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Mining

Mines

248 posts

Tip Top Mine

Tip Top Mine

Reaching the Summit Mine is challenging enough, but for the truly determined explorer in the Lundy Canyon area, there's an even more elusive goal: the Tip Top Mine. Perched at 11,000 feet just below the summit of 11,182-foot Mount Scowden, this remote mine site requires real

Big Emma Mine

Big Emma Mine

Hidden in the mountains just northwest of Mono Lake lie two of the most beautiful canyons in the Eastern Sierra, Lundy and Lake Canyons. Perched high on the wall of Lake Canyon, in a seemingly unreachable location, sits the remains of the Big Emma gold mine. This adventurous all-day hike

Graham Mine

Graham Mine

Prospectors flooded into the southern Black Mountains during the Greenwater mining boom of the early 1900s, scouring every canyon and wash. The Rhodes Spring area as well as Virgin Spring Canyon saw intermittent activity, with limited productive mining resulting (See Lost Rhodes Mine). The remote location with its subsequent high

Emmett's Lone Tree Cabin

Emmett's Lone Tree Cabin

High in the rugged Panamint Mountains, in the shadow of lofty Manly Peak, sits a humble aluminum-sided cabin that represents one of Death Valley's last authentic prospecting camps. This was the base of operations for Emmett Harder, one of Death Valley's final true desert prospectors, who

Peter B. Kyne's Hideout

Peter B. Kyne's Hideout

High above Redlands Canyon in the southern Panamint Mountains of Death Valley lies what local legend claims was a secret camp of Western author Peter B. Kyne. The remote site, accessed via Striped Butte Valley, features a large stacked-rock tent platform perched precariously on the mountainside, offering sweeping views of

Lower Monarch Canyon Mine

Lower Monarch Canyon Mine

After scouting the Indian Mine in the upper reaches of Monarch Canyon of Death Valley, we turned our sights on a solitary adit in the lower part of the canyon. I couldn't find any history on this little prospect, but after heading out there, I'd guess

Goldstar and Pinyon Pine Mine Cabins

Goldstar and Pinyon Pine Mine Cabins

On the eastern slope of the rugged Old Woman Mountains are the remains of two weather-beaten cabins. Unlike the area's earlier gold and silver prospects, these mines targeted barite, a mineral primarily used in oil drilling. Barite (or Baryte) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate, generally white