Rolf Laessig, interviewed by Gary Kisor, recounts his time restoring mining equipment at the North Star Mining Museum in Grass Valley, California. Laessig began his work under Rudy Caesar, focusing on restoring a dynamite packing machine and a steam donkey. He emphasizes the challenges of working without plans or drawings, relying on ingenuity and problem-solving skills. Laessig also discusses his collaborations with other individuals, including Bob Shoemaker and Perry, a skilled carpenter. The conversation touches on various restored machines, their origins, and the intricacies of their mechanisms. Laessig's dedication to preserving the museum's artifacts and his passion for mechanical restoration are evident throughout the interview. The transcript also includes a brief exchange about the museum's history and the contributions of figures like Glenn Jones.

Full Transcript of the Video:

[heavy breathing] I think it's going.

.

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Yes.

Okay.

This is Rolf Lasek.

Yes.

My name is Gary Kaiser.

And today is April 15, 2024.

And Rolf Lasek is with us today to talk about this place.

So, Rolf.

Hi.

Welcome back.

Thank you very much.

When did.

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Do you remember when you first came here? Do you remember when you first came here? Yes, I don't know exactly what the time was.

But it was the same time when Rudy Caesar took over.

The same time? Yes.

Okay.

And my first project was to restore the dynamite packing machine.

Okay.

And actually I did this.

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Rudy Caesar helped me over the winter.

And in the spring we were just about.

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it was just about ready.

Okay.

And I made certain parts for it and I will show you this when we get there.

Okay.

And we basically just ripped it apart and put it back together.

Did you.

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The machine was basically spread out over the whole room and people some came in and said, "Do you think you put it back together again?" And they will see, right? Did you have any plans or drawings of it? No.

There is a patent drawing which is similar.

But that was all there was.

Okay.

I noticed that the pan where the nitroglycerin would have gone into with the sawdust is going down to a hole on the right.

Originally did it come straight down over all of the things? How did that work? It was a bit cold.

Okay.

We will take a look at that when we go over to it.

If you could speak up a little bit.

I'm sorry.

Because I'm a little bit difficult of hearing.

Do you know where this packing machine came from? I can't recall.

Okay.

Alright.

From there where did you go? What was next? I think next was the one right out here.

The donkey? The steam donkey? Steam donkey? The steam donkey, yeah.

That, to my recollection, was the next project.

And any particular things about it when you got it? This one, I actually took it completely apart.

And then we didn't have a shop yet at the back.

This was the next project.

Perry built me a shop back there.

And at the time, Bob Shoemaker said, "You don't need a shop.

" But when he saw all the parts of that machine back there in this back room, he recognizes that I needed a shop.

You mentioned the name Perry.

Who's Perry? He, God, what was his first name? Bob Perry? He was a very good carpenter.

And he was a very good worker.

He was just very difficult to work with.

He wanted to always work alone.

So I finally learned this, and we had a very good relationship.

And when he built something like here, this roof, or back to shop, I never interfered.

I just let him do what he wants to do.

That was it.

So how long have you been here in Grass Valley? [Laughter] I'll ask that question again.

How long have you lived in Grass Valley? Where did you come from? I worked with Perry, I would say at least four or five years.

When you moved here, when did you move here? We moved here in '96.

And how did you find this place? This was a-- Bob Shoemaker always wanted to help me anyway, but I was working for the railroad museum.

And for whatever reason, we had a beautiful seal tree there.

Actually the tree was 95 years old or so.

The reason I know that, because for whatever stupid reason, they wanted to get a track there.

I said, "Guys, go around that tree.

That tree is there for almost 100 years.

Don't touch that tree.

" And I said, "If you take that tree out, I'll leave you.

" Surely I took the tree out because they didn't think I was serious.

I went over and asked Bob Shoemaker, "Well, he wants to help me?" He says, "We're glad to have you.

" And this is how it started.

What do you say, Bob Shoemaker? Did he come in right as you were leaving? Yes, that was very close.

He still was around, but the head was Rudy Seism.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Wow, that's a story.

They lost two things then, didn't they? Actually, I don't know why, but I didn't get along with Bob Shoemaker that well.

And he communicated with me over the thousands, right? Those would come out, Bob Shoemaker, that's sad and this.

I said, "If Bob Shoemaker wants to talk to me, he comes to me personally.

" So I was just as fritual as he was.

But we had never any serious, there were no serious things.

I don't know why, because he really appreciated the things I did.

Your resume says a lot about you.

It's fantastic.

And I can certainly understand why he would appreciate having someone with that qualifications here.

By the way, he was a very knowledgeable mining engineer.

Oh yeah, I looked up his resume also, and it's extensive.

He was excellent.

From that standpoint, we had no qualms whatsoever.

Did you ever know Len Jones? Yes, but he was just visiting on and off.

I think he had a cancer, didn't he? Did he have a cancer? I don't remember.

I think, yep.

I mean he was such a big part of this museum.

He was sort of like a consultant, a fairly loose consultant.

Well all the time in years he put in an establishment.

He was a good guy, so.

Yeah, he did a good job here.

That purpose of me doing these things is to make sure that these people, including you, don't get lost in the dustbin of history.

So that's why we're doing these recordings.

So after the steam donkey-- Should we? Should we? Let's go through the list here, and then we can go through the thing then.

What can you tell me about the core drilling machine? The core drilling machine? Yes, that was probably the next project.

As a matter of fact, when we stored the steam donkey, we needed air pressure out there to run it.

Right.

And so we built-- and that was a project.

We built a pipeline, so to speak, an air pipeline all the way back, all the way through here and out there.

So you-- That was Perry and me.

You were responsible for putting the compressor in the back then? Yes.

Actually, that compressor came from a guy-- and now I can't think of his name-- but he has a large iron shop in Grass Valley.

What's his name? I don't know.

Not really, but Grass Valley.

He was a very good guy.

He-- Jerry, you have the idea of-- Hi, Ralph.

How are you doing? Hi.

He's talking to-- I think of the guy that gave us the air compressor.

A metal-- the guy, the air compressor, had a metal shop he said? Yes.

He's still there.

He's still there.

It's a large-- actually, that's the guy who made the new beam.

Jason White.

Jason White.

That's it.

I knew you.

He is our benefactor.

He is terrific guy.

I really like together with him.

The Cornish pump out here? Yes.

He made the beam.

He made the beam, and when he delivered it, you weren't here.

You were here when he took it apart.

That's the last time I was here.

And when he delivered it, he sent two of his employees over and worked all day with us assemblymen for free.

For free.

And that is when we actually find out that this upper structure is-- wood is also rotten.

And he made that as a steel structure now.

And he's also on the pelton wheel here.

Actually, I should go by there and say goodbye to him.

He was a terrific guy.

He is a terrific guy.

Did he do anything with the stamp outside in the back? He redid all the wood on that.

Well, it's all metal now.

That's correct.

That's right.

And Sierra Fabricators is the name of his business.

Great.

And our pelton wheel, we're rebuilding the propulsion system with Al.

And he's made lots of parts for us.

Lots of parts for free.

He won't take a cent from us.

Yep.

And he was very, very good to work with.

He was a very nice guy.

Very nice guy.

His name again was-- Jason White.

Jason White.

Exactly.

Okay.

Thank you for helping me on that name.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Anytime.

So, do you know anything about the drill, where it came from, the drill? No.

Any problems? I think it was from this mine, maybe.

Oh, okay.

I think so.

How about the bellows? The bellows? Oh, I have no idea where that came from.

Could also be here.

I don't know.

But we'll take that part.

As a matter of fact, there's a funny story, because the upper rod, so to speak, was a very sick walled steel tube.

And one of these classes which came through here were able to ruin this brick.

It was a trophy I was willing to say wholly to little.

And I took this sick wall pipe out and put a solid rod in there.

And said, "You're not going to break that one.

" But that was--yeah, I took that apart.

One of these.

How about the-- Well, we don't have it anymore, but we did have the-- Oh, you go away then? No, no, no, no.

We don't have the dredge anymore.

We had to give the dredge back.

Remember the model of the dredge? There's a dredge that they had in the back room.

I told you worked on that as well.

You know, I'm talking about the dredge that they had on load.

It was in the back room.

Do you remember working on that? So you're not working that anymore? They had it--the people that owned it took it back.

We don't have it anymore.

Who owned it, by the way? It's a dredge-making company in Marysville.

Oh.

That's unfortunate.

Yeah, but you rebuilt it, so it made it working, right? Yes, yes.

Actually, that was, I think, the next project after the dynamite filling machine.

Okay.

Get that down here.

There was a guy over there.

He had also a display of mining stuff.

I can't think of his name, but he was a nice guy too.

He actually--we exchanged stuff.

And I actually built--I built for him a model.

It was a very nice model, a big model.

And I can't think what there was.

It was a wonderful model.

How about a dredge? And he gave us one of these ore-carrying things.

Okay.

Which I think-- That came from him, and I can't think of his name.

Okay.

Let me go come to you.

You also worked on the drill press in the blacksmith shop? Yes.

And actually that was working, but then a class comes through here, and they put that automatic feed in and turned it till it jammed.

Huh.

Yep.

I don't know whether it works now.

Well, I don't think there's anything attached to it now.

I think you just turn it by hand.

Yep.

No, let's go there pretty soon.

Okay.

Let me see.

Oh, a big thing.

You worked on the model of the Bodhi Mine.

The model of the Bodhi Mine? Remember that great big model? Oh, yeah.

I made that model.

That was the last thing I did for the museum.

And it's a beautiful model.

And actually I did that at home because the workshop was too small to accommodate that.

So I did it at home in my garage.

So what I tell people is that the museum had the two stamp mills, and that they wanted a mill on that same scale.

Exactly.

And the thing is actually I went to--what is that? Bodhi Mine.

And they were very nice about it and let me snoop around and go anywhere.

I was very nice--was arranged.

And I went there twice just to make sure that I know how this whole thing worked.

Wow.

That's a trip.

And it's a very loose model.

It's not exactly the way Bodhi was, but it's similar.

Well, here's an eye capture.

Everybody likes that.

Yep.

You see.

And by the way, these long pulleys, they have these long pulleys.

Is that still working? I think so, yeah.

Oh, okay.

All the things that I have right here, we're going to attempt to go on battery with this thing.

I've never done the battery part of it.

So let's see.

There should be-- Okay.

Well, give me a second, though.

Yeah, this is-- Well-- It's a new motor and gearbox.

By the way, I put a spoke in there.

Yes, I know that.

And I think Jason made that for you, didn't he? It was basically a tube.

That's right.

It was a tube.

And we put a thread on the end or something like that.

I will show you that.

The spoke.

They put a spoke on the pelton.

They replaced the spoke.

Oh, that one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You've got to turn the lights on here, right? Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, I don't want to take off.

Okay.

Great.

See you later.

All right.

Now, when you want to bring this back, you have to loosen this nut and hold this shaft and run the machine, then this comes back in.

Oh, okay.

As a matter of fact, the lower one has usually a condensation in there and rusts a little bit.

So again, you have to take these heads off and put some grease in there.

But is this still running? Oh, yeah.

Okay.

This is when I took it apart.

No? This is good.

This is still running like this, right? Right.

Yes, it does.

Yeah, this is the drill.

Yeah, that was a nice project.

That was a nice project.

You guys keep it in very good shape.

I must say.

It looks good.

They won't, you know? Yeah, here is the thing.

They drill this.

Oh, you know somebody fixed this again.

You see, when you put this in there and let this run, they eventually jam it in there and this is what they did.

This is, by the way, a very nice machine, right? Yeah, it looks great.

Yep, yep.

Ah! Here we are.

That one is in good shape.

And this is, I tell you what happened here.

I went to a shoemaker down in Auburn and I said, "You know what? This stuff stretches.

" And he said, "I put a stitch on both sides, then it doesn't stretch that much.

" And it obviously doesn't because it still works.

Oh, it does.

You want to see it work? For me? You want to see it work? Oh, yeah, you can put it on.

What's that? I built this piece out there, too.

Is that a crusher? I built this.

Yep.

Nobody, it's in good shape.

Yep, yep.

That was a lot of work, I tell you.

It took me quite a while.

Now, at Foti, the hill up here goes up there and then there is the mine.

These carts come directly from the mine into the building.

Okay.

So that is a truly Boti.

Yeah, that was a lot of work.

And these things really do work.

They used to work.

I mean, that door can open? I'm sorry? That door can open? Yes.

Oh, boy.

Yes.

That was working at one time, but not anymore.

You know, it's in good shape.

You know, that was good.

And here we have these batteries.

I remember that people looked at these, at the batteries.

It was a more modern thing.

And there always was a piece of grass, which looked like gold.

We have this.

Oh, here it is, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we have a neat, neat painting.

Yep.

It's good to see these things.

I must say.

This still works? Oh, yeah.

Yep, okay.

Now I have to find the spoke.

The what? The spoke I put in.

You put in, what was it? I put one of these who are missing.

Oh, the spokes.

And I put one in there.

I just don't know what it is.

It could be at the top.

Which side was it on? It has blended in now.

Because it always stuck out because it looked like brand new.

Yeah, we have to start this thing.

We have to turn it on and then go like this.

Yeah, I've done that.

Hopefully with a new motor we won't have to do that.

Yeah, now they have a big bit of better.

It is good.

It's very good.

I think you told me that in the wintertime when you came here, that you actually.

.

.

You know that thing was in the shroud, right? Yes, I do.

Okay.

You told me that in the wintertime what you would do is come and open that door down there and get the air flowing through.

Right? Oh, yeah, we opened that one in the springtime.

So that air circulated.

It's air circulated, okay.

I always wanted to restore this one here.

This I did restore.

Okay.

And I always wanted to take this one on, but I just didn't get there.

So interesting.

This one may work again.

I think it didn't work that well.

It does work.

Yeah.

I think I actually put this thing in the object exactly.

It amazes me what they came up with to do the work, huh? Yeah, and they still make these tables.

Yeah.

Yeah, I get this one here.

This I restored too.

This being what? What is this? It grinds.

It's sort of a grinder.

Somebody made a new pulley here.

I wonder if it works.

I've never seen it.

There's a switch on the side down there.

By the way, I think it should.

If you turn it on, then we'll see.

No, it's just not from in the pulley or whatever.

Maybe the power is not there.

I don't know.

Oh.

But this used to run.

Used to run.

One of these I wanted to put in a plexiglass thing that people see how that works.

That water going through? It's a nozzle.

But you couldn't see a thing.

I mean, I made one and then it was useless.

And it was one of these with a nozzle and in a plexiglass.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

But you couldn't see a thing.

It was a missed opportunity.

And this is a build.

I remember that.

That is an interesting thing.

I think a guy wanted to get just around the pelton.

Yeah, this was like this.

But it wasn't a little bit bigger.

The unfortunate thing is there's water all over the place and you can't see a thing.

I think if I would have a stroke like it, it probably would have worked.

On this one, it worked too.

Sort of interesting.

Now here we, you see, there is the, this is the pipilina, the pipeline right for the air.

There it goes.

There's a pin there.

Yep.

There was a project I tell you.

Looks like it.

By the way, I'm absolutely amazed.

The boys which rode this wheel.

There is a ride up here.

Because one guy got mingled in and broke his leg.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah.

And then they welded a chart and it wasn't running anymore.

I didn't realize somebody got injured.

I mean, I didn't realize someone got injured.

Yep.

By the way, I'm not surprised at all.

Because when you ride around on this wheel, you get easy mingled, right? It's a big wheel.

Yep.

That's sort of interesting.

Now here, when they originally worked, they had one, one work.

Oh, wow.

One.

And then we made them all work.

But then the problem was that it would have to keep this piece out.

And I said, okay, we'll just put a rubber thing in there that it takes out the bang.

I see.

But still keeps the sound.

Oh, yeah.

It's noisy.

Yep.

It's noisy.

But it wasn't noisier before.

And what I said, there's a rubber piece in there to protect this frame from fatiguing out.

Interesting.

Yep.

And I don't know, I worked on this.

I remember somehow I put a belt tight on there or something like that.

But they took that off.

Well, that's okay.

I wanted to always do something with that phone.

Make that work again.

And this is the Hilton pump.

Okay.

I restored that.

But what I wanted to find is a motor which fits in that motor and drives this thing.

And that would have actually powered.

But this is how that thing looked, exactly.

Yeah, this is a nice piece.

It's a nice piece.

But this has frozen out.

It still works.

Yeah, that's a very nice wheel.

Pelton wheel.

So there's a pelton wheel inside here.

Yeah, no, this is a pelton pump now.

This is not this.

This takes water from here and brings pressure water out here.

So this is a pump.

Okay.

This is a pelton pump.

I gotcha.

Well, you saw how it looked.

And there was a washer here or something like that.

And I wanted to, I think that's the one, the Wonder washer.

I wanted to power this one with this, with this unit here.

Oh, I see.

They go as like this.

This is a very clever piece of equipment.

And what I say, I wanted to use this to power this.

Well, that'd been cool.

For me? That would have been cool.

Yep.

Oh, yeah, we restored this one.

All these little things, right? I forgot this.

I forgot this.

Yep, this is good.

And you should have seen how this looked before it was restored.

It was a piece of garbage.

Really? Oh, ready for the dump.

And then they restored it and did a very good job.

I think this is the one I wanted to use.

If I'm not mistaking, that is the wheel I wanted to use.

And this still works, huh? Yep, yep.

Yep, we have, that thing was laying over this entire room here.

That's a good shape.

So my question is, would this end of the machine, when all this come down and there'd be a hole all along here to pack the dynamite? Actually, apparently, this is not a legend.

This is made afterwards.

These are these.

So how would the dynamite get into this one here? You have to get it in here.

Yeah, but how does it get down here? Because there are these plungers here under maters.

These ones here are made by me.

And they go.

Right, I know that.

But you've got to get this in front of the plunger.

For example, let's see, working here.

These plungers I made, they were missing.

These ones, they're all new.

Now how does this come when they hang up and lose it? Now how does this go? Yeah, it's here.

It's in here.

Because you see here are these little things here, which keep everything loose, these ones.

They rotate and keep the stuff loose.

And so the dynamite is in here.

What a dis-belt run.

So you have here, this is the only way.

I don't see a thing.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

And this is how you actually do this, right? It's amazing the thing didn't fly apart.

Don't blow up.

How do you do this so that you can see the works here? Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

This? Yes.

We did this as a courtesy to our sister museum.

And here's a funny story with you.

Because we certainly needed all sorts of wood and metal and I don't know what, right? And I think this also, and it amounted to something like $600.

And so they paid us the $600, but they told the visitors that the railroad museum ripped them off, right? And when that came back to the railroad museum, the shit hit the pan.

I'm telling you that.

Yeah, yeah, I did this in the railroad museum.

Here you can actually see.

This is the railroad museum.

That was just a courtesy for the museum.

Nice.

And then it came out.

And I remember there was, I think there was a talk between our CFO and Bob Shoemaker.

And it was not quiet.

Was that John Christensen? For me? Was it John Christensen? No.

At the railroad museum? He was not there at that time.

Oh.

No, it was the CFO.

God, what was his name? God.

I could look it up.

That's okay.

That's no problem.

But there were some harsh words.

That's too bad.

That is what I thought you said you gave away.

No, not this one.

And this is now a solid piece of steel.

And the reason is they ripped this apart.

I was really impressed of that trophy.

And Rolf, is this you in the picture? Pami.

Is that you? Yes.

Look at that.

You were young once.

Campi Pasati.

Now this is the craziest cash register I ever saw.

Yeah, it is.

Now this was the old shop.

This is where the old shop was.

Oh man, that's small.

Here's the compressor.

Oh no, you have changed it yet.

The compressor has changed.

That's a new compressor.

Yeah, I think they upgraded it a couple of years ago.

Yep.

Yeah, that was an ancient compressor.

I actually upgraded the compressor.

It was so funny.

Anyhow, this was the old shop.

The new shop is over there.

Can we go in there? I have to get a key for it.

Okay, no, I wanted just to show you that trophy.

Well, I can go get the key.

Oh no, no.

Actually, let me share with you this.

My intention is that we're going to get a plaque with your name on it and it's going to go on that shed.

Oh, this one you meant you came back, right? Yes.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

We came back with a trailer.

A six foot long model of a dredge.

Yes.

And it used to be right here.

Exactly.

And as a matter of fact, again, one of these boys, there was gravel there, right? And they took this gravel and put them into the thing.

And the gravel got all over the place and fucked everything up.

So then we have to put a plexiglass over them that they couldn't get into the gravel.

Yep.

But that worked very well.

By the way, this I restored.

And I'll tell you what the problem is, is this goddamn igniter.

Is that what it is? That is why it doesn't work.

I worked on this and worked forever.

But this is really a good working, where's the crank? Oh, the crank is not there anymore.

Oh, it's on your fire foot.

Ralph, your fire foot.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

It goes on here and then you crank it and off it goes.

And I restored this machine, this two horsepower machine, and I did a little bit larger one like this, a 4 horsepower machine.

But mine had the advantage.

It had a battery in the coil ignition and practicing and boom off the range, right? And it goes boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom.

Hit and miss.

It's hit and miss.

And the way it's done, you can see this on this machine.

There is a flywheel.

Where is it? It holds the exhaust valve open.

Somehow in there is a flywheel.

And when it has reached the right thing, then this gets held open.

And in the moment the exhaust valve is open, then the air just goes in and out in the exhaust valve.

And nothing happens.

And when it comes back to the smaller RPM, then this thing sits again and then your power is again.

There are wonderful machines by the way.

I really like mine.

I gave mine to my son.

And he on and off operates it.

Well I guess every farm around here had one of these.

By the way, if somebody is somewhat inclined, this is what needs to be redone.

There are hit and miss places around.

And I had actually sent this to them and they redid it.

And when you are open, when this is out here, it fires.

But in the moment it's in there, the pressure is high, it doesn't fire.

So that is the problem of this machine.

I would have loved to have this one.

Well maybe somebody will look at this video and figure it out.

If somebody is inclined, what I am saying, this was a good project.

And it looks very well.

It has kept very well.

This is so good.

Here are these monster drills.

This is a gas generator.

You put in carbide and water.

And then when the pressure builds up, it prevents the water from coming in.

You can use it for welding or whatever.

This is a nice piece.

Again, it could be restored.

But it's a gas generator like they had before they came out, always these gas bottles.

Now everything is in bottles.

But that's what they use for welding.

This was the old driver of the wheel down there.

That's the old driver's ink, right? Yes.

Is this still working? I'm told it is, but I've never seen it work.

I tell you what, you have to put that compressor on and get the pressure and then you open that valve here and off it goes.

Evidently you can actually use, you can make steam on this also.

Yes, it originally was a run in steam.

This is just a take off.

Right.

I restored that too.

That's a very nice running machine, by the way.

I want to say you have to get this one going.

And you can see it can hold quite a load.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was that guy.

He was a good guy.

This is his wife.

Bob Carr.

Yep.

Interesting.

Okay.

These are made one or two.

These things here.

See how it gets? Yes.

We shortened size.

This I restored.

They heat the coals.

They heat the coals.

There's still plenty of stuff which can be restored.

Yep.

That will be, by the way, a good project.

You find a motor which gets into this shell, drives that pump.

It was 1800 RPM and then runs this washer.

This was the idea of this.

And this is probably one of the earliest tough wheels at all.

A wooden one.

A wooden one, exactly.

Didn't lost that long.

But I have a feeling that this was one of the very early machines.

Okay.

I say goodbye to this.

Was really was interesting.

Well, thank you for coming.

We appreciate that.

Oh yeah.

Here is the belt type.

I remember that one.

Because I put this on there because I was slipping.

Yep.

Okay.

If you want to turn the table on, you can turn the table on.

There was a huge gas furnace there.

But you have modernized that.

The other shop had a lace which we got from the railroad museum.

And they probably recall it.

Now here's the funny story, by the way.

When we drove this to here, the thing was not fastened down.

When it came to about 35 miles an hour, the thing tipped over and hit the back gate of the truck.

Oh my.

And smashed actually one of these windows and somewhere in there is a little, well, I don't know where it is.

But I had to remake one of these windows and that was it.

Nothing else happened.

Nothing else was cool.

This whole thing just tipped over and hit the rear gate here somewhere.

Somewhere a bit in there, but I can't see.

You did a good job of covering it up.

Oh me? You did a good job of covering it up.

Yes.

I want to say there was a little bit in here somewhere, but I can't see.

You know, I don't remember all this.

Now here's this crosshair.

This is the join of this crosshair.

This is the join of this crosshair.

And it's on a, it's like this and here go these stones in there and then they come out wherever the smallest thing is there.

The slat just down there get crushed and then they come out.

This by the way looks really good.

It does.

I'm proud of you guys.

Well, I ran up and rave about this on all the tours I get.

And this double ball here is a mistake.

Oh really? It should have been only a single ball.

But for whatever reason, I don't know.

I made a mistake.

And finally I have two balls there that I might as well put two balls in there.

After duty, all right.

Yep.

I know it's really hard to survive time very well.

Very well.

This was where these jolly ones were.

Yes.

Yeah.

You don't have to worry about it.

Nobody is able to carry it out.

Well, you know, the gold exhibit, they took all the gold out.

The gold used to be over there.

They took it all out and put it in the sink.

I see.

Yep.

It's too risky to have it out.

Okay.

All right.

By the way, this was restored by a lady.

And this was a piece of garbage.

And it came out very nice after we restored it.

Nice.

So, this is my project I started last this winter.

This notebook here, it will have biographies of people associated with the mining museum.

Oh, okay.

It started because when I got here, I kept looking at that big brass plaque and had no idea who that guy was.

And I just bugged me and bugged me and nobody seemed to really know.

So I decided to look it up.

And that got me to this one, the directors.

And so what we have is all four directors.

Yeah, this is what he sees there.

He started in 2013.

Oh, okay.

But this is a little biography about each of them.

And then it's nice.

That's very nice that you keep this.

Well, we didn't have it before.

But then what happened was, is that I kept getting, there's no inventory of everything here.

So I come up with these other different things.

This one talks about the, this is the one talks about the area and how the area affected the mining.

This one talks about historical things that are related to my parenting in the museum itself.

One of these things, the pump? The pump is, yeah.

It's with nothing here because I remember that I, actually I bought a submersible pump for that thing.

Because I thought the old pump was complete, but the old pump worked.

That's it.

The submersible pump probably sits in the shop.

Anyway, this is our archives.

Now this is very nice that you took this on.

On the other side is the library that I've expanded back here.

All the books have been indexed and now in a computer.

This is all from the planning library.

This is good.

This is very, very good.

Actually there was even more, I think we gave some away or something to the historical society.

To the library, Cyril's library.

All these books here you'll find in the library.

This is primarily for docents.

I tell people if they want to do research that go to the library and they can do the research.

No, this is terrific.

Absolutely terrific.

Let me see if they can go.

I have a seat to relax.

Where is this coming from? My house.

My house.

Oh, okay.

This is the most versatile table I have.

It just holds up really nicely.

These things are really very nice.

So I have a question.

This question predates you.

But do you know the 18 foot wheel that was here? Remember there was an 18 foot wheel right here.

And the floor? Do you remember that about that? They took it out.

Yes.

My question is, when they took it out, when they were salvaging it, and they rebuilt this place, you can see the slot in the ground here, but right in the middle it's a big concrete slab.

Why is there a slab there? Most likely for the support of the axle.

But it was on the table.

Take a look.

I'm getting out of here.

And there was a big.

.

.

You see, here's the wheel stack.

And within the axle, which is here, the wheel.

Would this have to be open also? Now where are these? This is where they.

.

.

This is where the 18 wheel stack lies here.

Right.

This is where the axle would have been.

But the axle would have gone in and out of the ground here.

I tried to catch it before.

But it is probably a support for the axle there before.

Which is it? Yeah, but the wheel has to go in and out of there.

Right? But would it go in this way? This is all about the wheel.

How could the wheel go in here? You see what I'm saying? Yeah, it's an unanswered question.

Yeah.

Now this is 18 foot wheel.

That's where it was, huh? Okay.

I'm getting hot.

I have to get out.

Okay.

There's a few more minutes.

How often is the car? Can I open something for you? No, no, no, I don't think it's going to be a couple of times.

I locked the car for you so you can sit in the car if you want.

I need a cheap one.

They locked the door? A cheap tool? Well, they came.

.

.

Oh, no, they didn't.

No, because the key's not in here.

Okay.

( sound of table thinking ) ( sound of felton relief ) I almost dumped him.

You dumped him? No, we're all here.

( sound of a wind blowing ) [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] [beeping] This is a convenience which all the cars don't have.

We have an old Mercedes and we don't have this thing in there.

A Honda car.

96? Oh yeah, that's kind of old.

But the car is in perfect shape and you don't want to do anything with it.

We brought a Dodge Durango.

The Dodge Durango had been discontinued for two years.

When they brought it back we ended up buying one.

One of the features that had on it was this camera.

And it was the only car out there that had.

.

.

and then the following year they made the trans car.

All kinds of trans cars.

[engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] That certainly was interesting and similar.

[engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] One time.

[engine noise] And now you have to get around this thing, right? Yep.

That's the disadvantage.

That's the disadvantage.

It's pretty small with the parking to have.

[engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [engine noise] [laughter]