King David Mine Frisco,UT

[Danb]

Has anyone recently been down the King David Mine at Old Frisco? Is it still open?

BD

[Derek]

Yes it is still open, but on private property as of August. Didn't have enough time to go down the manway though.

[Stuart]

That is one wicked manway! I have been told that it goes down seven levels and all the ladders are solid. I would highly recommend carrying a 4 gas meter when going into the King David, there are some gasses in that one.
As Derek mentioned it is on private property and the dude who owns it is pretty adamant on keeping unwanted visitors out of Frisco.

[Danb]

Here are a few personal notes and info on the King David Mine. I probably won’t go down there again, but would be top side for any one else going down to make sure no one shows up and starts throwing rocks down the shaft etc.


1. If you venture down the King David you need to be in very good physical shape. Take several bottles of water and leave them at strategic spots on the way down. That way your not carrying weight back up the shaft. It’s about 1 hour down and 2-3 hours up. Plus the time underground exploring. I’ve been down there twice. On the first trip I was exhausted by the time I got out of the shaft. Two weeks before the second trip, I religiously did deep knee bends several times every day. That made the adventure a lot easier.

2. There are 76 ladder sections, 10 to 15 feet each. At the bottom of each ladder is a landing to stand on. As of about 1996, the first 5 to 10 ladders had some damage but where passable. The upper part of the shaft has longer ladder sections. The deeper you go the shorter they get.

3. The depth of the shaft is about 900 ft. At the bottom there is a tunnel heading southwest under the old Horn Silver Mine. This tunnel is about 2000ft. long with tracks and an ore cart that moved nicely up and down the tunnel.




4. At the end of the tunnel is another hoist and a shaft that goes several hundred feet down. The ladders are vertical so we didn’t go down any further. There are numerous other tunnels, stopes, raises etc. to check out.

5. Coming out of the the shaft is a good breeze of air. It smells pretty bad. When we got way down under the Horn Silver there was a raise that had cool fresh air pumping down on us. I think the smelly air coming out of the main shaft is caused by animals that died near the top of the shaft. However take all precautions when going underground.

6. I have the second trip on VHS and will post it once I get it converted.