Bullion Mine, Southern Nevada

[silverstate55]

If you liked the Bullion, try the Accident Mine nearby; just continue up the canyon westward past the turnoff to the Bullion Mine, and you'll see the parking area for the Accident Mine on your left (to the South). It's nearly a mile's hike up to it, but it's well worth it. Be sure to have lots of available file space on your camera's flash card!

[silverstate55]

Re: Bullion Mine, Southern Nevada

I've been itching to get out and do some exploration and today was the day. Unfortunately a dying battery made it so I didn't dare turn off the engine. That severely restricted my exploration activities and sent me home early. I did get to make some good use of my new 12x50 Nikon binoculars though. I think they are going to be a good tool in helping me to locate and identify mine remnants.

The area south and west of Las Vegas is riddled with old mines. The area that I was exploring today was no different with numerous named mines as well as a large number of adits dotting the sides of the ridges.


Here's a Google Earth of the area with the mines called out

The Monte Cristo & Porter mines are fenced/gated and posted "No Trespassing." I explored both of these shortly before the BLM placed the new "No Trespassing" signs, and there wasn't much to see. I hiked up to the Porter mine, and it wasn't worth the hike. The area is nice, especially in late springtime with all the blooms and greens...but the mines up this canyon aren't worth the hike IMHO. The "Unknown Mine 1" near the Monte Cristo (looks like an airplane outline on the Google Map) is now blocked by welded steel angles across the entrance, and the vertical shaft near it has been converted to a bat entrance/exit. Nothing much to see inside before it was blocked. BTW, the vertical shaft just to the east of the blocked entrance was just filled in by the BLM in either late December 2009 or early January 2010...I was up there in late fall 2009 and it was there, then when I returned in mid-January 2010 it was filled in! Must have been a front-end loader, I didn't see any dozer tracks....

The Accident Mine is well worth exploring, along with thorough explorations of the Bullion (check PMs). The Valentine Mine has been stripped, it looks like most of the equipment was removed to one of the nearby mines....the Valentine consists of a primary incline shaft heading southwest, and several adits branching off in different directions. I didn't find anything of much interest in it, except for the remains of an aerial tramway along the burro path up to the mine. The "Unknown Mine 2" just west of the Valentine (above it on your Google map) is the Anchor Mine, and is fenced/gated/posted "No Trespassing."

If you continue west up the canyon, past the Monte Cristo turnoff, you will come to the turnoff for the Star Mine (not shown on your map above). It involves a little bit of a hike, but in a canyon just to the south of the loading area for the Star Mine is the main mining area; it used to feature a raised wooden trestle that curved around the base of the mountain for several hundred yards, and a fabulous old wooden ore hopper bin tucked into a tight canyon. It's well worth the visit, and it takes probably half a day (or a full winter's day, since they're shorter). Sometimes this area gets a dusting of snow, and I was able to catch some photos of it this past winter.

My first stop was at the Bullion Mine. This mine is a few hundred feet up the side of a steep ridge. (They are ALL steep around here!!) At first I didn't understand why there were two structures up at the mine. After a bit of looking I realized that the leftmost structure was the top of a tramway.



If you look closely you can see one of the tramway cables running down the side of the ridge.



Here's the remains of the lower station. There are a number of foundations around it that indicated that there was some sort of machinery that is long-since gone.



This appears to be a bucket for the tramway. There was another one just a few feet away. Funny though, neither one of them looked as if they had been used. The cable running through the buckets had not worn the holes like you would expect if they had been used to transport ore.



A bit further south was the Valentine mine perched way up on the side of a ridge. Getting up to the adit of this mine is going to be a real hike! It appears that there may have been a tram at this mine as well, but I never got close enough to find the lower station. Next trip maybe....





Just over a small ridge was some tailings with three adits well up the side of the ridge. Obviously someone owns or has a claim on the property and doesn't want anyone wandering around. I took a couple of photos and headed back the way I came. (It's shown as Unknown Mine 2 on the Google Earth map)





A bit to the north of the Bullion mine is the Accident mine. It's another site that is going to take some serious hiking to get to.

This is the closed-off mine I mentioned above near the Monte Cristo:

I finally ran into my first "closed" mine. There was an adit that had been blocked as well as a shallow shaft. Looking down the capped shaft showed that it only dropped about 20 feet. From there it looked as if there was a tunnel that went back into the hill. (It's shown as Unknown Mine 1 on the Google Earth map)

This vertical shaft (just above the gated entrance shown above) has been converted to a bat entrance/exit:

This is the vertical shaft that was recently filled in via front-end loader:

This shaft was just a few feet away from the other two, but had not been closed. The ladder looked like it was in pretty poor shape. I was solo on this trip so I wasn't getting overly adventurous.



In spite of vehicle problems I was able to get the lay of the land in this area. There are quite a few claim markers in evidence though I didn't see any real evidence of anyone actively mining. It's just amazing how many mines are in this area. There is also an area a bit further south and east (around the town of Nipton) that looks very interesting. A person could spend years exploring around in Southern Nevada without having to hit the same mine twice.

Joane

The mines around Nipton are slowly being closed off for vehicular access, and the dry lake bed by Primm is off-limits to motorized vehicles.