Queen of the Hills, near Jacob City

[hillrat]

Soooo... my uncle worked this mine back in the 40's or 50's with my grandfather and another uncle. I have been up there once, a few years back, but it was getting dark and I'm not entirely sure I was at the portal. My uncle recognized a picture of the ore bin outside, and said his uncle built the trough and the bin. He's got some very good stories about growing up there in Stockton, and about the mine itself, as well as the town. I'll try to get him to let me post a couple of them. My question is this: is the mine still open/accessible? And would any of you have pictures of it and/or the immediate area? I'd like to show them to my unc. He says there was a cabin past the mine, up the mountain, where he once ran away for about four months as a teenager and lived on poached venison. Said he knew one of the operators of the Hidden Treasure as well. Anyone got any info on the Queen?
Thanks in advance
john

[acidman1968]

Just a question, hillrat: Are you sure it was the Queen of the Hills that he worked at and not the Utah Queen? I'm just asking because I don't believe there are any ore bins standing near the Queen of the Hills - but there is an ore bin near the Utah Queen...

Here's a link to the thread in the "Trip Report" section: http://mojaveunderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=898

I recently hiked out to the Queen of the Hills, and all of the access to that mine have been closed - at least all of the accesses my son and I located. There may be a random air shaft left open, but the vegetation is thick in that area...

As for the cabin that your relative ran away and lived in, I'm guessing it's the one near "Shoefly Hill" - I've never been to it, but from pics I've seen, it's the most intact of the cabins I know about up in the area of Jacob City.

[hillrat]

Yes, I'm quite sure it was the Queen of the hills. I'm not familiar with the Utah Queen; and the one time we drove up I wasn't quite sure we'd reached the spot. So I took a few pictures. Could be I'm calling it an ore bin by mistake, but he said at the portal, his job was to push the cart out and dump it to a chute across the road, which loaded it into the truck on a lower side road. I've actually seen the chute, and took a picture of it. Just can't find it right now. I guess the mine went back as a level adit for a ways, then down an incline. His other job was to run the hoist for the skip. They used carbide lights, and one of the uncles was quite a joker. Used to fill his light part way with sand instead of carbide, so the light would go out in the middle of reading his book. Of course, he tells the story a lot better than I do!

[hillrat]

Ah, in your post I also see that where I was at was on the road below and to the right of the location you were at. I didn't get a chance to hike up. Where the two pictures are in that map is about where I was, and where I took the picture of the ore chute. So, maybe this was a lower adit into the mine? Or could it have been a different mine entirely? I'm going to forward a link on your thread to my uncle and see what he has to say about it.