Inyo Mines

We have made a couple trips into the Inyo Mountains, mostly to escapee from the wind, but since we were going, might as well check out some old mine junk.  Or at least that was my philosophy when I created the loops.  My inspiration for this particular area of the Inyos was the view I had from the top of Mount Nunn.  The more I looked, the more interesting things I saw, so I put it on the list.  In case you don't know, the list has an annoying tendency to be the whole world.  Every time we hike, I say, wow that area over there looks so interesting, we should do a hike.  And Bob says, put it on the list.  Hey, I finally got to cross a couple things off the list.

First up is the Harlis and Broady Mine.  Using my amazing map ability, I grabbed my pen and created a route that used some old roads, did a bit of cross county and visited the mines.  A mere five miles.  Piece of cake.  Or at least it was on the map.  In person that tiny stretch of off-trail involved crossing over a snow covered limestone ridge and then getting up another ridge.  Oh bother.  It took a bit longer than I anticipated on paper, but none the less was a lovely day.

We start our adventure on the road.

We are still on the road.

Yep, still road.

Now we are not on the road.

If you look closely you can see Bob and Hikin' Bill.  This was the wee ridge we had to get up and over.

What a cool set of tracks.

Our next adventure took us to the Nikolaus Eureka and Loretto Mines and the Bristlecone Mill.  We think there were two mines in this area named Nikolaus Eureka.  The first one we came upon was a giant talc soapstone mine, the other several mine shafts.  The talc mine was in operation from 1945-1970.

Looking down on the Loretto Copper Mine.

Apparently, the talc mine crew lived on Coors.

It even has the kitchen sink...

and one of these...

That was one big mine.

Bob is doing something stupid.

Unused claim markers

I guess one stupid thing deserves another.

The big dig.

This is the Loretto Copper Mine.  It operated from 1907-1908 and had at its peak 150 people living in stone and wood houses.  We didn't head back through the remains of the town, but it and an original trail on the hill behind Hikin' Bill will make another good mid-winter adventure.  I've added it to the list.

Nikolaus Eureka Mine, part two.

Anyone up for journey to the center of the earth?

And this is how you got out of that pit.  Not for me.

Below is what is left of the Bristlecone Copper Company Mill site after clean up.  The mill ran for a few years in the 1970's using left over ore from the Loretto Copper Mine.  It must have been a serious clean up as the BLM even went in and turned the former road into a series of 18 inch deep rolling corduroy.  Can anyone say mini super fund site?

Yep, they filled the tank with cement.