PARENTS: Gabriel Armeade Putvain, Augusta Ann Montgomery
SPOUSES: Henry Robert Dufresne, Ken Kincaid, and Milo Seger.
She is buried next to William Henry (Burro) Schmidt. The grave is the bed frame she slept on for 40 years.
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:18 AM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
1908 - 2003
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger, 40-year resident of Randsburg, died Friday, May 30, 2003, of natural causes at her residence. She was 95.
No services are planned.
Seger was born April 30, 1908, in Fairfield, Vt. She served in the U.S. Navy as a nurse until her retirement.
Seger was preceded in death by her husband and a son, Paul Dufresne.
She is survived by a daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
Seger had been the owner of William "Burro" Schmidt's Tunnel and Museum in Last Chance Canyon since 1963. She bought the tunnel and its surrounding 800 acres at an estate sale in Bakersfield, hoping the dry desert air would be beneficial to her husband's health. The previous owner was Mike Lee, a friend of Schmidt.
Off-roaders and weekend desert rats often stopped to visit Seger and see the original cabin built by Schmidt.
Schmidt spent 32 years digging the half-mile tunnel by hand; using a pick, steel rods and dynamite -- when he could afford it.
The original purpose of the tunnel was to provide a shortcut for miners through Copper Mountain. The Southern Pacific Rail Line was completed before he could finish the shortcut, but Schmidt was so obsessed with the project he continued to work until he completed the tunnel. He was 68 at the time. He died in 1954 at age 84 and his funeral was held in front of the tunnel.
Private cremation, arrangements and media information provided by Holland & Lyons Mortuary, 371-1376.
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
Replies: 0
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
1moxnix (View posts) Posted: 17 Aug 2004 2:54AM GMT
Classification: Death
Surnames: Corbett, Dufresne,
Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society
Courtesy of Mojave Desert News, California City, Kern, CA
Schmidt tunnel caretaker dies at 95
BLM says it, not heirs* own property
BY ADAM L. R. SUMMERS
NEWS REVIEW
STAFF WRITER
SPECIAL TO THE DESERT NEWS
RED ROCK CANYON - Evelyn A. (Tonie) Seger died May 30, at her residence near the entrance to the famed Burro Schmidt's Tunnel.
For the last 40 years of her life, Seger cared for the historic tunnel in the El Paso Mountains near Randsburg. With her passing, administration of the tunnel and surrounding land, recently named a federal historic site, will pass to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has claimed for years that, despite objections of Seger and her family, the land around the tunnel is public land. Officials have cited a large body of case and statutory law in BLM's favor.
Dug by hand
The tunnel was dug single-handedly over 32 years by prospector William Henry "Burro" Schmidt. It was originally conceived as an ore-hauling route through Copper Mountain in Last Chance Canyon, but became Schmidt's personal obsession after a road to the Southern Pacific Rail Line made the tunnel he was building obsolete.
After it was completed, Schmidt no longer wanted it. According to a 2001 report by MSNBC, Schmidt sold the tunnel shortly after its completion to his friend, Mike Lee. In the same article, Seger claimed she bought the land from Lee's estate in 1963.
"I found this place that's high, dry desert," she told MSNBC. "Right in the middle of the desert is a hill, and on top of the hill is this tunnel." She picked the place to live with her husband after she retired from the Navy as a nurse, hoping the desert air would improve his ailing health. (He died a year later at age 42.)
BLM claims land
But according to Linn Gum, supervisory geologist at the BLM field office in Ridgecrest, the BLM has known for some time that the tunnel and surrounding land are actually public lands. "Tonie believed she was the owner, but she was not," he said.
Gum said BLM is organizing a committee to plan how to manage the tunnel site, saying that all he knows for certain is that "the land will remain open for public access." He explained the long delay in asserting BLM's rights to land on which, according to BLM, Seger had trespassed for years.
"We knew it would not be the best thing to have the full force and effect of the federal government come cascading down on an elderly woman." Gum said he has been in contact with Seger's heirs, first communicating with them a number of years before her death. Her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all agreed it would be best to leave Seger on the land in peace and "let nature take its course," he said.
Gum pointed out that Seger's family members are being included in the planning process for maintaining and operating the site in the future.
Seger is survived by her daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild. Private cremation and arrangements were provided by Holland and Lyons Mortuary.
Caretaker writing book about Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2003 5:01 PM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
HAND WRITTEN: Surrounded by photos of his three-year companion, Tonie Seger, David Ayers sits at the table where he spends many hours writing about "The Tunnel Lady" from Burro Schmidt's mine in the El Paso Mountains. Daily Independent photo by Liddy Butler
by Liddy [email protected]
"She was my mother, my grandmother and my friend," David Ayers said, sitting at a table overlooking the El Paso Mountains.
In the rustic cabin he shared for the past three years at the Burro Schmidt Tunnel, his hands lightly scan over the 22 pages of rough draft scripts. The biography he is presently writing chronicles the life and times of Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger.
"Everything is going to be handwritten. This paper is laser compatible so pictures can be printed on the back of the handwritten pages. Everything will be done with an old fountain pen; understand that everything written out here, the old papers, they were handwritten.
"Contracts and claims were handwritten, even though they had typewriters back then," said Ayers.
Working as a truck driver in 1997, Ayers would go by his own mother's home and find things such as the door wide open. He knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure what.
Later he would find out that she was suffering from dementia. That's when he started driving locally, in Los Angeles, so he could help his mother.
When the demands of caring for his mother became so great, he lost his driving job in 2000.
Taking the death of his mother very hard, he put his few belongings in storage and basically became homeless. Staying with friends, he filled in at a friend's shop in Gardenia.
Ayers continued, "Because I was so busy with truck driving and then at the end with my mom, it was six years before I had seen Tonie. But, I had met her 20 years ago with my mom."
Heading to the desert, Ayers held the hope that seeing Tonie again would make him feel better.
When he arrived at the cabin, he realized a lot of changes had occurred since his last visit.
Tonie had aged a lot. She was nearly blind and deaf, and had a mild case of the flu.
"As soon as I walked in, there she is, sick, blind, and deaf. As soon as I looked at her I thought, here I go again. I knew then that I was going to end up taking care of her."
Ayers took a couple of months to make the decision of total commitment. During those three months, he traveled back and forth checking up on the ailing woman while he struggled with his decision.
"At the end of two or three months, I walked in and I said 'Tonie would you like me to stay here?' And she said 'Yes,'" and a contract between the two was written.
Ayers said he already knew what Seger was like, "She used to say to me, 'David what do you think of me?' and I would tell her 'Your an old crab' and she would get a big smile on her face."
At one point Seger was put in the hospital to drain her lungs because she had congestive heart failure.
"At that point the job became really rough, which I knew it was going to be, and basically I had to move inside the house, because I was staying in the trailer right out there," Ayers said, pointing to property behind the cabin.
After her hospital stay Ayers said Seger was never quite the same. She had grown weaker and he had to stay with her 24 hours, seven days a week. With medications affecting her bodily functions, Ayers was up about every two hours throughout the nights helping her to what she referred to as the "Pee-pot."
Having had military privileges, every two to three months Ayers would take the elder to the China Lake Commissary to do her shopping, and to doctor visits.
"At the end of her life, about two or three months ago, was the last time I took her to China Lake, and she got to drive one of the motorized carts. She enjoyed it so much. About a week and a half later she said 'David I want to go to the Commissary again.' Very unusual for this. Normally we would just go up there about once every two months. The reason she wanted to go up there was she wanted to ride those carts again. And if you would have seen her on that cart, she was going down the isles looking half dead, all slumped over, but totally enjoying it." Ayers said.
According to Ayers over the last three years eighty to ninety percent of the people that came to the mining camp, came up to go through the tunnel, but the main thing they came up for was to see Tonie.
"I was the same way. I found her more fascinating than any thing or any body else. That's why I kept coming back, not because of the tunnel but because of Tonie. I found her to be a fascinating personality.
According to Ayers, Seger purchased the Burro Schmidt mine in 1963 for her beloved husband Milo. Apparently Milo had contracted a virus in Korea, which affected his heart, and he felt the dry climate would help with his condition. The property, bought sight-unseen by Seger, was a blow to the city lady when she actually set eyes on it. To her dismay, after the couple had relocated to the site, her husband passed away six months later.
According to Ayers, her love for her husband tied her to the property then and until her passing this past May at the age of 94.
"She had promised him that she was going to have a well dug on the property and basically that's the reason she decided to stay here. She didn't really like the place when she first came up - she hated it. She had all the money. When Milo died about three miles from here she looked down on him lying on the ground and said 'Don't you dare die and leave me in this God forsaken place'. And then she promised 'I'm going to put a well in up there,' and she did that.
While living at Burro Schmidt, Seger took a few trips to Germany, but Ayers said Seger was just basically stuck there.
Seger was legendary driving the dirt roads leading to the tunnel, according to Ayers.
"She loved fast cars, she was a motor head. She loved fast cars and she loved driving fast."
After her judgement started to fail around 1996, she drove to Randsburg and when she arrived home a friend was there to greet her and Seger got out of her vehicle and said to them 'I'm never going to do that again.'
She had lost her ability to drive and Ayers said that was one of the roughest times of her life.
"She loved cars, she just loved cars."
Ayers said that Seger could put up with her loss of ability to drive, but when she lost her eyesight that was her main complaint even up to the time of her death.
When asked what the future holds for him Ayers said he wishes to be the caretaker of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel, "I want to be the care taker here now. Because I love this place and I respect it. All I can say about the BLM letting me be the caretaker is that I'm being considered, and that nothing is in writing yet. There are no plans as of yet they are still trying to figure out what to do with the place. I've talked to Mr. Gum and our conversations have been gentleman to gentleman, they've been very civil, and that is the way I want to keep it."
In making an effort to understand his rights at the property, Ayers said he wants to work with the BLM and that he will be bringing up his own issues at the upcoming meetings.
Ayers said he is the claim holder of ten claims after over a year ago he and Seger went to a lawyer and he was put on as a joint-claimant and after her death the claims became his.
"But basically because of the National Historical Site which the property has, I don't know what my rights are. So I'm not even mining right now. Mr. Gum said that Burro's cabin, all the tools around there, and the tunnel is federally protected. Where my other claims come in, because I have respect for the federal government, if these claims are protected I'm not going to touch anything until I understand what's going on. I was mining for gold in there before, but since all of this I'm not going to touch that right now. You have to respect the law."
Ayers said that the responsibility for the tunnel may be to all of the people that come up to visit it, and that they may not want the tunnel mined anyway.The public may want it to stay just the way it is.
" I have to respect the public and that's what I'm going to do".
Part of the fascination with the tunnel is not only the prospect of gold, but Burro Schmidt himself. Mining the quarter mile tunnels by hand using a pick, sledgehammer, steel drill rods, and then dynamite. Using the steel rod to drill the blasting hole about two to three feet deep he would blow off two rounds.
Ayers said Burro actually blew himself up two or three times, "But one of those times he almost blew himself up permanently. There still mining up here. Once you get gold fever well you know!"
Trekking through the tunnel is quite interesting, but when one gets to the end and steps out onto the mountain - what a sight to behold! Those familiar with Garlock road get a completely different view with it looking miniscule from the peak miles above.
Ayers said that he has contact with some of Seger's family members, mostly her grandchildren, and that they come to visit at times. One of the grand daughters was there at the time of Seger's passing.
The completion time of the book he is writing, which will be bound in leather, is unknown. He said he will continue to write until it is done and wasn't sure about a time frame.
Presently visitors are still welcome at the site where Ayers stays continually.
Evelyn Ann Dufresne
in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Record Image No Image
Text-only collection
Add alternate information
Report issue
Name: Evelyn Ann Dufresne
[Evelyn Toni Kincaid]
[Evelynann Seger]
[Evelyn Seger]
[Evelyn Ann Putvain]
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birth Date: 30 Apr 1908
Birth Place: Fairfield, Vermont
[Fairfield, Virginia]
Death Date: 30 May 2003
Father: Armeady G Putvain
Mother: Augusta A Montgunery
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes: Jun 1939: Name listed as EVELYN ANN DUFRESNE; Mar 1946: Name listed as EVELYN TONI KINCAID; Mar 1962: Name listed as EVELYNANN TONI SEGER; 06 Jun 2003: Name listed as EVELYN A SEGER
Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn Putvlan
Gender Female
Age 17
Birth Date abt 1908
Father G
Mother Augusta
Marriage Date 6 Jun 1925
Marriage Place Barre, Washington, Vermont, USA
Spouse Gender Male
Vital Event Type Certificate of Marriage
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn Putvlan
Henry Duprey
California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn A Putvain
Gender Female
Birth Year abt 1917
Age 44
Marriage Date 25 Jan 1961
Marriage Place Alameda
Spouse Age 39
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn A Putvain
Milo A Seger
∼Owner Protector of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel Hwy 14 North
SPOUSES: Henry Robert Dufresne, Ken Kincaid, and Milo Seger.
She is buried next to William Henry (Burro) Schmidt. The grave is the bed frame she slept on for 40 years.
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:18 AM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
1908 - 2003
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger, 40-year resident of Randsburg, died Friday, May 30, 2003, of natural causes at her residence. She was 95.
No services are planned.
Seger was born April 30, 1908, in Fairfield, Vt. She served in the U.S. Navy as a nurse until her retirement.
Seger was preceded in death by her husband and a son, Paul Dufresne.
She is survived by a daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
Seger had been the owner of William "Burro" Schmidt's Tunnel and Museum in Last Chance Canyon since 1963. She bought the tunnel and its surrounding 800 acres at an estate sale in Bakersfield, hoping the dry desert air would be beneficial to her husband's health. The previous owner was Mike Lee, a friend of Schmidt.
Off-roaders and weekend desert rats often stopped to visit Seger and see the original cabin built by Schmidt.
Schmidt spent 32 years digging the half-mile tunnel by hand; using a pick, steel rods and dynamite -- when he could afford it.
The original purpose of the tunnel was to provide a shortcut for miners through Copper Mountain. The Southern Pacific Rail Line was completed before he could finish the shortcut, but Schmidt was so obsessed with the project he continued to work until he completed the tunnel. He was 68 at the time. He died in 1954 at age 84 and his funeral was held in front of the tunnel.
Private cremation, arrangements and media information provided by Holland & Lyons Mortuary, 371-1376.
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
Replies: 0
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
1moxnix (View posts) Posted: 17 Aug 2004 2:54AM GMT
Classification: Death
Surnames: Corbett, Dufresne,
Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society
Courtesy of Mojave Desert News, California City, Kern, CA
Schmidt tunnel caretaker dies at 95
BLM says it, not heirs* own property
BY ADAM L. R. SUMMERS
NEWS REVIEW
STAFF WRITER
SPECIAL TO THE DESERT NEWS
RED ROCK CANYON - Evelyn A. (Tonie) Seger died May 30, at her residence near the entrance to the famed Burro Schmidt's Tunnel.
For the last 40 years of her life, Seger cared for the historic tunnel in the El Paso Mountains near Randsburg. With her passing, administration of the tunnel and surrounding land, recently named a federal historic site, will pass to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has claimed for years that, despite objections of Seger and her family, the land around the tunnel is public land. Officials have cited a large body of case and statutory law in BLM's favor.
Dug by hand
The tunnel was dug single-handedly over 32 years by prospector William Henry "Burro" Schmidt. It was originally conceived as an ore-hauling route through Copper Mountain in Last Chance Canyon, but became Schmidt's personal obsession after a road to the Southern Pacific Rail Line made the tunnel he was building obsolete.
After it was completed, Schmidt no longer wanted it. According to a 2001 report by MSNBC, Schmidt sold the tunnel shortly after its completion to his friend, Mike Lee. In the same article, Seger claimed she bought the land from Lee's estate in 1963.
"I found this place that's high, dry desert," she told MSNBC. "Right in the middle of the desert is a hill, and on top of the hill is this tunnel." She picked the place to live with her husband after she retired from the Navy as a nurse, hoping the desert air would improve his ailing health. (He died a year later at age 42.)
BLM claims land
But according to Linn Gum, supervisory geologist at the BLM field office in Ridgecrest, the BLM has known for some time that the tunnel and surrounding land are actually public lands. "Tonie believed she was the owner, but she was not," he said.
Gum said BLM is organizing a committee to plan how to manage the tunnel site, saying that all he knows for certain is that "the land will remain open for public access." He explained the long delay in asserting BLM's rights to land on which, according to BLM, Seger had trespassed for years.
"We knew it would not be the best thing to have the full force and effect of the federal government come cascading down on an elderly woman." Gum said he has been in contact with Seger's heirs, first communicating with them a number of years before her death. Her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all agreed it would be best to leave Seger on the land in peace and "let nature take its course," he said.
Gum pointed out that Seger's family members are being included in the planning process for maintaining and operating the site in the future.
Seger is survived by her daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild. Private cremation and arrangements were provided by Holland and Lyons Mortuary.
Caretaker writing book about Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2003 5:01 PM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
HAND WRITTEN: Surrounded by photos of his three-year companion, Tonie Seger, David Ayers sits at the table where he spends many hours writing about "The Tunnel Lady" from Burro Schmidt's mine in the El Paso Mountains. Daily Independent photo by Liddy Butler
by Liddy [email protected]
"She was my mother, my grandmother and my friend," David Ayers said, sitting at a table overlooking the El Paso Mountains.
In the rustic cabin he shared for the past three years at the Burro Schmidt Tunnel, his hands lightly scan over the 22 pages of rough draft scripts. The biography he is presently writing chronicles the life and times of Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger.
"Everything is going to be handwritten. This paper is laser compatible so pictures can be printed on the back of the handwritten pages. Everything will be done with an old fountain pen; understand that everything written out here, the old papers, they were handwritten.
"Contracts and claims were handwritten, even though they had typewriters back then," said Ayers.
Working as a truck driver in 1997, Ayers would go by his own mother's home and find things such as the door wide open. He knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure what.
Later he would find out that she was suffering from dementia. That's when he started driving locally, in Los Angeles, so he could help his mother.
When the demands of caring for his mother became so great, he lost his driving job in 2000.
Taking the death of his mother very hard, he put his few belongings in storage and basically became homeless. Staying with friends, he filled in at a friend's shop in Gardenia.
Ayers continued, "Because I was so busy with truck driving and then at the end with my mom, it was six years before I had seen Tonie. But, I had met her 20 years ago with my mom."
Heading to the desert, Ayers held the hope that seeing Tonie again would make him feel better.
When he arrived at the cabin, he realized a lot of changes had occurred since his last visit.
Tonie had aged a lot. She was nearly blind and deaf, and had a mild case of the flu.
"As soon as I walked in, there she is, sick, blind, and deaf. As soon as I looked at her I thought, here I go again. I knew then that I was going to end up taking care of her."
Ayers took a couple of months to make the decision of total commitment. During those three months, he traveled back and forth checking up on the ailing woman while he struggled with his decision.
"At the end of two or three months, I walked in and I said 'Tonie would you like me to stay here?' And she said 'Yes,'" and a contract between the two was written.
Ayers said he already knew what Seger was like, "She used to say to me, 'David what do you think of me?' and I would tell her 'Your an old crab' and she would get a big smile on her face."
At one point Seger was put in the hospital to drain her lungs because she had congestive heart failure.
"At that point the job became really rough, which I knew it was going to be, and basically I had to move inside the house, because I was staying in the trailer right out there," Ayers said, pointing to property behind the cabin.
After her hospital stay Ayers said Seger was never quite the same. She had grown weaker and he had to stay with her 24 hours, seven days a week. With medications affecting her bodily functions, Ayers was up about every two hours throughout the nights helping her to what she referred to as the "Pee-pot."
Having had military privileges, every two to three months Ayers would take the elder to the China Lake Commissary to do her shopping, and to doctor visits.
"At the end of her life, about two or three months ago, was the last time I took her to China Lake, and she got to drive one of the motorized carts. She enjoyed it so much. About a week and a half later she said 'David I want to go to the Commissary again.' Very unusual for this. Normally we would just go up there about once every two months. The reason she wanted to go up there was she wanted to ride those carts again. And if you would have seen her on that cart, she was going down the isles looking half dead, all slumped over, but totally enjoying it." Ayers said.
According to Ayers over the last three years eighty to ninety percent of the people that came to the mining camp, came up to go through the tunnel, but the main thing they came up for was to see Tonie.
"I was the same way. I found her more fascinating than any thing or any body else. That's why I kept coming back, not because of the tunnel but because of Tonie. I found her to be a fascinating personality.
According to Ayers, Seger purchased the Burro Schmidt mine in 1963 for her beloved husband Milo. Apparently Milo had contracted a virus in Korea, which affected his heart, and he felt the dry climate would help with his condition. The property, bought sight-unseen by Seger, was a blow to the city lady when she actually set eyes on it. To her dismay, after the couple had relocated to the site, her husband passed away six months later.
According to Ayers, her love for her husband tied her to the property then and until her passing this past May at the age of 94.
"She had promised him that she was going to have a well dug on the property and basically that's the reason she decided to stay here. She didn't really like the place when she first came up - she hated it. She had all the money. When Milo died about three miles from here she looked down on him lying on the ground and said 'Don't you dare die and leave me in this God forsaken place'. And then she promised 'I'm going to put a well in up there,' and she did that.
While living at Burro Schmidt, Seger took a few trips to Germany, but Ayers said Seger was just basically stuck there.
Seger was legendary driving the dirt roads leading to the tunnel, according to Ayers.
"She loved fast cars, she was a motor head. She loved fast cars and she loved driving fast."
After her judgement started to fail around 1996, she drove to Randsburg and when she arrived home a friend was there to greet her and Seger got out of her vehicle and said to them 'I'm never going to do that again.'
She had lost her ability to drive and Ayers said that was one of the roughest times of her life.
"She loved cars, she just loved cars."
Ayers said that Seger could put up with her loss of ability to drive, but when she lost her eyesight that was her main complaint even up to the time of her death.
When asked what the future holds for him Ayers said he wishes to be the caretaker of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel, "I want to be the care taker here now. Because I love this place and I respect it. All I can say about the BLM letting me be the caretaker is that I'm being considered, and that nothing is in writing yet. There are no plans as of yet they are still trying to figure out what to do with the place. I've talked to Mr. Gum and our conversations have been gentleman to gentleman, they've been very civil, and that is the way I want to keep it."
In making an effort to understand his rights at the property, Ayers said he wants to work with the BLM and that he will be bringing up his own issues at the upcoming meetings.
Ayers said he is the claim holder of ten claims after over a year ago he and Seger went to a lawyer and he was put on as a joint-claimant and after her death the claims became his.
"But basically because of the National Historical Site which the property has, I don't know what my rights are. So I'm not even mining right now. Mr. Gum said that Burro's cabin, all the tools around there, and the tunnel is federally protected. Where my other claims come in, because I have respect for the federal government, if these claims are protected I'm not going to touch anything until I understand what's going on. I was mining for gold in there before, but since all of this I'm not going to touch that right now. You have to respect the law."
Ayers said that the responsibility for the tunnel may be to all of the people that come up to visit it, and that they may not want the tunnel mined anyway.The public may want it to stay just the way it is.
" I have to respect the public and that's what I'm going to do".
Part of the fascination with the tunnel is not only the prospect of gold, but Burro Schmidt himself. Mining the quarter mile tunnels by hand using a pick, sledgehammer, steel drill rods, and then dynamite. Using the steel rod to drill the blasting hole about two to three feet deep he would blow off two rounds.
Ayers said Burro actually blew himself up two or three times, "But one of those times he almost blew himself up permanently. There still mining up here. Once you get gold fever well you know!"
Trekking through the tunnel is quite interesting, but when one gets to the end and steps out onto the mountain - what a sight to behold! Those familiar with Garlock road get a completely different view with it looking miniscule from the peak miles above.
Ayers said that he has contact with some of Seger's family members, mostly her grandchildren, and that they come to visit at times. One of the grand daughters was there at the time of Seger's passing.
The completion time of the book he is writing, which will be bound in leather, is unknown. He said he will continue to write until it is done and wasn't sure about a time frame.
Presently visitors are still welcome at the site where Ayers stays continually.
Evelyn Ann Dufresne
in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Record Image No Image
Text-only collection
Add alternate information
Report issue
Name: Evelyn Ann Dufresne
[Evelyn Toni Kincaid]
[Evelynann Seger]
[Evelyn Seger]
[Evelyn Ann Putvain]
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birth Date: 30 Apr 1908
Birth Place: Fairfield, Vermont
[Fairfield, Virginia]
Death Date: 30 May 2003
Father: Armeady G Putvain
Mother: Augusta A Montgunery
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes: Jun 1939: Name listed as EVELYN ANN DUFRESNE; Mar 1946: Name listed as EVELYN TONI KINCAID; Mar 1962: Name listed as EVELYNANN TONI SEGER; 06 Jun 2003: Name listed as EVELYN A SEGER
Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn Putvlan
Gender Female
Age 17
Birth Date abt 1908
Father G
Mother Augusta
Marriage Date 6 Jun 1925
Marriage Place Barre, Washington, Vermont, USA
Spouse Gender Male
Vital Event Type Certificate of Marriage
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn Putvlan
Henry Duprey
California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn A Putvain
Gender Female
Birth Year abt 1917
Age 44
Marriage Date 25 Jan 1961
Marriage Place Alameda
Spouse Age 39
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn A Putvain
Milo A Seger
∼Owner Protector of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel Hwy 14 North
PARENTS: Gabriel Armeade Putvain, Augusta Ann Montgomery
SPOUSES: Henry Robert Dufresne, Ken Kincaid, and Milo Seger.
She is buried next to William Henry (Burro) Schmidt. The grave is the bed frame she slept on for 40 years.
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:18 AM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
1908 - 2003
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger, 40-year resident of Randsburg, died Friday, May 30, 2003, of natural causes at her residence. She was 95.
No services are planned.
Seger was born April 30, 1908, in Fairfield, Vt. She served in the U.S. Navy as a nurse until her retirement.
Seger was preceded in death by her husband and a son, Paul Dufresne.
She is survived by a daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
Seger had been the owner of William "Burro" Schmidt's Tunnel and Museum in Last Chance Canyon since 1963. She bought the tunnel and its surrounding 800 acres at an estate sale in Bakersfield, hoping the dry desert air would be beneficial to her husband's health. The previous owner was Mike Lee, a friend of Schmidt.
Off-roaders and weekend desert rats often stopped to visit Seger and see the original cabin built by Schmidt.
Schmidt spent 32 years digging the half-mile tunnel by hand; using a pick, steel rods and dynamite -- when he could afford it.
The original purpose of the tunnel was to provide a shortcut for miners through Copper Mountain. The Southern Pacific Rail Line was completed before he could finish the shortcut, but Schmidt was so obsessed with the project he continued to work until he completed the tunnel. He was 68 at the time. He died in 1954 at age 84 and his funeral was held in front of the tunnel.
Private cremation, arrangements and media information provided by Holland & Lyons Mortuary, 371-1376.
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
Replies: 0
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
1moxnix (View posts) Posted: 17 Aug 2004 2:54AM GMT
Classification: Death
Surnames: Corbett, Dufresne,
Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society
Courtesy of Mojave Desert News, California City, Kern, CA
Schmidt tunnel caretaker dies at 95
BLM says it, not heirs* own property
BY ADAM L. R. SUMMERS
NEWS REVIEW
STAFF WRITER
SPECIAL TO THE DESERT NEWS
RED ROCK CANYON - Evelyn A. (Tonie) Seger died May 30, at her residence near the entrance to the famed Burro Schmidt's Tunnel.
For the last 40 years of her life, Seger cared for the historic tunnel in the El Paso Mountains near Randsburg. With her passing, administration of the tunnel and surrounding land, recently named a federal historic site, will pass to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has claimed for years that, despite objections of Seger and her family, the land around the tunnel is public land. Officials have cited a large body of case and statutory law in BLM's favor.
Dug by hand
The tunnel was dug single-handedly over 32 years by prospector William Henry "Burro" Schmidt. It was originally conceived as an ore-hauling route through Copper Mountain in Last Chance Canyon, but became Schmidt's personal obsession after a road to the Southern Pacific Rail Line made the tunnel he was building obsolete.
After it was completed, Schmidt no longer wanted it. According to a 2001 report by MSNBC, Schmidt sold the tunnel shortly after its completion to his friend, Mike Lee. In the same article, Seger claimed she bought the land from Lee's estate in 1963.
"I found this place that's high, dry desert," she told MSNBC. "Right in the middle of the desert is a hill, and on top of the hill is this tunnel." She picked the place to live with her husband after she retired from the Navy as a nurse, hoping the desert air would improve his ailing health. (He died a year later at age 42.)
BLM claims land
But according to Linn Gum, supervisory geologist at the BLM field office in Ridgecrest, the BLM has known for some time that the tunnel and surrounding land are actually public lands. "Tonie believed she was the owner, but she was not," he said.
Gum said BLM is organizing a committee to plan how to manage the tunnel site, saying that all he knows for certain is that "the land will remain open for public access." He explained the long delay in asserting BLM's rights to land on which, according to BLM, Seger had trespassed for years.
"We knew it would not be the best thing to have the full force and effect of the federal government come cascading down on an elderly woman." Gum said he has been in contact with Seger's heirs, first communicating with them a number of years before her death. Her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all agreed it would be best to leave Seger on the land in peace and "let nature take its course," he said.
Gum pointed out that Seger's family members are being included in the planning process for maintaining and operating the site in the future.
Seger is survived by her daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild. Private cremation and arrangements were provided by Holland and Lyons Mortuary.
Caretaker writing book about Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2003 5:01 PM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
HAND WRITTEN: Surrounded by photos of his three-year companion, Tonie Seger, David Ayers sits at the table where he spends many hours writing about "The Tunnel Lady" from Burro Schmidt's mine in the El Paso Mountains. Daily Independent photo by Liddy Butler
by Liddy [email protected]
"She was my mother, my grandmother and my friend," David Ayers said, sitting at a table overlooking the El Paso Mountains.
In the rustic cabin he shared for the past three years at the Burro Schmidt Tunnel, his hands lightly scan over the 22 pages of rough draft scripts. The biography he is presently writing chronicles the life and times of Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger.
"Everything is going to be handwritten. This paper is laser compatible so pictures can be printed on the back of the handwritten pages. Everything will be done with an old fountain pen; understand that everything written out here, the old papers, they were handwritten.
"Contracts and claims were handwritten, even though they had typewriters back then," said Ayers.
Working as a truck driver in 1997, Ayers would go by his own mother's home and find things such as the door wide open. He knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure what.
Later he would find out that she was suffering from dementia. That's when he started driving locally, in Los Angeles, so he could help his mother.
When the demands of caring for his mother became so great, he lost his driving job in 2000.
Taking the death of his mother very hard, he put his few belongings in storage and basically became homeless. Staying with friends, he filled in at a friend's shop in Gardenia.
Ayers continued, "Because I was so busy with truck driving and then at the end with my mom, it was six years before I had seen Tonie. But, I had met her 20 years ago with my mom."
Heading to the desert, Ayers held the hope that seeing Tonie again would make him feel better.
When he arrived at the cabin, he realized a lot of changes had occurred since his last visit.
Tonie had aged a lot. She was nearly blind and deaf, and had a mild case of the flu.
"As soon as I walked in, there she is, sick, blind, and deaf. As soon as I looked at her I thought, here I go again. I knew then that I was going to end up taking care of her."
Ayers took a couple of months to make the decision of total commitment. During those three months, he traveled back and forth checking up on the ailing woman while he struggled with his decision.
"At the end of two or three months, I walked in and I said 'Tonie would you like me to stay here?' And she said 'Yes,'" and a contract between the two was written.
Ayers said he already knew what Seger was like, "She used to say to me, 'David what do you think of me?' and I would tell her 'Your an old crab' and she would get a big smile on her face."
At one point Seger was put in the hospital to drain her lungs because she had congestive heart failure.
"At that point the job became really rough, which I knew it was going to be, and basically I had to move inside the house, because I was staying in the trailer right out there," Ayers said, pointing to property behind the cabin.
After her hospital stay Ayers said Seger was never quite the same. She had grown weaker and he had to stay with her 24 hours, seven days a week. With medications affecting her bodily functions, Ayers was up about every two hours throughout the nights helping her to what she referred to as the "Pee-pot."
Having had military privileges, every two to three months Ayers would take the elder to the China Lake Commissary to do her shopping, and to doctor visits.
"At the end of her life, about two or three months ago, was the last time I took her to China Lake, and she got to drive one of the motorized carts. She enjoyed it so much. About a week and a half later she said 'David I want to go to the Commissary again.' Very unusual for this. Normally we would just go up there about once every two months. The reason she wanted to go up there was she wanted to ride those carts again. And if you would have seen her on that cart, she was going down the isles looking half dead, all slumped over, but totally enjoying it." Ayers said.
According to Ayers over the last three years eighty to ninety percent of the people that came to the mining camp, came up to go through the tunnel, but the main thing they came up for was to see Tonie.
"I was the same way. I found her more fascinating than any thing or any body else. That's why I kept coming back, not because of the tunnel but because of Tonie. I found her to be a fascinating personality.
According to Ayers, Seger purchased the Burro Schmidt mine in 1963 for her beloved husband Milo. Apparently Milo had contracted a virus in Korea, which affected his heart, and he felt the dry climate would help with his condition. The property, bought sight-unseen by Seger, was a blow to the city lady when she actually set eyes on it. To her dismay, after the couple had relocated to the site, her husband passed away six months later.
According to Ayers, her love for her husband tied her to the property then and until her passing this past May at the age of 94.
"She had promised him that she was going to have a well dug on the property and basically that's the reason she decided to stay here. She didn't really like the place when she first came up - she hated it. She had all the money. When Milo died about three miles from here she looked down on him lying on the ground and said 'Don't you dare die and leave me in this God forsaken place'. And then she promised 'I'm going to put a well in up there,' and she did that.
While living at Burro Schmidt, Seger took a few trips to Germany, but Ayers said Seger was just basically stuck there.
Seger was legendary driving the dirt roads leading to the tunnel, according to Ayers.
"She loved fast cars, she was a motor head. She loved fast cars and she loved driving fast."
After her judgement started to fail around 1996, she drove to Randsburg and when she arrived home a friend was there to greet her and Seger got out of her vehicle and said to them 'I'm never going to do that again.'
She had lost her ability to drive and Ayers said that was one of the roughest times of her life.
"She loved cars, she just loved cars."
Ayers said that Seger could put up with her loss of ability to drive, but when she lost her eyesight that was her main complaint even up to the time of her death.
When asked what the future holds for him Ayers said he wishes to be the caretaker of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel, "I want to be the care taker here now. Because I love this place and I respect it. All I can say about the BLM letting me be the caretaker is that I'm being considered, and that nothing is in writing yet. There are no plans as of yet they are still trying to figure out what to do with the place. I've talked to Mr. Gum and our conversations have been gentleman to gentleman, they've been very civil, and that is the way I want to keep it."
In making an effort to understand his rights at the property, Ayers said he wants to work with the BLM and that he will be bringing up his own issues at the upcoming meetings.
Ayers said he is the claim holder of ten claims after over a year ago he and Seger went to a lawyer and he was put on as a joint-claimant and after her death the claims became his.
"But basically because of the National Historical Site which the property has, I don't know what my rights are. So I'm not even mining right now. Mr. Gum said that Burro's cabin, all the tools around there, and the tunnel is federally protected. Where my other claims come in, because I have respect for the federal government, if these claims are protected I'm not going to touch anything until I understand what's going on. I was mining for gold in there before, but since all of this I'm not going to touch that right now. You have to respect the law."
Ayers said that the responsibility for the tunnel may be to all of the people that come up to visit it, and that they may not want the tunnel mined anyway.The public may want it to stay just the way it is.
" I have to respect the public and that's what I'm going to do".
Part of the fascination with the tunnel is not only the prospect of gold, but Burro Schmidt himself. Mining the quarter mile tunnels by hand using a pick, sledgehammer, steel drill rods, and then dynamite. Using the steel rod to drill the blasting hole about two to three feet deep he would blow off two rounds.
Ayers said Burro actually blew himself up two or three times, "But one of those times he almost blew himself up permanently. There still mining up here. Once you get gold fever well you know!"
Trekking through the tunnel is quite interesting, but when one gets to the end and steps out onto the mountain - what a sight to behold! Those familiar with Garlock road get a completely different view with it looking miniscule from the peak miles above.
Ayers said that he has contact with some of Seger's family members, mostly her grandchildren, and that they come to visit at times. One of the grand daughters was there at the time of Seger's passing.
The completion time of the book he is writing, which will be bound in leather, is unknown. He said he will continue to write until it is done and wasn't sure about a time frame.
Presently visitors are still welcome at the site where Ayers stays continually.
Evelyn Ann Dufresne
in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Record Image No Image
Text-only collection
Add alternate information
Report issue
Name: Evelyn Ann Dufresne
[Evelyn Toni Kincaid]
[Evelynann Seger]
[Evelyn Seger]
[Evelyn Ann Putvain]
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birth Date: 30 Apr 1908
Birth Place: Fairfield, Vermont
[Fairfield, Virginia]
Death Date: 30 May 2003
Father: Armeady G Putvain
Mother: Augusta A Montgunery
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes: Jun 1939: Name listed as EVELYN ANN DUFRESNE; Mar 1946: Name listed as EVELYN TONI KINCAID; Mar 1962: Name listed as EVELYNANN TONI SEGER; 06 Jun 2003: Name listed as EVELYN A SEGER
Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn Putvlan
Gender Female
Age 17
Birth Date abt 1908
Father G
Mother Augusta
Marriage Date 6 Jun 1925
Marriage Place Barre, Washington, Vermont, USA
Spouse Gender Male
Vital Event Type Certificate of Marriage
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn Putvlan
Henry Duprey
California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn A Putvain
Gender Female
Birth Year abt 1917
Age 44
Marriage Date 25 Jan 1961
Marriage Place Alameda
Spouse Age 39
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn A Putvain
Milo A Seger
∼Owner Protector of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel Hwy 14 North
SPOUSES: Henry Robert Dufresne, Ken Kincaid, and Milo Seger.
She is buried next to William Henry (Burro) Schmidt. The grave is the bed frame she slept on for 40 years.
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger
Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2003 9:18 AM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
1908 - 2003
Evelyn A. "Tonie" Seger, 40-year resident of Randsburg, died Friday, May 30, 2003, of natural causes at her residence. She was 95.
No services are planned.
Seger was born April 30, 1908, in Fairfield, Vt. She served in the U.S. Navy as a nurse until her retirement.
Seger was preceded in death by her husband and a son, Paul Dufresne.
She is survived by a daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
Seger had been the owner of William "Burro" Schmidt's Tunnel and Museum in Last Chance Canyon since 1963. She bought the tunnel and its surrounding 800 acres at an estate sale in Bakersfield, hoping the dry desert air would be beneficial to her husband's health. The previous owner was Mike Lee, a friend of Schmidt.
Off-roaders and weekend desert rats often stopped to visit Seger and see the original cabin built by Schmidt.
Schmidt spent 32 years digging the half-mile tunnel by hand; using a pick, steel rods and dynamite -- when he could afford it.
The original purpose of the tunnel was to provide a shortcut for miners through Copper Mountain. The Southern Pacific Rail Line was completed before he could finish the shortcut, but Schmidt was so obsessed with the project he continued to work until he completed the tunnel. He was 68 at the time. He died in 1954 at age 84 and his funeral was held in front of the tunnel.
Private cremation, arrangements and media information provided by Holland & Lyons Mortuary, 371-1376.
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
Replies: 0
Death Notice: SEEGER, Evelyn A. (Tonie)
1moxnix (View posts) Posted: 17 Aug 2004 2:54AM GMT
Classification: Death
Surnames: Corbett, Dufresne,
Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society
Courtesy of Mojave Desert News, California City, Kern, CA
Schmidt tunnel caretaker dies at 95
BLM says it, not heirs* own property
BY ADAM L. R. SUMMERS
NEWS REVIEW
STAFF WRITER
SPECIAL TO THE DESERT NEWS
RED ROCK CANYON - Evelyn A. (Tonie) Seger died May 30, at her residence near the entrance to the famed Burro Schmidt's Tunnel.
For the last 40 years of her life, Seger cared for the historic tunnel in the El Paso Mountains near Randsburg. With her passing, administration of the tunnel and surrounding land, recently named a federal historic site, will pass to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM has claimed for years that, despite objections of Seger and her family, the land around the tunnel is public land. Officials have cited a large body of case and statutory law in BLM's favor.
Dug by hand
The tunnel was dug single-handedly over 32 years by prospector William Henry "Burro" Schmidt. It was originally conceived as an ore-hauling route through Copper Mountain in Last Chance Canyon, but became Schmidt's personal obsession after a road to the Southern Pacific Rail Line made the tunnel he was building obsolete.
After it was completed, Schmidt no longer wanted it. According to a 2001 report by MSNBC, Schmidt sold the tunnel shortly after its completion to his friend, Mike Lee. In the same article, Seger claimed she bought the land from Lee's estate in 1963.
"I found this place that's high, dry desert," she told MSNBC. "Right in the middle of the desert is a hill, and on top of the hill is this tunnel." She picked the place to live with her husband after she retired from the Navy as a nurse, hoping the desert air would improve his ailing health. (He died a year later at age 42.)
BLM claims land
But according to Linn Gum, supervisory geologist at the BLM field office in Ridgecrest, the BLM has known for some time that the tunnel and surrounding land are actually public lands. "Tonie believed she was the owner, but she was not," he said.
Gum said BLM is organizing a committee to plan how to manage the tunnel site, saying that all he knows for certain is that "the land will remain open for public access." He explained the long delay in asserting BLM's rights to land on which, according to BLM, Seger had trespassed for years.
"We knew it would not be the best thing to have the full force and effect of the federal government come cascading down on an elderly woman." Gum said he has been in contact with Seger's heirs, first communicating with them a number of years before her death. Her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all agreed it would be best to leave Seger on the land in peace and "let nature take its course," he said.
Gum pointed out that Seger's family members are being included in the planning process for maintaining and operating the site in the future.
Seger is survived by her daughter, Barbara Corbett; son, Henry Dufresne; 15 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild. Private cremation and arrangements were provided by Holland and Lyons Mortuary.
Caretaker writing book about Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger
Published: Sunday, July 13, 2003 5:01 PM CDT
Ridgecrest Daily Independent
HAND WRITTEN: Surrounded by photos of his three-year companion, Tonie Seger, David Ayers sits at the table where he spends many hours writing about "The Tunnel Lady" from Burro Schmidt's mine in the El Paso Mountains. Daily Independent photo by Liddy Butler
by Liddy [email protected]
"She was my mother, my grandmother and my friend," David Ayers said, sitting at a table overlooking the El Paso Mountains.
In the rustic cabin he shared for the past three years at the Burro Schmidt Tunnel, his hands lightly scan over the 22 pages of rough draft scripts. The biography he is presently writing chronicles the life and times of Tonie 'The Tunnel Lady' Seger.
"Everything is going to be handwritten. This paper is laser compatible so pictures can be printed on the back of the handwritten pages. Everything will be done with an old fountain pen; understand that everything written out here, the old papers, they were handwritten.
"Contracts and claims were handwritten, even though they had typewriters back then," said Ayers.
Working as a truck driver in 1997, Ayers would go by his own mother's home and find things such as the door wide open. He knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure what.
Later he would find out that she was suffering from dementia. That's when he started driving locally, in Los Angeles, so he could help his mother.
When the demands of caring for his mother became so great, he lost his driving job in 2000.
Taking the death of his mother very hard, he put his few belongings in storage and basically became homeless. Staying with friends, he filled in at a friend's shop in Gardenia.
Ayers continued, "Because I was so busy with truck driving and then at the end with my mom, it was six years before I had seen Tonie. But, I had met her 20 years ago with my mom."
Heading to the desert, Ayers held the hope that seeing Tonie again would make him feel better.
When he arrived at the cabin, he realized a lot of changes had occurred since his last visit.
Tonie had aged a lot. She was nearly blind and deaf, and had a mild case of the flu.
"As soon as I walked in, there she is, sick, blind, and deaf. As soon as I looked at her I thought, here I go again. I knew then that I was going to end up taking care of her."
Ayers took a couple of months to make the decision of total commitment. During those three months, he traveled back and forth checking up on the ailing woman while he struggled with his decision.
"At the end of two or three months, I walked in and I said 'Tonie would you like me to stay here?' And she said 'Yes,'" and a contract between the two was written.
Ayers said he already knew what Seger was like, "She used to say to me, 'David what do you think of me?' and I would tell her 'Your an old crab' and she would get a big smile on her face."
At one point Seger was put in the hospital to drain her lungs because she had congestive heart failure.
"At that point the job became really rough, which I knew it was going to be, and basically I had to move inside the house, because I was staying in the trailer right out there," Ayers said, pointing to property behind the cabin.
After her hospital stay Ayers said Seger was never quite the same. She had grown weaker and he had to stay with her 24 hours, seven days a week. With medications affecting her bodily functions, Ayers was up about every two hours throughout the nights helping her to what she referred to as the "Pee-pot."
Having had military privileges, every two to three months Ayers would take the elder to the China Lake Commissary to do her shopping, and to doctor visits.
"At the end of her life, about two or three months ago, was the last time I took her to China Lake, and she got to drive one of the motorized carts. She enjoyed it so much. About a week and a half later she said 'David I want to go to the Commissary again.' Very unusual for this. Normally we would just go up there about once every two months. The reason she wanted to go up there was she wanted to ride those carts again. And if you would have seen her on that cart, she was going down the isles looking half dead, all slumped over, but totally enjoying it." Ayers said.
According to Ayers over the last three years eighty to ninety percent of the people that came to the mining camp, came up to go through the tunnel, but the main thing they came up for was to see Tonie.
"I was the same way. I found her more fascinating than any thing or any body else. That's why I kept coming back, not because of the tunnel but because of Tonie. I found her to be a fascinating personality.
According to Ayers, Seger purchased the Burro Schmidt mine in 1963 for her beloved husband Milo. Apparently Milo had contracted a virus in Korea, which affected his heart, and he felt the dry climate would help with his condition. The property, bought sight-unseen by Seger, was a blow to the city lady when she actually set eyes on it. To her dismay, after the couple had relocated to the site, her husband passed away six months later.
According to Ayers, her love for her husband tied her to the property then and until her passing this past May at the age of 94.
"She had promised him that she was going to have a well dug on the property and basically that's the reason she decided to stay here. She didn't really like the place when she first came up - she hated it. She had all the money. When Milo died about three miles from here she looked down on him lying on the ground and said 'Don't you dare die and leave me in this God forsaken place'. And then she promised 'I'm going to put a well in up there,' and she did that.
While living at Burro Schmidt, Seger took a few trips to Germany, but Ayers said Seger was just basically stuck there.
Seger was legendary driving the dirt roads leading to the tunnel, according to Ayers.
"She loved fast cars, she was a motor head. She loved fast cars and she loved driving fast."
After her judgement started to fail around 1996, she drove to Randsburg and when she arrived home a friend was there to greet her and Seger got out of her vehicle and said to them 'I'm never going to do that again.'
She had lost her ability to drive and Ayers said that was one of the roughest times of her life.
"She loved cars, she just loved cars."
Ayers said that Seger could put up with her loss of ability to drive, but when she lost her eyesight that was her main complaint even up to the time of her death.
When asked what the future holds for him Ayers said he wishes to be the caretaker of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel, "I want to be the care taker here now. Because I love this place and I respect it. All I can say about the BLM letting me be the caretaker is that I'm being considered, and that nothing is in writing yet. There are no plans as of yet they are still trying to figure out what to do with the place. I've talked to Mr. Gum and our conversations have been gentleman to gentleman, they've been very civil, and that is the way I want to keep it."
In making an effort to understand his rights at the property, Ayers said he wants to work with the BLM and that he will be bringing up his own issues at the upcoming meetings.
Ayers said he is the claim holder of ten claims after over a year ago he and Seger went to a lawyer and he was put on as a joint-claimant and after her death the claims became his.
"But basically because of the National Historical Site which the property has, I don't know what my rights are. So I'm not even mining right now. Mr. Gum said that Burro's cabin, all the tools around there, and the tunnel is federally protected. Where my other claims come in, because I have respect for the federal government, if these claims are protected I'm not going to touch anything until I understand what's going on. I was mining for gold in there before, but since all of this I'm not going to touch that right now. You have to respect the law."
Ayers said that the responsibility for the tunnel may be to all of the people that come up to visit it, and that they may not want the tunnel mined anyway.The public may want it to stay just the way it is.
" I have to respect the public and that's what I'm going to do".
Part of the fascination with the tunnel is not only the prospect of gold, but Burro Schmidt himself. Mining the quarter mile tunnels by hand using a pick, sledgehammer, steel drill rods, and then dynamite. Using the steel rod to drill the blasting hole about two to three feet deep he would blow off two rounds.
Ayers said Burro actually blew himself up two or three times, "But one of those times he almost blew himself up permanently. There still mining up here. Once you get gold fever well you know!"
Trekking through the tunnel is quite interesting, but when one gets to the end and steps out onto the mountain - what a sight to behold! Those familiar with Garlock road get a completely different view with it looking miniscule from the peak miles above.
Ayers said that he has contact with some of Seger's family members, mostly her grandchildren, and that they come to visit at times. One of the grand daughters was there at the time of Seger's passing.
The completion time of the book he is writing, which will be bound in leather, is unknown. He said he will continue to write until it is done and wasn't sure about a time frame.
Presently visitors are still welcome at the site where Ayers stays continually.
Evelyn Ann Dufresne
in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Record Image No Image
Text-only collection
Add alternate information
Report issue
Name: Evelyn Ann Dufresne
[Evelyn Toni Kincaid]
[Evelynann Seger]
[Evelyn Seger]
[Evelyn Ann Putvain]
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birth Date: 30 Apr 1908
Birth Place: Fairfield, Vermont
[Fairfield, Virginia]
Death Date: 30 May 2003
Father: Armeady G Putvain
Mother: Augusta A Montgunery
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes: Jun 1939: Name listed as EVELYN ANN DUFRESNE; Mar 1946: Name listed as EVELYN TONI KINCAID; Mar 1962: Name listed as EVELYNANN TONI SEGER; 06 Jun 2003: Name listed as EVELYN A SEGER
Vermont, Marriage Records, 1909-2008
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn Putvlan
Gender Female
Age 17
Birth Date abt 1908
Father G
Mother Augusta
Marriage Date 6 Jun 1925
Marriage Place Barre, Washington, Vermont, USA
Spouse Gender Male
Vital Event Type Certificate of Marriage
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn Putvlan
Henry Duprey
California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985
VIEW IMAGE
VIEW RECORD
Name Evelyn A Putvain
Gender Female
Birth Year abt 1917
Age 44
Marriage Date 25 Jan 1961
Marriage Place Alameda
Spouse Age 39
Household Members
Name Age
Evelyn A Putvain
Milo A Seger
∼Owner Protector of Burro Schmidt's Tunnel Hwy 14 North
Inscription
See photo with her bed and stone. This is one of thee most beautiful resting spots I've seen. Unique. You can tell that she was/is loved. Her nickname is Tonie.
Gravesite Details
Prospectors Cemetery
Family Members
Siblings
Children
Sponsored by Ancestry
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