The Accident Mine is located in the White Pine mining
district of southern Nevada. The district was worked from the mid 1800s through
the mid 1900s. Lead and Zinc were the primary minerals with lesser amounts of
copper and gold extracted as well.
The Accident Mine is one of a series of mines along this east
facing ridge. This mine site is in better shape than many others in the area
because it's such a challenge climbing up to it. |
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The mine had an aerial tramway to haul ore from the mine down to
the base of the ridge. My son leads the way up the hill following the
cable. |
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Looking back down the ravine. |
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This gives you an idea of just how rugged this terrain is. It is
hard to believe the prospectors were out exploring these mountains in the
1800's. |
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We finally made it up to the level of the ore hopper. I'm just
amazed that the miners hauled all the equipment and supplies up the side of
this ridge. |
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The ore hopper is still in pretty good shape. Mines with "drive up"
access generally show the negative effects. |
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Matt climbed up and checked out the inside of the hopper. |
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Looking eastward towards Jean Nevada. |
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This is looking back down the way we climbed up. I wouldn't want to
make this climb during the heat of the summer. |
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A couple of pictures of the inside of the hopper. |
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This is a round chute is attached to the ore hopper. |
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The large cable is one of the tramway cables that runs all the way
to the base of the ridge. The smaller cables appear to have been to support the
hopper and other machinery no longer in place. |
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We aren't sure what was here. It may have been the air compressor
but we can't be certain. |
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From the ore hopper you can see mine track running across the top
of the tailings. |
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We noticed an adit a but further up the ridge. We hiked up to it
and found this little table. It was nice and cool so we took a few minutes to
grab a drink and cool off. |
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We followed the drift until we reemerged well above the mine
track. |
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One of the large cables is anchored to the rock a ways inside the
mine. |
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I'm guessing that this indicates that the cable is 7/8 of an inch
thick. |
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This stope leads downward then drops down into a lower level drift
. |
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This is one of the few places in the mine that was shored up with
timbers. |
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After exiting the upper level, we hiked back down to the main level
and followed the mine track to the adit. |
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Here's the main adit for the mine. |
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