There's Gold In Them Hills!
Zeballos was first populated in the early 1930's when gold was discovered in the surrounding hills. Housed under canvas, the early prospectors battled rain, cold and mud.
In the beginning, the miners carried the sacks of ore out on their backs down the narrow slippery trails through the mud and windfalls to the Zeballos River. From there the ore was transported downstream in a flat bottomed boat to the mouth of the river where it was again backpacked over land to the beach.
It was the richest ore ever to be received by the Tacoma Smelters. The outside world soon took notice of the Zeballos "wonder mine", the Privateer, which produced 30 to 40 ounces of gold to the ton of ore. the ensuing gold rush built an "instant' town by 1938 that, some say, reached a population of more than 1500 people. There were three hotels, a laundry, a bakery, two taxi companies and a weekly newspaper. Plans were soon underway for a hospital and a school.
When the war came in 1939, many of the miners left to fight in the armed forces and the mines began to close. By 1942 they were all shut down. When the war ended in 1945, the fixed price of gold, at that time $35.00 an ounce, wasn't enough to keep the mines in operation. By the time the price of gold climbed on the open market twenty years later, It was too late for Zeballos.
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| 48 km of dusty and windy gravel road |
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| This was the only clear picture I could get of this bathing Sea Otter. He wouldn't keep still. |
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| I think I did a puzzle of this once. |
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| "Open Everyday to make your day!" |
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And She did! - Meet Linda, aka, Thistle killer. Not only did she make us a couple of very delicious mushroom & bacon
burgers, her hospitality proved to us yet again why we love to frequent these off the beaten track restaurants and diners.
If you're ever in Zeballos, make sure to pop into 'The Other Place' for a bite to eat. You won't be disappointed. :) |
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| In current use |
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| Many of the old buildings had little signs talking about their historic significance. This one didn't |
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| Neither did this one |
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| Shop window |
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| Said he was going to make this old drugstore look like it did in it's picture. |
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| The sign said that this use to be the bank. |
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Once a tsunami washed this building quite some distance off its foundation.
The residents put it back in place. |
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| An Old-Fashioned Pink Rose - still as beautiful as ever. |
