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Mining

Mines

254 posts

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

The Yankee Fork Gold Dredge sits like a beached leviathan in a valley it helped destroy and remake. When gold fever cooled along the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River and the dredge finally ground to a halt in 1952, it left behind 6.5 miles of stone intestines: gravel

Belden Arrastra and Mikiska Petroglyphs

Belden Arrastra and Mikiska Petroglyphs

I had looked for this arrastra some time ago but instead found another mining camp. That ended up being a good trip, even without finding my elusive target. Still, it wasn’t an arrastra.

Mine near the Endowment Mine

Mine near the Endowment Mine

MV Mill

MV Mill

I found this hidden mill in 2013. It is unusual in that a Pelton wheel powered it. Water was funneled into a ditch and then a pipe and poured over the waterwheel, which drove the equipment inside. A water-powered mill is a rare sight in the land of little rain.

S and S Mine

S and S Mine

Way back in 2009, we went hiking out into the middle of the white-hot heart of the Mojave Desert in search of a modern mining site. We found it. The operation had been inactive since at least the early 1980s, and the mining camp was nearly intact. Almost everything was

Sapphire Tunnel Cave

Sapphire Tunnel Cave

We’ve known about this cave for some time, but it wasn’t until 2015 that we were finally able to put together a trip to see if we could find it. After a few hours of climbing ladders and walking miles into the center of a mountain, we reached

Gold Hitt Stamp Mill

Gold Hitt Stamp Mill

In 2006, we took a side trip to check out the remains of a hidden 10-stamp and cyanide mill. The mine and mill were worked around 1915. There isn’t that much left of the mill, even though it is in a remote location.