The Summit Diggings placer mining area straddles Kern and San Bernardino counties north and west of Randsburg and Johannesburg. The name is derived from the proximity to the summit of a pass around the El Paso Mountains traversed today by Highway 395.  The Diggings was one of a small group of dry washing camps including Goler, Garlock, Red Rock Canyon and Last Chance Canyon.

A dugout, also mentioned in Strong's story, looks vaguely reptilian from the outside.

The diggings was never very large or particularly productive. Its primary claims to fame are as a starting point for the three prospectors who eventually located the Yellow Aster Mine (Burcham, Mooers and Singleton) in 1895 and as the site for a tunnel built in 1908-1909 by the Southern Pacific Railroad's Jawbone Division that once connected Mojave with the Owens Valley. The original tunnel, at 4,340 feet, was one of the longest on any SP line at that time.

Mary Frances Strong wrote in Desert Magazine (November, 1970), “The Summit Diggings is an interesting desert locale to visit. They lie in an extremely arid region which can be blistering hot in summer; while, in the midwinter months, icy winds may roar across the land with gale-like force.

Conditions were hard at the Summit. It was a haphazard camp of tents and primitive dugouts. The enterprising shopkeepers of the time didn’t feel it was even worthy of one store. Supplies had to be hauled in on wagons from the other camps resulting in sky-high prices on all items."

According to a 1925 report from the California State Mining Bureau, only two commercial placer mining operations were were the gravels- the Oro Fino Mining Co. and the Summit Placer Gold and Rock Co.

A Stebbins dry concentrator on the property of the Oro Fino Mining Company (1925).

Today, weekend and recreational miners can be seen shifting the Summit's sands in hope of finding color. The Gold Prospectors Association of America (GPAA) has a large claim in the area called "Duisenburg" located a short distance north of Highway 395 just west of the railroad tracks. The area is also popular with OHV green sticker enthusiasts and 4 x 4 backcountry explorers such as ourselves.

One unlucky motorcyclist slipped and fell down an old mine shaft in November, 2010 and had to be extracted by rescuers from the BLM and Kern and San Bernardino counties (see EHC, December 2010).

Rescuers work to lift a motorcyclist out of an Summit Diggings mine shaft in November, 2010 (left). Eric Vargo poses over the filled in hole, March, 2011 (right).

Trains

Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (1908-1913) was a major project in terms of cost ($24.5 million), workers (more than 4000), scope (Owens Valley to Los Angeles) and logistics (moving workers, equipment and supplies to where they were needed).

The system of roads in the area where the aqueduct was to be constructed was, at best, primitive. The only practical long distance transportation solution was rail travel.

Southern Pacific rails reached Mojave in 1876 and were extended into Los Angeles by the following year. The SP also had a rail line, the former Carson and Colorado RR, that served Owens Valley and western Nevada. However, the systems didn't interconnect and there was a long stretch of land from Mojave north to Lone Pine that was unserved by any railroad. That very area was to be the route of the new aqueduct.

An article in the San Francisco Call of August 9, 1906 headlined "Los Angeles Asks the Southern Pacific to Construct Line Across the Desert. J. B. Lippincott, supervising engineer of the Owens River project...will leave Los Angeles the last of the week for the Owens River country. The object of the journey is to make a survey for a railroad which will be built from Mojave, eighty miles northward, across the Mojave desert and through Red Rock canyon. It is to be used in the construction of the Owens river conduit...The Southern Pacific Railroad Company has been asked to construct and operate the road."

Construction on the Jawbone Division, as it was called, began in 1908. The route through Red Rock Canyon, although shorter by mileage, was avoided because of steep grades and concerns about washouts from flash flooding. A temporary nine mile spur line was built from Cantil to Dove Springs that supplied the construction needs of that section of the aqueduct project. It operated for 22 months and was dismantled for scrap in December, 1910.

The Los Angeles Herald reported April 17, 1908, "In the Mojave desert, between Mojave and Jawbone canyon, the Southern Pacific will soon be rushing the work of constructing twenty-three miles of track. This will be commenced as soon as the contract is signed. Sixty days is allotted for this work, and the Los Angeles aqueduct commission is anxious to begin hauling material for constructing the tunnels at Jawbone. Material is being gathered for the first section of the Owens Valley branch, while one mile of the track at Mojave has been graded.  The aqueduct engineers want the material started soon, as it will take many months to bore the tunnels, the natural lay of the land presenting many difficulties."

Formal aqueduct construction began September 8, 1908 according to the LA  Herald in a page 12 story, "With the immense amount of preparatory work about completed, actual construction of the big aqueduct that will bring the Owens river water to Los Angeles will be started today."

The Red Rock detour added some 18 miles of trackage and required the railroad to turn east at Cantil and parallel the El Paso Mountains, turning north at Garlock and again west through the Searles Summit pass area and Rademacher Gap. Then the tracks finally head northward into the Owens Valley and terminate north of Lone Pine at Owenyo where it met the narrow gauge tracks of the old Slim Princess. The line was dedicated October 18, 1910 at a ceremony in Owenyo.

The Searles Summit pass presented an inefficient (steep) grade for the locomotives so a tunnel was constructed 4,340 feet under the pass. Work started in 1908 and was completed late in 1909. While the tunnel was being built, a temporary bypass called a "shoo-fly" was graded to allow rail traffic to continue through. The temporary tracks were abandoned after the tunnel, then known as Tunnel 29, was completed.

The old shoo-fly remained graded, but dormant, for 72 years until a fire of suspicious origin closed Tunnel 29 on February 22, 1981.

While trucks had gradually replaced the SP freight service from Mojave to Lone Pine, the rails were still used by a lumber operation near Pearsonville and the Trona Railway. The old shoo-fly, which was in remarkably good condition, was retracked and restored to temporary use by March 19, 1981. The temporary route was used for more than a year while the Searles Tunnel was repaired. The tunnel was reopened  July 27, 1982.

The Southern Pacific officially abandoned its Jawbone branch north of Searles station August 22, 1982, bringing an unceremonious end to railroading in the Owens Valley. The Trona Railroad still operates over the tracks from Trona to Mojave, including old Tunnel 29.

Crashes

The loss of astronauts' lives in the Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967), Challenger (January 28, 1986) and Columbia (February 1, 2003) disasters are sadly remembered by many. Unremembered by most is USAF Major Michael J. Adams, America's 27th astronaut, who died November 15, 1967. Adams was at the controls of  an X-15 that went out of control and crashed north of the Summit Diggings after reaching an altitude of 266,000 feet. His crash marked the end of the X-15 program.

Adams fight began when his X-15 (66672) was dropped from its B-52 mothership at 45,000 feet over Delamar Dry Lake (Nevada) at 10:30 a.m. A sensor shut down the aircraft's engine after launch, but Adams was able to restart it 16 seconds later. As the rocket plane climbed through 85,000 feet, an electrical disturbance momentarily distracted Adams. The aircraft reached its maximum altitude of 266,000 feet at 10:33 and was off its planned heading by 15 degrees. The plane began descending at right angles to its flight path and entered a Mach 5 spin at 10:34 at 230,000 feet elevation.

Adams radioed "I'm in a spin, Pete." (referring to controller and fellow pilot Pete Knight). He was able to recover from the spin at 118,000 feet but went into an inverted dive at Mach 4.7. The ill fated aircraft began to pitch as it crossed over Cuddeback Lake. Adams was subject to more than 15 g of vertical force and 8 g laterally as his plane dove at 160,000 feet per minute. The X-15 disintegrated into many pieces, killing Adams and hitting the ground north of Johannesburg.

The Memorial to Major Michael J. Adams, Sr. was dedicated May, 2004. It is located in a remote desert area north of Johannesburg, Calif. near the Trona Rd.

John Bodylski of Boy Scout Troop 323 in Tustin, Calif. and aerospace historian Greg Frazier led an effort built a memorial to Adams as Bodylski's Eagle Scout project. The memorial was built near the crash site and was dedicated May 8, 2004. Approximately 60 people attended the ceremony, including members of Adams' family