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Mining

Mines

246 posts

Pinto Wye Arrastra

Pinto Wye Arrastra

An arrastra is a simple and primitive gold milling device. Heavy stones are dragged over gold ore to crush it. Mercury and water are added to the floor of the arrastra to create an amalgam and capture the gold. There is some mystery about who built and used this arrastra.

Mineral County Single Stamp Mill

Mineral County Single Stamp Mill

In late spring of 2012, I was out exploring the hills around Mineral County in western Nevada with my friend Ed. (We were looking for old mines and cabins, of course.) We stumbled across this old mine site with some colorful tailings while hiking to another mine. We didn’t

1900's Blacksmith Cabin

1900's Blacksmith Cabin

I met up with my hiking buddy, Ed, in 2012, and we ventured out into the Western Nevada desert. We did a few five-hour hikes to remote and long-forgotten miner’s cabins tucked away in the hills. There were no roads, heck, there wasn’t even a trail. We went

Corkscrew Borax Mine

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

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

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. In

Summit Mine

Summit Mine

High up in the spires of the Sierra Nevada, there lies a hidden and seldom visited mine. To reach it, you have to follow a steep trail that threads its way across jagged granodiorite cliffs with views of the old mining camp of Lundy, a thousand feet below. Once the