Jacob City - 1960-1983

[one_bad_rover]

I know a lot of you guys here do alot of playing in the Ophir area. These pics are Jacob city, back when there were buildings. I remember the hotel being up, but none of these other buildings.
It definitely gives you a reason to educate people on not destroying these old sites and doing what you can to preserve whats left.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=218468&id=53986730939&l=b75d7ce562

[cherokeepilot85]

Wow, great pics. I really enjoyed going through them. It is such a shame what has been lost in that very historical area.

[acidman1968]

Wow! Those were 100% AWESOME!!! I've spent a lot of hours wandering around the Jacob City area over the last four years or so - mainly on foot, because I don't have an ATV, but seeing the pics of the way it USED to be... It just makes you sad to see all of that history lost.

And honestly, seeing how badly the place has been destroyed since those pics were taken leads me to believe that a lot of the destruction was "state sanctioned" and not merely the work of idiot vandals. Too many actual buildings have not merely collapsed, but have actually been shredded to where there isn't really any remaining wood piles from them...

[Rubyredvet]

Great pictures. Was up there on Sunday with my brothere and were shocked at all the GARBAGE both above and below ground. Water and pop bottles, beer cans, potato chip sacks, even a broken computer monitor. Are some people so lazy that they can't carry out what they brought in? It is truly disgusting what some careless slobs leave up there in that beautiful canyon. Next time we go up there, we will take some trash bags and try to pick up what we can and haul it out. The Queen mine was full of garbage.

[Danb]

Great Photo Album Corey,

I was lucky enough to go through the hotel before it fell.
I have seen a lot of our mining history disappear in the last 20 years.
I wish I had been born 20 years earlier.
There are a few mining towns that are still intact in Idaho. Silver City Idaho is one of them. 60 miles Southwest of Boise.
I spend my vacation time there in the summer working my placer claim. The property owners fought hard to keep their buildings from being taken over by the BLM.
The owners are very committed to the mining history of the area.
Info can be found here: http://www.historicsilvercityidaho.com
It’s about a 7 hour trip from SLC but well worth it, and a hotel to stay in. Make sure you top of your gas tank before you leave Mountain Home or Grandview.
As far as mines to explore there isn’t much. They are mostly shafts, a few tunnels but have been closed. There are miles of tunnels but you can’t get in them due to, water cave-ins etc. But you can always try.

Danb

[one_bad_rover]

Honestly, and feel free to flame on, I think that the majority of the destruction is due to vandals. I dont advocate the BLM or FS by any standards, but most of the time, if there is no wood, its because a bunch of ******************************s have camped near by and in a night of drinking and shit talk, have burned all of the wood nearby. Ive seen it happen to numerous spots and Im sure Ive probably pissed someone here off by telling them to watch what they are doing and what they are leaving. Even small pieces of wood leave a remnant to be discovered and explored.
I got banned on a few ghost hunter sites for laying into them about one of their expeditions to Bauer where there were all wandering around drunk and trying to break off souveniers.

Dont get me wrong, I like to drink just as much as the next guy, but it seems the usual MO for destruction of history is a bunch of guys out drinking and not really giving a shit about what they are doing. Shooting buildings, breaking glass etc... all adds up. Even sites that you think might not be worth much because they arent that old.
If you take care of a site, there is a chance the next person will too.
If you destroy and litter up a site, there is a chance the next person will too.

I would just advocate that Jacob city is a site where a little preservation could have gone a long way. It is very well visited, and Im sure in the vein of "ah its just some old mining shit", had a lot of destruction done to it. I know when I first went up there years and years ago it looked like a dumping ground, we found a few old rolls of carpet rotting in where the ore bin is, and some old appliances and cabinentry.
We chased off some boy scouts that were up there with their scout leader to do some target shooting. Im sure that didnt make friends either.
Anyway, Ill step off my soap box. Im glad everyone enjoyed these. I have a lot more that i just need to get optimized and posted.

[Joanne]

It is really sad to see people destroy these historic sites. I like to think the best of people, but I just don't understand how people like that think. I realized the DON'T think, but what is going though their tiny minds? How is their brain wired that causes them to think destroying other people's property is fun?

That said, I hate it when the government gets involved trying the "save" sites like this. Their answer is to ban everyone from the sites. There's a WWII B-29 bomber that ditched in Lake Mead. It's been found and the government has forbid anyone from diving in the area so that the plane won't be stripped clean. I'm good up to that point. Now they've decided that they are not going to allow it to be salvaged and donated to an air museum for restoration. They are going to leave it right where it is so they won't disturb it's archeological significance. What brain surgeon thought that one up? They are going to let it deteriorate at the bottom of the lake so that park service divers can check on it once a year to make certain no one has taken anything off of it. We can't have thousands of people a year visit this piece of history in an air museum! Nope, it's going to set on the bottom of a lake. Yeah....and these people are going to administer our health care too!

SORRY for getting so far off topic....

Corey, you are so right! Good job chasing off the Boy Scouts too. I have great respect for the scouts, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some leaders who need to engage their brains before acting. I don't know how we can change things though. Dumb people (including many in the BLM) will never understand the inherent value of these old mine sites. And if they did, we would all be banned from exploring them. Sigh....

Joanne

[acidman1968]

This isn't meant as a "flame" Corey, just an observation - combined with something I read on a different site regarding some of the destruction in the Jacob City area...

On a different website - and I don't recall which one - someone made the statement that after that kid got lost in the Hidden Treasure, and after he was rescued, the government representative ordered that the old hotel be torn down because he/she deemed the building "unsafe".

Did that really happen? I don't know...

Does that mean that vandals didn't do their share of destruction? Of course not. I'm sure that a lot of the "remains" down by the ore bin that stands on the cliff below where the road forks into Jacob City ended up getting chucked off the edge of the cliff by idiots that wanted to throw things off the cliff... And yes, I agree with you that a lot of the wood probably went up in smoke as folks used it for firewood.

[acidman1968]

Great pictures. Was up there on Sunday with my brothere and were shocked at all the GARBAGE both above and below ground. Water and pop bottles, beer cans, potato chip sacks, even a broken computer monitor. Are some people so lazy that they can't carry out what they brought in? It is truly disgusting what some careless slobs leave up there in that beautiful canyon. Next time we go up there, we will take some trash bags and try to pick up what we can and haul it out. The Queen mine was full of garbage.

Kudos to you and your desire to help clean up the garbage left by others. I usually carry a few extra pieces of garbage out in my backpack, but it isn't much because I don't have the "carrying capacity" that an ATV does.

[acidman1968]

It is really sad to see people destroy these historic sites. I like to think the best of people, but I just don't understand how people like that think. I realized the DON'T think, but what is going though their tiny minds? How is their brain wired that causes them to think destroying other people's property is fun?

That said, I hate it when the government gets involved trying the "save" sites like this. Their answer is to ban everyone from the sites. There's a WWII B-29 bomber that ditched in Lake Mead. It's been found and the government has forbid anyone from diving in the area so that the plane won't be stripped clean. I'm good up to that point. Now they've decided that they are not going to allow it to be salvaged and donated to an air museum for restoration. They are going to leave it right where it is so they won't disturb it's archeological significance. What brain surgeon thought that one up? They are going to let it deteriorate at the bottom of the lake so that park service divers can check on it once a year to make certain no one has taken anything off of it. We can't have thousands of people a year visit this piece of history in an air museum! Nope, it's going to set on the bottom of a lake. Yeah....and these people are going to administer our health care too!

SORRY for getting so far off topic....

Corey, you are so right! Good job chasing off the Boy Scouts too. I have great respect for the scouts, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some leaders who need to engage their brains before acting. I don't know how we can change things though. Dumb people (including many in the BLM) will never understand the inherent value of these old mine sites. And if they did, we would all be banned from exploring them. Sigh....

Joanne

Yeah, it's really sad to see areas torn up and destroyed by mindless vandals - and by government entities who destroy in the name of "safety". It's also sad (to me) to see where folks on their ATVs and in their 4x4 vehicles feel it's their right to blaze a new trail across unspoiled ground - just because they can. That was one thing I pounded into my son once he started driving his little Pathfinder up in the mountains: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

That's part of the reason I enjoy hiking into areas where ATVs can't go - because these days, if people can't drive/ride to the area they want to go, they usually DON'T go. Their laziness has preserved areas in some cases, but it has also enabled them to destroy other areas because they WON'T get off their butts and onto their feet... Kind of a "catch .22" situation.

As for the WWII era bomber that's in the bottom of Lake Mead, if I remember correctly, it isn't anyone's tomb, so why shouldn't it be raised and restored? It's just another case where the "elitists" in the government know what's best for the "commoner".

[Danb]

I know what you mean Corey.

Case in point: Fish Springs.

We used to go explore the area and some of the mines. We would set up a table in the old store for our Coleman stoves for cooking and a bit of heat in the evening. Then go up and spend hours at the Utah Mine. We went back years later (~1995) to find someone had taken a chain saw to the inside walls of the old store and here is the saddest part. The hoist house burnt to the ground. The head frame and shaft cribbing burnt to the ground leaving a very dangerous 800’ hole. It was not a wild fire, as the surrounding vegetation was not burnt. I was very disappointed to see it gone.



Also on the Hidden Treasure Mine, I remember when the ore bins came down. We looked at it in detail and it was definitely deliberate. Rooting wood doesn’t have a straight cuts through it.


Danb

[ExpUt]

The Mary Ellen Hilton (Lloyd Strong Cabin) in Mary Ellen Gulch (AF Canyon) is another shining example. Trashed! Someone drug the stove out, busted off doors, glass, wall paneling. Disgusting!

[btay801]

I told my buddy at work about the Mary Ellen Hilton and the terrible shape it is in. He in turn told me of a cabin in...I think Idaho that there is actually a register that people sign and clean up. I will have to get the details but it was really cool to hear there are still good people out there taking care of history. Given I think he said this cabin is above 10k feet. So the lazies can't drive right up to it.

[acidman1968]

I told my buddy at work about the Mary Ellen Hilton and the terrible shape it is in. He in turn told me of a cabin in...I think Idaho that there is actually a register that people sign and clean up. I will have to get the details but it was really cool to hear there are still good people out there taking care of history. Given I think he said this cabin is above 10k feet. So the lazies can't drive right up to it.

There are actually quite a few old cabins out in the desert / remote locations in California where people voluntarily keep them in good repair - and even stock them with non-perishable foods for emergency purposes. They've generally got a log book in them, with a request that "If you use this place, please take care of it for the next person".

For the most part, the system works out fairly well.

Unfortunately, there are some eco-nazis out there who want to destroy ANYTHING man-made that's out in the wilderness, so in their minds, they feel perfectly justified to burn those places down to "remove the trace of man"... Pathetic.

[Rubyredvet]

Great pictures. Was up there on Sunday with my brothere and were shocked at all the GARBAGE both above and below ground. Water and pop bottles, beer cans, potato chip sacks, even a broken computer monitor. Are some people so lazy that they can't carry out what they brought in? It is truly disgusting what some careless slobs leave up there in that beautiful canyon. Next time we go up there, we will take some trash bags and try to pick up what we can and haul it out. The Queen mine was full of garbage.

Kudos to you and your desire to help clean up the garbage left by others. I usually carry a few extra pieces of garbage out in my backpack, but it isn't much because I don't have the "carrying capacity" that an ATV does.

If EVERYONE carried out even a few pieces of garbage, and deposited nothing, these places would be litter free in a short period of time. Or am I just "dreaming"?