With help from Glen, Sherpa Jesse picks up two bundles of lag boards and starts the long climb to the site.

After several tiring and VERY frustrating attempts made over several days, the team is finally able to complete a second hole to the shaft using the four-inch auger. Jesse, working over 30 feet away, 20 feet deep in the shaft, can hear the auger's bit digging through the mud and dirt just below him. Meanwhile, the shaft continues to fill with water faster than it can drain out through the partially collapsed original auger hole. Here, Chewie hands his camera over to Glen, and joins Mic, Jack and Jim as they "clear" the auger.

Glen inspects and guides the auger pipe in an attempt to begin a third hole that will reach the shaft at a deeper level so that it will continue to drain the hole as the crew digs deeper. Glen is actually standing near what was originally the mouth to the old Spanish mine drift. About 30 feet into the mountain, directly in front of Glen, Jesse is working in the shaft, which will intersect the old Spanish drift, at the end of the caved in portion.

Mic helps guide the pipe/auger into the mountain, as his cousin, Glen does the drilling by turning the "T" handle on the auger drill pipe. The men of H.E.A.T. take their freedom and safety very seriously. While in the wilderness, a pistol takes the place of a cell phone.

Mic waits to handle the next set of collar and shoring material. Josh is at the bottom of the shaft and other crew members are preparing to hand down the material. The crew has reached a tricky spot in the dig. Now intersecting the original drift with supports and debris, they must work to make headway while safely supporting sides of the shaft and without disturbing the original supports or those installed by Cox nearly 50 years ago. Stress!

Joe hands Mic one of four temporary screw-jack supports that Josh and Mic will use to brace the caving debris in the original drift. This will be the trickiest portion of the timbering operation. On the next trip in, the crew will replace this temporary material with a permanently, specially designed, timber set that will allow the safe transition from the shaft to the drift.

This view gives some perspective on just how far down 25 feet is! Here Josh and Mic fight to keep the debris from caving while attempting to place the temporary shoring jacks and lag boards along the walls. If the material down there began to cave, the integrity of the entire shaft and the head frame could be compromised. Needless to say, anyone down in the shaft at that time could be entombed alive.

Here Jack pontificates on the difficulties of this operation compared to other remote mining operations in which he has formerly been involved. The main complaint here is that the Wilderness designation makes safety even more critical while rendering the necessity of doing everything by hand, just as the Spanish had done so many years ago. He also made light of how difficult it would be to get an injured man out of the site, even to a point where he could be airlifted to a hospital. The trail leading up to the site is incredibly steep in places, with sheer drops of 50 feet or more on one side. Just making the 911 call is nearly impossible, as cell service is nearly non-existent for at least a mile around the site.

Eric barely escaped a major emergency at camp only a month before this picture was taken. He had spent over a week as guard at base camp and at the last minute decided to take a one day break back down to Apache Junction. That evening he wound up in the hospital having his gall bladder removed. His ordeal proves the point that Jack made in an interview: Safety and health issues are no small considering when working in such a remote location. Here, still not fully recovered, Eric puts on a brave face, and each time he comes out he is better. The crew is anxious for him to be fully recovered as they enjoy giving him grief!

Clay Worst is a long-time friend of Ron, Mic, Bob and other members of H.E.A.T. He is one of the few living Dutchman hunters who has seen a piece of the ore that was found under the Dutchman's deathbed. Mic and others were especially honored that Clay would make this arduous trek, accompanied by another Dutchman hunter Jim Hatt, to visit H.E.A.T. crew.

In an interview with Clay reminiscing about old times: “Ted Cox died in 1983, and I never got to meet him. But I guess I got to know Ted better than many other men, through his wife and son, and through his writings. He is one of the men that I would have really liked to have met, in my Dutchman hunting career. But one of the men I am very fortunate to know is Clay.”

Ron recalled the first letter he wrote to Clay back in 1965 while he still lived in L.A. Which started Clay reminiscing: “And oh, how we sometimes wish we cold turn the clock back, to ask the old fellows questions that we never thought to ask then. I wish I had Brownie Holmes back. I wish I had Herman Petrache back. Just for 15 minutes, to ask them some questions. Things that had never come up, then. Questions that we never thought to ask . . . and now it’s too late. We thought they were going to live forever . . . they didn’t.”

Always with a ready smile, Clay finds some bit of humor in the difficulties that the H.E.A.T. crew is having with water and shoring at this moment. Clay understands what Mic refers to as, "the loving of the game." Clay is fond of noting that, "For those of us who understand, no explanation is needed; for those who don't understand, none is possible." The crew cannot argue that point.

Clay tells why he feels that this region makes sense for a mine and relates that all the old-timers knew that the Spanish had been in this area mining. He, just as much as any member of H.E.A.T., prays that this project will provide sufficient evidence to persuade the historians of that history.