Mayflower in Park City

[Hawkeye-TP]

Has anyone heard of/explored the Mayflower Mine just past Park City? I'm thinking of taking a look.

[ExpUt]

Heard of, absolutely. Explored... not yet. There is an older thread on Mojave about someone that explored some of the old buildings around the mine portal but as I recall the portal was secured and closed?

[Hawkeye-TP]

Alright, unless another entrance can be found, this mine is collapsed. Pretty cool buildings, and an awesome air shaft. I'll check the upper workings come summer. It now constitutes the muddiest mine I've visited

[ExpUt]

How far were you able to make it in?

[Hawkeye-TP]

Not far. The Air shaft was open and we decided to drop it. We were able to walk to the blockage at the entrance which was around 300' from the air shaft. Heading the other way, deeper into the mine, we could only access a little over 100' past the air shaft. There it was collapsed. The mud was very thick and mid shin deep. We were balancing on a pipe to get around.







So it was a fun rappel but very unrewarding underground. Some cool pics, though.

Check out more Mayflower photos.

[Kiel]

great pictures

[ExpUt]

Not seeing any photos and when I click on your Mayflower photos link I get "Pics from our explorations around Mayflower. This album does not have any photos."

What gives?

[Kiel]

try that kurt

[Joanne]

I'm not seeing the photos either....

[Danb]

I tried to explore the Mayflower in the late 80’s. Very tightly secured. There is a experimental device in there from the Uof U to measure small particles from space. Above the Mayflower was another adit open that we explored. It was heavily timbered and very wet. We went backmaybe 25 yards to a cave in. Now the area is populated with homes and ski runsAlso the story of the mine is that they hit very rich gold deposits but It gotto hot under ground for the miners to work it so the owner shut it down.

[sanpet]

If I remember right The Mayflower was mined from the big mine in Park City as a dranige from for the big mine as it was flooding.

[Danb]

I think you are referring to the Keetly Tunnel that was used to drain the Ontario Mine at the 1500 ft.level. TheMayflower is a bit west and higher elevation. They hit the geothermal area thatis part of the hot springs at Midway. The tunnel we explored was probably theStar Tunnel. The Mayflower Mine is at 40° 36’ 58” 111° 26” 28”. Keetly tunnel just east and Star tunnel west upthe canyon.

Also I don’t see those pics. Itwould be nice to see them as I haven’t been there in a long time.

Dan

[Mike]

Should be working now. Great photos!

[Joanne]

Pic #2 is great! If that is a photo of you, it should be your avitar! If not, someone has a great photo to show off to friends.

Joanne

[Hawkeye-TP]

Thanks. I'm still not able to create and avatar. I shall remain a Ghost. I was behind the camera for all those photos...

Yes, the Star was supposedly super wet and flooded. They dropped a shaft at some point to connect it to a drainage tunnel in an effort to get the Star profitable. That shaft connects with the Mayflower. Also, somehow the Star connects with the Park Galena. I found this interesting blog post about hiking with the old Mayflower Superintendent who talked about climbing that shaft from Mayflower up 800ft to these other mines.

http://wewentwest.blogspot.com/2009/11/hiking-mayflower-mine.html

I would be surprised if the Star were not collapsed with how wet it was rumored to be. The Mayflower sure wasn't holding up well. I came across this site posting clippings about the Mayflower from Journals and news papers.

http://utahrails.net/mining/new-park-mining.php