The Road to Cerro Gordo Mine - WASHED-OUT!

I feel bad for people who live in that area. That was a really bad storm!

Looks pretty unsustainable to me.

A day before the big storm, a smaller thunderstorm, also the first in years and years in Death Valley, made the road to Cerro Gordo already only possible with 4-wheel drive:

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The area, even Death Valley National Park, are trashed:

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Brent Underwood and his followers will find a way to get the road patched up and things back on track. Watch.

I wouldn't doubt it!

It's a very cool project he has going on.

I saw one of HeavyDSparks' sidekicks in there so I'm sure he'll be involved at some level also.

Looks like desert people are becoming a thing.

Me? I like sailboats!

Rare Death Valley summer rainstorm:

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Me too - but we will one day see "Death Valley Sea" and then those desert folks will have shoreline property!

Guy needs a tractor mounted rock crusher. No need to haul road gravel from miles away because there is plenty of rock right there.

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Example of one of several related design types:

Here is an Australian built rock crusher. Build your road from materials found at the site and save lots of diesel fuel used by long haul trucks.

6 months worth of rain in hours.


So about an inch of rain?

Say, that is a really good tip!

Fendt builds a large tractor that has reverse drive. The operator seat turns around and basically you drive the tractor backward of the usual. That puts the driver up closer to the working head and above the work just as a grain combine works. Reversing a flail mower is fairly simple and reversing one of those rock crushers would be equally simple.

With a reversed drive rock crusher the tractor would be pushing from a pre-leveled surface and it would result in a more level result. I am surprised this has not yet been done.

Here is a brief video of an Antonio Carraro (Italian) with a reversed drive flail mower to illustrate.

Here is a smaller Fendt tractor reversed drive tracked vehicle with a forestry mulching head. This could be a rock crusher head on one of the larger Fendt vehicles.

FAE UMH/MEGA forestry mulcher at work with a FENDT tracked tractor

There is very little difference between a large forestry mulcher head and a rock crushing head. The forestry mulcher needs to be able to strike rocks so it must be robust. Perhaps the rock crusher has wider and more stout striking heads. Look at the Australian Kirpy design for answers.

GALOTRAX 800 - World heaviest forestry mulcher / Broyeur forestier le plus puissant au monde

So a little back story on this thread..

California / has a rich history with all kinds of mines.
Cerro Gordo mine was a big time mine back in the day, and a decent size town was built on site. Mine was abandoned, and the town was abandoned as well. A ghost town, if ya will.

Fast forward 70 years or so. This guy bought the mine and town. And he is renovating the town and will make a hotel and sounds like a pretty cool experience . Its pretty cool.

I heard this story in Death Valley camping about a year ago. Thats about all I know.

Exactly.

It is an awesome project as far as I can tell. The old hotel up there burned down right after he bought the property and he's been on a mission ever since to get it re-built.