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Big Eye Mine
My friend Micah and his family joined us for a fun little trip to the great Sonoran desert at the start of 2016. Winter is a great time to be in the southern deserts and this time we had our sights set...
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“Titan Gold” Mill
A few years back, we found this huge abandoned gold mill out in Nevada. It is similar in size and scope to the Atlanta Mill (now destroyed) that we visited some time ago. This mill was abandoned...
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Bannack State Park
Last summer, we visited the fantastic little ghost town of Bannack, Montana, which has been preserved and turned into a state park. It is similar to Bodie State Historical Park but with fewer buildings...
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Adamson Mine
At 12,990′, the Adamson is the highest mine in the Sierra Nevada. And as you might suspect, getting there is no easy feat. It is a strenuous 8.6 mile (one-way) and 3,670 foot climb up the rugged...
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“Catalonia” Mine
Not too long ago (in the late summer of 2015, to be exact), we drove to this little abandoned mining camp in the backcountry of Nevada. As we got closer, we discovered the old road was completely...
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Ramshorn and Skylark Mines
I took a trip to a couple of mines high up in the Central Rocky mountains of Idaho. I love finding old mines with tramways and these two were great. A large silver-lead strike was made at the Ramshorn...
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Summit Mine
High up in the spires of the Sierra Nevada there lies a hidden and seldom visited mine where a trail goes through the mountain. To get there, you have to follow a steep trail across jagged granodiorite...
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Sound Democrat Mill
The Sound Democrat Mill is an awesome find and one of the highlights of the San Juan Mountains. The mine was first discovered in 1899. Gold and silver ore from the mine was packed on mules over a...
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San Juan Chief Mill
This scenic ruined mill site was built in the late 1890s and never saw ore from its namesake, the San Juan Chief mine. It is the second mill to be built on this site. In 1900, it had 2 roasting...
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Underground near Silverton
These are underground photos from a mine in the Silverton area that we explored. I actually didn’t have much underground time planned for this trip, but the mines we did check out turned out to be...
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Buffalo Boy Mine
The Buffalo Boy was a small gold and silver mine which started production around 1930. The mine is caved but the interesting thing about the site is the long and steep tramway heading up to it. The...
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Mayflower Mill
The Mayflower Mill is one of the last fully intact mills in the Silverton, Colorado area. Also known as the Shenandoah-Dives Mill, it was the most advanced flotation mill for its time. It has a long...
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Silver Lake and Iowa Mines
This was a really fun place to visit for me and one I’ve been trying to get to for some time. Weather makes it hard to get to most of the year and you have to climb up to the mine camp at 12,200 ft...
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Lakeshore Mine
Over the summer, I hiked up an old forest road to a mining camp that sits along the shore of a small glacial lake. It was a pretty neat find, nearly a dozen cabins in various states of collapse remain....
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Kay Cooper Mine
Located in 1946, this tungsten mine is a fairly recent discovery. In 1949-50, the mine was worked by Carl Cooper and R. C. Peterson of nearby Gabbs. It was later worked by a Ray Ricketts. What is...
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“Mojave Car Wash”
This is an interesting little corner of the Mojave. I was surprised to see so many old junked cars out here. It is pretty unusual to see so many in one place but why are they here? They all seem to be...
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Blackmail Mill
There isn’t much left at this old silver mill. I had a fun time climbing around and through the broken timbers. The mill once supported a cross-cut adit connected to a deep shaft. The adit is caved...
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Victory Mine
Boxy and I recently re-visited this interesting little tungsten mine out in central Nevada. I first visited this mine in 2002. It was originally discovered in 1945 by W. L. Sovy, Jack Southerland, and...
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Algonquin Mill
The Algonquin is an old mine and mill. It was one of the earliest mines in Montana’s Philipsburg district. By 1877, it was being worked by a 10-stamp mill for silver with minor amounts of gold. The...
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Par Value Mill
Late autumn of 2017 found us tracking down a very unusual stamp mill high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The mill was a unique hammer design called a Pratt Ideal Stamp Mill. Very few of...
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“Lost Pick” Prospector’s Camp
While hiking way out in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park, exploring buddy JP and I stumbled upon an old prospector’s mining camp. Hardly anything is left at the camp: a few cans,...
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Corkscrew Mine
A few years ago, I met up with some of the guys and we hiked out to visit the ruins of the old Corkscrew Mine. The mine was worked for colemanite (an ore of borax) in the 1950s by the US Borax Company....
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Scallywag Mine
This is a more modern mine out in Death Valley probably worked for lead or antimony. It has two tramways and a few ore buckets still on-site. Getting up to the mine is a challenge. There is one dry...
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Scratch Awl Mine
Over this last summer, we visited a few old mining ruins in Montana. We went out of our way to visit the Scratch Awl Mine as I was hoping there would be some equipment left on site to see. The Scratch...
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North London Mill
Miner’s first worked gold, silver and lead from the London Mine in 1874. After it was developed, they decided to try and work the lode from the south side of London Mountain. The South London Mine was...
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