I'm with you, Mike -

Our direct involvement in WWII didn't start until 8:00 a.m. Hawai'i time (that's 11:00 a.m. in Los Pinos) on December 7, 1941, and judging by the patches of snow in the background of the second photo it looks like they were taken in May or June – six or seven months earlier.  The equipment is probably not going to a high-priority vanadium mine or a top-secret uranium cache, but to an ordinary large coal mine or maybe even just a gravel pit.  Or maybe to work the big tailings ponds at Pandora (just east of To-Hell-You-Ride).

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender