Corkscrew Borax 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 Borax Mine. The mine was worked for colemanite (an ore of borax) in the 1950s by the US Borax Company. Surprisingly, for all of its development,
Par Value Mill
Late autumn of 2017 found us tracking down a very unusual stamp mill high in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The mill was a unique hammer design called a Pratt Ideal Stamp Mill. Very few of these mills were ever put into use, and even fewer (if any!) still
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 13,000 ft ridge to the Sunnyside Mill in Eureka Gulch.
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Summit Mine
High up in the spires of the Eastern Sierras, there lies a hidden and seldom visited gold mine perched on steep cliffs at 10,900 ft elevation. The Summit Mine is difficult to reach and is not for the fainthearted. To get there, you will have to follow a steep
Ramshorn and Skylark Mines
The Ramshorn and Skylark mines cling to a steep mountainside at over 9,000 feet, connected by the remains of an aerial tramway that once carried ore down to the canyon floor. In the 1880s, silver here ran rich enough that miners packed it out by mule despite $47-per-ton transport
