Can anyone identify this mining machinery?

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs17/f/2007/1…
We found this little shed right outside Virginia City, NV.
Inside was this old machinery.. it be probably used for mining.
The building was right next to a high-ceilinged wooden pole..
Does anyone know the age/use/history/etc of this machine?
Thank you! < 33
Answers:
Yep, it looks like a crank to me too. I see a second drum, so perhaps it was a pulley that could pull a cable in two directions, beside the cable looped around a pulley at some distant point and being wound onto one of the drums as it is unwound from the other. (hard to see the gearing, etc., from that image).

As for age, that electric motor looks like it's more or less 100 years old! (just a wild guess, of course)
It looks similar to a winch, driven by an electric motor. It could have be used for hoisting material via a vertical shaft, or for pulling tram cars.

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