fred Gray on several ventures.  Cousin Will also spent a lot of time in Goler Canyon.  He built what is know as the "Newman" cabin after the Wingate Mono Rail was abandoned. Well that's because the 2x6 framework is salvaged material from the mono rail.  The side walls are salvaged packing crate material from the old American Potash and Chemical Company in Trona.  The next guy in the group is Fred Gray.  He was a very important resident of Ballarat.  He was a knowledgeable miner, and as I understand, a mining engineer.  He was also the local assayer, and had an office in Ballarat.  The last one in line there, was a colorful character in Ballarat.  Chris Whict ran one of the local saloons.  From what I've read about him, he died before his time.  His doctor told him "one more drunk and you're gonna die Chris".  I guess he went out the way he wanted to. 

Ok, I blabbed a lot on the first one, but I'll do one more.  There is a pic of my father, D.O. Newman and a friend of his.  My dad is wearing the black cowboy hat and yes he is field dressing a burro.  That pic was taken around 1937 or 38 and the taking of burro was not unusual.  It was the only fresh meet most of the miners out there ever got on a regular basis.  Cousin always said to drop between 6 months and a year old. Under 6 months it was too stringy, over 12 months it was shoe leather.   You'll see another pic of my dad, and his two friends.  My dad is holding the rifle he dropped   the burro with, a Winchester 25/35 M.94.  I still have that rifle, and it still shots well.

Ok, I'm tired of typing.  Let me see if I can get this word doc cut and pasted to my blog.  Maybe I won't be blogging . . . .   

I got it here and I can add photos, so i'll add the three photos I blogged about.  Sorry about the double pic.  i got it figured out now.

So I don't know how often this will get written in.