Bismark Mine - Calico, California

[Mike]

I just returned from a trip to California with my family for Thanksgiving. We decided to spend the day out in the famous Calico area. The "amazing" Bismark Mine was our destination for the day. Calico is located just seven miles east of Barstow, CA. It is dry, desolate, and usually quite windy. Vegetation of the area is a scattered sage and long grass. The geography included many fault lines and intense folding, the rock being mostly slate and schist.

The Bismark Mine is a gold and quartz mine, last in production in 1962. Its construction includes many glory holes, stopes, adits, and tunnels. It is very dry and dusty, and has been scavanged by collectors for everything its worth. One tunnel still had rail inside it. The rail was the older, cheaper type, made of wood with a flat steel layer on top. There were many stopes and levels inside. I investigated several levels and found them all to come to ends eventually. One tunnel went back and had many business cards, one of which is owned by me J. Several levels had wooden ore chutes, of a construction I have not seen before. They were square set, two feet wide, usually about 10-15 feet in depth, and had an exit of one foot high be two feet wide. I dropped down several levels and found much of the same.
The mine is dirty, full of trash and grafitti, has no minerals or artifacts left, and was hard to get to. Even with there being little to find, it was still fun to be underground again.




Many more photos:

http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery/v/California/calico/

[rhartill]

Wow!

I am jealous! The last time I visited Bismarck was in *1973* (I am ooold). I have some old black and white pics of the trip I will try to find and post. Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving adventure in color! And yes, back in 1973 there were a few more relics around...

[ExpUt]

Re: Bismark Mine - Calico, California

...The rail was the older, cheaper type, made of wood with a flat steel layer on top...

"Strap Rail" as its called. Its often newer than actual track. I've heard several different reasons behind its use, low cost and easier to work with (versus full steel rail) and the other was its use during the steel shortages of WWI & WWII. Both likely have some truth.

Great pics!

[Mike Schriber]

Hi! New member here.

We've spent a bit of time exploring Calico and are actually going again this weekend. There is a lot to see but as you mentioned, it's very picked over. We're always looking for hard to get places to see things that are still intact because most people can't get there.

Speaking of... did you notice the large vertical shaft in the Bismark on the same level as the "Card Room"? It's quite deep but we don't know if there are any drifts leading from it or if it's just a big hole. We're going to run our remote camera down there this weekend and see. If there is a level down there, we'll rappel down and check it out (we each have a frog type ascending system for getting back out).

I'm glad to have found this great resource!

Mike

[Mike]

Welcome to the site, Mike! I did notice a shaft on that same level. I tossed a rock down it, it seemed to be about 80-100' deep. Would be interested to see what you find down there. Let me know!

[Stuart]

Welcome Mike!

Great pictures on your Flickr page! Ive got a question for you, what is the status of the War Eagle mine? Is it BLM, Private?

[Mike Schriber]

I believe the War Eagle is on private land. I found some references to past due taxes and an auction for the property in 2006 but nothing concrete.

There was a crew out there filming a low budget movie called "The Mine" when we were last there. I think they got help from some of the group here for filming at the Ophir Hill recently. I was going to ask them who (or if) they got permission to film from but forgot.

We camp always camp on BLM land to be safe and then head over to explore.

[Mike]

Haha you ran into The Mine crew. Interesting bunch of people. Some of them pretty cool, the rest of them wannabes. I was interested too if they got permission to film in that mine. Clay, the location manager would know.

[Mike Schriber]

We just came back from our second trip to Calico. I'm pretty sure we've been through the entire Bismark mine at this point. The shaft off the main level drift was a dead end. There is another shaft that is very dirty and dusty on the same level that is also a dead end. It has a short drift about fifteen feet above the bottom that only runs twenty to thirty feet.

We went up to the top of the mine and rappelled down two shafts which led to areas of the mine just above the main level that we'd already explored.

Pictures can be seen here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schriber/sets/72157611514993386

It looks like we're going to go back to Tecopa next and then think about another Calico Run.

Mike

[RockRacer]

Thanks for the great info and pictures on this mine. It is right on the way to a funeral that I have to attend with my wife and kids instead of going to the Ophir Mine camp out. We are leaving for California in about 4 hours. Cross your fingers that we can compromise and she will allow a quick detour on the way to her grandma's funeral.

[RockRacer]

If anyone has any info on where exactly the entrance to the Bismark Mine is in relation to the town of Calico, I would be very interested. I am about to leave CA (IN JUST A FEW HRS) and plan on stopping by the ghost town on the way back. (Hopefully we will see something my 3 year old and I both find interesting in the town) I of course also wanted to ''pop" my head into the mine if it's fairly close. Calico town map

Thanks

[Mike Schriber]

Sure thing! Here it is on Google Maps...

Bismark Mine

The best route in is via Mule Canyon. The entrance is to the west of the road. You have to go down a steep opening. There are openings everywhere but this is the best one to access the main level.

Have fun!

Mike

[RockRacer]

Sure thing! Here it is on Google Maps...

Bismark Mine

The best route in is via Mule Canyon. The entrance is to the west of the road. You have to go down a steep opening. There are openings everywhere but this is the best one to access the main level.

Have fun!

Mike

Thanks for the quick response! I did receive it just in time before I had to leave. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to check it out, but we did drive up to the ghost town. Again, disappointment since we didn't have the time to pay the $10 to just drive through. If I was going to spend money, I would want to take the time to get out of the car and walk around.

I am going back past there in July and will plan better to go through the town and mine. I did see some "private property unsafe mine" signs but they were located between the Yermo Cutoff road and Calico. As I was driving back to I-15 down Calico Road (Heading back to UT) I though I saw some mine tailings and then a dirt road with a highway patrol driving his car down it. Looks like that was Mule Canyon Road. That is the road you want to take to the mine huh?