Who knows how much of it is true?
As far as scamming folks thats not true.?
The reason they dug pointless holes in the top (as Judy h put it) was due to the fact that the original opening into the cavern system was near the top of the mountain.? And you had to crawl down a rope ladder to access the point where Dorrs name was found written on the wall.
It was impossible to get equipment into that open do to it's location so a tunnel was punched into the side mountain in order gain access to the natural open which of course went down into the mountain.
Via that tunnel, the claim owners were able to gain access to the aforementioned place where Dorr name was found.
A second tunnel was blasted into the mountain on the opposite side in hopes of accessing the descending cave system with less work and expense.?
IE. blasting powder, caps,? dynamite and fuel for the generators, LHD's jackhammers, air lines, air compressors, safety equipment,? water trucks, and of course protecting the environment all cost money..
As I mentioned in another post on the subjct of? Kokoweef we could just have an inch of rock wall standing between us and and the main cavern tunnel? and not even know it's there unless we move that wall.
This all takes time, money and research we use heavy equipment at the mine which is not cheap to buy operate and maintain.? And most of the work is being done and has been done on a volunteer basis.
It all has not been about blasting, as some would like to believe we have used ground scan sonar, as well as seismology equipment and remote cameras to probe and access the unseen and the unknown areas of the mountain and the surrounding areas.
Do I know the area?
I worked at the Kokoweef site for over five years.? I worked there on weekends after I got done with my real job.? ?
I spent my own money for gas and food.? Just like all the other volunteers.
I helped blast one of those tunnels.
What have I gotten out of it?? Beside learning to run a hard rock drill, how to handle dyamite, how to operate an LHD and just hanging out with a great bunch of people.
I got a? hell of a lot of fun it and gained a whole lot of knowledge.