It's a little hard to do research on a small mine that was abandoned a century ago after having been in operation only a year or two. So you can understand why I don't have much historical information on this location.

What I do know, is that on March 6, 1905, a devastating explosion ripped through the mine buildings. Three workers were killed: John and Edward Collier, and Henry Morris. Although foul play was initially suspected, the cause was determined to have been an attic fire started by a wood stove, that managed to ignite a box of dynamite and blasting caps. The building was leveled, and all three men perished instantly.

In 1944 an attempt was made to re-open the mine (possibly driven by the war-time need for copper), but this was unsuccessful.

Today, little evidence remains of the former mining operation. We managed to locate a pair of adits (horizontal entrances) dug into a rock face. There was a tunnel connecting the adits, and the left adit ran back a short distance into the hillside. We also located a trench, other minor surface work, and the mine dump. The inside of the mine was interesting... the working face had a pile of rock in front of it, like it had just been shot, but hadn't been hauled out yet.

We searched for quite a while, but couldn't locate the vertical shaft that the mine was supposed to have had, or where any of the mine buildings were located. Perhaps a return trip (once the leaves fall from the trees) is in order?

BACK