Twobrothers
Jr. Member
- Jun 7, 2017
- 63
- 53
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Hello Treasurenet! I like to explore! It happened one February morning in 2016 that I really wanted to explore. It happened that I needed to take care of responsibilities first. So I dragged myself with the intention of bidding on a landscaping job and getting to work. I love botany, plants, and the natural world! However I really hate black plastic mulch, judicious use of pesticides and herbicides, and spreading yards and yards of boring hot, gravel all over it... Not really my style. So I was less than enthused about what this landscaping job in suburbia would expectation of me. So I bid the job on the gravel yard teeming with invasive grasses growing through the "very effective" black plastic mulch. Bid accepted. Time to get to drudging. But wait! Not so fast! You cannot get started today! I have to be here while your working (for whatever reason...) . Alright by me. How about Wednesday? In that moment I am free! I am free! I am free of the expectation imposed upon me! For a moment I know not what to do with my day! The next moment I find myself at the local big box store buying supplies for a mountain expedition! Before I know it I am driven miles from civilization toward the mountains under the influence of the freedom of the Spirit of God! As fast as I can, up I go. Time is short, I want to get to snow!!!! So up I go. Up up up. Decisions come easy. Have I been this way before? No! I am going that way! Eventually I stop for some lunch. And looking up a drainage I just get this sense that I need to break trail and see whats up there. I don't know whats up there but something is there. I can just feel it. Break trail up a 40 degree slope. Hard going. And what do I find? A cave! Appears to be natural in the limestone. If it was a mine its a very old one because the site doesn't show much evidence of human disturbance.
View attachment 1459959
Anyway. So that's the story of how I discovered this site. Anyway that specific hike culminated in my hiking off trail 5 or so miles, staying out way later than anticipated, and skipping down a 50 degree mountain canyon at 11pm. In February. It was cold. I heard animals. I yelled. A lot. The animals left me alone. Good times. Really its that whole mountain ridge that so intriguing. Been back a dozen times and each time I find something new cool and interesting. Its the site that got me interested in, researching on and learning about geology. So to the meat of this forum post. I've been sitting on this information for over a year. Done my own research and drawn my own conjectures but I think its time to get some experienced opinions on this:
Is this a miniaturized cyanide concentration/ extraction setup? Nearby was a block of what I suspect was lime or quicklime? Mining records indicate a lot of tungsten, and lead mined at this locality. USGS and other research indicates activity in the 19-teens (focused on tungsten), World War 2 era (focused on tungsten and some lead), 1950's (more tungsten) and some relatively recent claim status in the 1980's (commodity not indicated). Assay/ smelter reports from teens, and forties indicate some gold was recovered through smelting as a by product in the lead ores. Due to the type of materials used and the general state of decay the (cyanide?) concentration setup seems to be from the 80's era. Many old stopes, shafts, and adits in mostly Limestone cut with quartz. Only one of them contained the galena in limestone skarn alteration. The rest were in limestone with traces of Scheelite.
View attachment 1459917 View attachment 1459918 View attachment 1459921
Is it a jury rigged froth flotation rig for concentrating tungsten ores? Or did someone get ambitious and try to build a cyanide concentrator? Is there a secret gold mine somewhere in this area that I haven't found yet? Whatever it is someone would've had to have a really good reason to justify hauling stuff up there. Accessing this site isn't for the cheap or faint of heart... There is the heli-pad...
View attachment 1459943
...which appears to be constructed sometime during the 80's era of activity. Or you can take the precipitous mountain trail.
Very fun very interesting!
Anyway. So that's the story of how I discovered this site. Anyway that specific hike culminated in my hiking off trail 5 or so miles, staying out way later than anticipated, and skipping down a 50 degree mountain canyon at 11pm. In February. It was cold. I heard animals. I yelled. A lot. The animals left me alone. Good times. Really its that whole mountain ridge that so intriguing. Been back a dozen times and each time I find something new cool and interesting. Its the site that got me interested in, researching on and learning about geology. So to the meat of this forum post. I've been sitting on this information for over a year. Done my own research and drawn my own conjectures but I think its time to get some experienced opinions on this:
Is this a miniaturized cyanide concentration/ extraction setup? Nearby was a block of what I suspect was lime or quicklime? Mining records indicate a lot of tungsten, and lead mined at this locality. USGS and other research indicates activity in the 19-teens (focused on tungsten), World War 2 era (focused on tungsten and some lead), 1950's (more tungsten) and some relatively recent claim status in the 1980's (commodity not indicated). Assay/ smelter reports from teens, and forties indicate some gold was recovered through smelting as a by product in the lead ores. Due to the type of materials used and the general state of decay the (cyanide?) concentration setup seems to be from the 80's era. Many old stopes, shafts, and adits in mostly Limestone cut with quartz. Only one of them contained the galena in limestone skarn alteration. The rest were in limestone with traces of Scheelite.
View attachment 1459917 View attachment 1459918 View attachment 1459921
Is it a jury rigged froth flotation rig for concentrating tungsten ores? Or did someone get ambitious and try to build a cyanide concentrator? Is there a secret gold mine somewhere in this area that I haven't found yet? Whatever it is someone would've had to have a really good reason to justify hauling stuff up there. Accessing this site isn't for the cheap or faint of heart... There is the heli-pad...
View attachment 1459943
...which appears to be constructed sometime during the 80's era of activity. Or you can take the precipitous mountain trail.
Very fun very interesting!
