Migrated from my blog: Mines, Ghost Towns, Abandoned Railroads, Lighthouses, Hot Springs, etc While a lot of people enjoy offroading for sport, I enjoy mixing my offroading with a little exploration. I prefer alpine trails w/ a view, an abandoned mine access road, or a trail through a wildlife area over a day at the local ORV park. Over time, I've collected a variety of information about different trails that look like something I might like investigate exploring. Some of the information is solid, and some of it is just the name of an area, or an internet post by someone that will require more research in order to determine if it is real, let alone plan an actual trip there. Maybe one of these links or keywords will help you find an interesting place to explore in the PNW. If it does, invite me along, or at least let me know what you've found. :-)
This particular blog entry contains information about exploring mines, ghost towns, and other historic places in the PNW. In the future, I'll make additional entries on other types of trails that I enjoy.
A lot of this information came from a thread on the snort4x4.com website.
I'll update this post as I find more information.
Mines
Naches Wagon Trail
OR and WA Abandonded RR and Mines Explorer
http://www.brian894x4.com/INSEARCHOFHISTORY.html
Index, WA - Sunset Mine, (closed in 1946,) which was perhaps the only mine in this area to ever turn a profit. Most people park just off the North Fork road and walk, although it is sometimes possible to drive to the mine site. The mine shafts have been sealed up, and there is little here now but rubble.
Liberty Area Mines
No Information
Van Epps Mine / Mine to Market Trail
See www.nwjeepn.com
Vancouver Island h
Rumor is that it has a variety of mines and ghost towns. I have no specific information
Mount Baker
The area has a lot of mines. Get an old USGS Topo map and see what can be found. Many of them still have access roads. If you venture up to any mines in the Mt. Baker area, look for a plastic jug, just inside the entrance to to the mine itself. Inside will be as much history as I could find about each mine and a guestbook.
In particular the "Silvertip" gold mine. That was one of the more difficult mines to find, from just a spot on the map, but one of the most rewarding. The buildings were almost completely intact and much of the mining equipment was still in the mine, including a huge compressor they brought up in pieces on the backs of mules, air hammers, dynamite crates, etc.
Books, Maps, and Research Websites
Old Mineral surveys & plat maps, shows the location of old mines - http://landprx.pdxproxy.blm.gov/Online-Records.asp
Drill down on the map & open some of the mineral survey files. There are old mine survey maps including latitude and longitude.
You need Adobe Acrobat for this one & a fast connection.
Names of mines and minerals associated with them -
http://www.mineralcouncil.org/index.htm go to other resources, locality database
Huge database - http://www.mindat.org/loc-17476.html
http://www.ghosttowns.com/
Carbonado
Rumor is that there are several abandoned mines in teh Carbonado area. From what I understand, the offroading is nothing to write home about, but they do require a 4x4 to get to them, so that's something...
Nighthawk
Rumor is that there are several abandoned mines around Nighthawk (north-central eastern WA). There was also lots of abandoned roads that would be a nice challange to wheel. The area doesnt have alot of trees, and you can wheel almost anywhere (Note: This is changing with new USFS policy.)
SAFETY
Dont forget for your own safety that many mining claims are still in force and miners tend to be a paranoid lot. So always watch for no trespassing signs and be on the lookout for hermit types living in who knows what type of dwelling. I read one post where a guy was out doing some rockhounding in northeren Idaho when he ran across this fella living in a 16 ' trailer buried under a slash pile. This fella was activly mining a quartz claim and still believed they had value for radios (ww II stuff) since a local rock shop about 40 miles away was buying material from him for collecters. Long story short...a 12 gauge looked REAL big 2"inches from his nose. oh yea and there wasnt a road or vehicle withen 5 miles.
If a mine has wood timbers holding it up its not safe ( thats why they put the timbers up ) and by now most are rotten.
Bring dry clothes because the water is cold and can be VERY deep.
Comments added to the blog
| Re: Mine and Ghost Town Exploration |
By pwc on 8/13/2006 5:48 PM |
Craig, here's a great book on Ghost Towns in the area East of here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0944958281/sr=8-4/qid=1155519032/ref=sr_1_4/002-4707845-8631238?ie=UTF8
Also, I have property in the Nighthawk area and there are a lot of mines in the area. There is one just down teh hill from my plot and we've explored it a bit but it's usually not a good idea to go into old mines without your own CNN crew outside to make you a national story.
I originally bought the plot eons ago specifically because I wanted a place that you needed a 4x4 to get to (although a friend in a beater and another in a erntal car proved me wrong at one point).
It's location is here http://okanoganwa.mapsifter.com/mapsifter/default.aspx?pid=4025251003 and it'd make a fine base camp for exploring the area. Palmer lake also has some good camping I think and there are places across teh valley in the Wenatchee National Forest that work well. |
| Re: Mine and Ghost Town Exploration |
By pwc on 1/2/2007 2:00 PM |
Craig, I found this guy's site from Oregon
http://www.brian894x4.com/INSEARCHOFHISTORY.html |
|