I am think I see the belt pulley on the ground near the 25

That drive sprocket looks brand new!

Trail info and more photos here:

hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=19001

A major wild fire burned through the area in the early 2000's, which wiped out all wooden quarry structures, also burned right over the equipment. However by burning off the underbrush back to bare earth, it also made visible surviving remnants of the old access road, which had been hidden for decades. During that same time period, a large wilderness parkland was made of the area, which opened up hiking and public access throughout the region. If you google "Las Llajas Canyon", "Regan's Steam Shovel", or "Coquina Mine", you can find more which has been posted by hikers, mountain bikers, and photographers.

Our group hiked into the old quarry from the east and the south, roughly following the original access road. Much of this road, treacherous to begin with, has either washed out, slid away due to old landslides, or become overgrown with brush. The foot trail leading to the quarry sometimes gets quite narrow, in some stretches just a notch cut along steep slopes.


- Richard

So how would a person go about acquiring one of these, arrange purchase of course then removal. Are wheeled or tracked vehicles allowed here now ? If it was allowed could a say a LGP D4 drive in there and pull it out? If it would roll. I am sure dragging it 5 miles would be out of the question It would take a serious Helicopter to haul one of those out at major expense.

Mike Furgason moved a Bucyrus Steam crane out of a pit in Canada that was about 8 miles in with no roads that could be found. He rented a dozer, went in and cut his roads and pulled it out. I do think it was not as rough as the area these two are in.
Terry

Sounds like a good job for the Mighty D4!

I hate to say it but if that area has been turned into anything like a park, only a ridiculously expensive helicopter operation is going to get that old Best out of there. No way the local greeners are going to let a road be cut in there, and the cost of putting one in looks to be prohibitively high in any case. But you guys knew that! Oh well...

G

Neal. you're spot on, but Bing shows the terrain a little clearer than Google Earth. I've marked where the equipment is.

After downing a few beers while relaxing from the exhausting hike up and back from the quarry, our group of old fart gearheads thought the basic concept of running a small dozer up the existing trail, widening it where needed, and then towing the Best back down off the mountain, strapped to skids, might succeed. However this would take substantial dozer work, done by an operator experienced doing slope jobs, as some stretches traverse old landslides and other potentially unstable earth slippages.

But since this is wilderness area public park land, we reluctantly concluded that official permission to do all this dirt work realistically could never be obtained.

So we finally figured our best plan was that we should all hike up there again, and then throw one guy off the cliff. After calling 911 and requesting the victim be airlifted out, say, "Oh, by the way, as long as you're coming anyway, could you send a larger copter so we could also lift out an old tractor at the same time?"

- Richard