Finally, we arrive at Bickel Camp. Walt Bickel was quite the 'collector'. He threw NOTHING away because everything can be used if you're resourceful enough, and Walt certainly was. He would take pieces of equipment found or given to him and rube goldberg them into tools that he could use for the mine. For instance, this handy dandy piece of equipment was rigged to be used as a 'pump' to draw water. Jose, the Bickel Camp Caretaker and tour guide shows the group how this thing was put together, what it was made out of, and how it works. Tour begins

This is a picture of Jose, the caretaker and tour guide. Jose

Below are a couple of examples of the types of items Walt kept around. The second picture is a piece of hardware that predates Ford Motor Co. This was produced when the company was known as Ford and Sons (or Fordsons).

Equipment

Fordson

There was a watering trough full of colorful jerry cans which had been 'color coded' to indicate content. I thought they were kind of pretty lined up this way. Jerry Cans

For more information on Bickel Camp, please visit: http://www.bickelcamp.org/

Next submission: Chapter 4. The Raping and Pillaging of History