Human Mole
– Tunnel to the Middle of Nowhere
Somewhere in
the Mojave Desert’s El Paso range there is a strange tunnel that traverses
2,087 feet of solid rock up in Copper Mountain. What’s strange is that it
doesn’t lead to anywhere special. It simply emerges on the high ledge, in the
middle of nowhere. The only reason it exists is because an eccentric man named
William Henry ‘Burro’ Schmidt – a.k.a. the human mole – wanted it there.
Although he spent 32 years of his life
single-handedly digging a half-mile long tunnel through a solid granite
mountain, he never talked much about it. When questioned about his bizarre
project, he simply replied that it was a shortcut. To where, no one really
knows.
Schmidt first migrated to the
California desert from Rhode Island in the late 19th century, in order to
improve his health. He is believed to have started digging the tunnel in 1902,
near the site where he had staked a mining claim. He carried out the excavation
using picks, hammers, hand drills and explosives, and removed rubble with a wheelbarrow.
At times, he even carried it out on his back. Eventually, he installed iron
tracks and a mine car to transport debris.
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