Day Trip to Burro Schmidt Tunnel Mojave Desert

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1. Mike says

   November 4, 2017 at

   I went to the tunnel the first time in the early 80’s and there was a lady there who I’m assuming was the lady mentioned above. She was answering questions and giving a tour of Burro’s house. What I distinctly remember are the LIFE magazines that were insulating the ceiling of his dwelling. If memory serves me correctly the issues were from the 40’s or so roughly.

   Also of note was that Burro nearly blew himself up on more than one occasion, as to save money he would use the minimum amount of fuse to get the job done and sometimes he misjudged the time needed to get out of the tunnel. The tunnel itself does have some pretty short ceiling areas, at least if you are above about 5’5″, so bring a flashlight. My father gouged his head a couple times when we went through without a light one time. Not much chance of getting lost, but it’s a little eerie without something to illuminate the mine.

   Also the mine has at least one side tunnel heading left, but I believe only goes about 100 feet. If you do go without a light you can see light coming from the entrance right up until it curves, then darkness for a ways and then you can see exit light.

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   • DayTrippen says

     November 4, 2017 at

     Hello Mike

     Thanks for the information. You definitely want to bring along a flashlight if you plan on walking through the tunnel.

     Gordon
     Daytrippen.copm

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2. bill kuhlmann says

   August 27, 2017 at

   I have been going into the last chance / mesquite canyon since the early 60’s. there were quite a few people living in there. some had family that had been living in those canyons since early 1900s. I met Toni who was Burro Schmidts wife who lived in the cabin shown there. I don’t know when she died but she was living there in the early 1990s the last time I saw her. I just want the people to know it was obamas EO and the blm that ran out all the people who were living in that area when they took control of several million acres from the People of the United States and turned them into National Monuments.

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   • DayTrippen says

     August 27, 2017 at

     Found this Obituary for Toni

     Looks like they were not married, just neighbors.

     For 40 years, Evelyn “Tonie” Seger lived on a remote mountain 20 miles west of the old Mojave Desert mining town of Randsburg. Her five-room cabin is eight miles from the nearest highway and reachable only by a dirt road.

     “My sister keeps telling me: ‘Why don’t you sell that place and get back to civilization?’ ” Seger said in a 1974 interview with The Times.

     But Seger never moved off Copper Mountain. As she told The Times, “Somebody has to take care of the tunnel.”

     Seger, 95, died May 30, 2003, of congestive heart failure in her cabin, which is only 120 yards from the man-made attraction on her property that has drawn visitors from as far away as Russia and Japan: “Burro” Schmidt’s Tunnel.

     Found THIS IMAGE of Toni Seger. Says she died in 2004, however the Obituary says 2003 so there may be some confusion on when she passed away.

     “As the keeper of the tunnel for 40 years, Seger became as much a high-desert character as old Burro himself.

     “She became so well known as the Tunnel Lady and the Old Lady on the Hill that people actually came to see her,” said David Ayers, a friend of Seger’s who served as her caretaker for three years.”

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