Mackay Mine Hill Tour, ID

 June 19 - 20, 2024

On Wednesday, June 19 we said goodbye to Bob and Gail and spent our 48th wedding anniversary driving to Mackay, Idaho.

We're at the White Knob Motel & RV Park for three nights. It's full hookups for $38.88 per night with the Good Sam discount.  We have a pretty view out the back window and an aspen tree out the side.

Today we went on the Mackay Mine Hill Tour.  Mining in the area started in 1884. Our first stop on the self-guided tour was the Smelter Site and Hardrock Mining Exhibit.  The site was the location of a smelter complex built in 1901-02. Most smelter facility ruins have been removed, but many features remain, including an 8-hole company outhouse, the restored Shay Engine House and the Blacksmith & Machine shop.

The white dots are sunlight coming in through the roof.

Our second stop was the Aerial Tramway Tensioners & Towers. The tramway consisted of a 1-1/2" dia. fixed cable in a loop more than six miles long, affixed to each side of the towers.  The ore buckets dangled on their rollers from this cable, pulled or restrained by a 3/4" traveling cable.  The tramway operated on gravity power; the loaded ore buckets going down pulled the empty, or often loaded ore buckets back up.  Most of the 36 tramway towers have been dismantled or fallen down, leaving only the remnants of what was erected in 1917.

Overview of the mine tour.

The third stop was the compressor building, located at the 1600 foot level, along with the smaller metal clad buildings and remnants of a wooden cabin.  This air compressor station was constructed in 1917-18.  Two 227 HP tubular boilers were in the compressor building to supply steam for the air compressors.  The air was sent throughout the mine by pipes and hoses to miner's drills and jack hammers.  In the 1940s, the building was converted to an electricity plant, but major mining ended shortly thereafter.

The fourth stop was the Horseshoe Mine and Taylor Sawmill.  The mine site was first developed in 1903, with first recorded production in 1916, mostly ore with a high content of lead.  The site had two major tunnels 875 and 1,225 feet long, but never had a concentration plant, so all ore was shipping out for processing.  The last recorded production was in 1978.  Output totals since 1903 include 3,896,442 lbs. of lead, 1,113,821 lbs. of zinc, 257,945 lbs. of copper, 129,686 lbs. of silver, and 110 oz. of gold.  The sawmill site (adjacent to the mine) was established about 1908 on a claim filed by Haniel S. Taylor, who raised a large family at this site.  The sawmill operated from 1912 to about 1927, providing lumber for the area's mines.  The sawmill is long gone, but a blacksmith shop, office building, bunkhouse, and the family cook shack remain.  All are built of sawn lumber from the sawmill by family members who occupied the site until 1943.  The elevation there is 8,050'.

Next was the Anderson Cabin.  The Anderson homesite dates back to 1916 when the family was working in the mines.  Charly Anderson arrived in the area in 1903 and his family worked the mines for at least 80 years.  The second cabin was built in 1921.  The cabin standing today was built in 1948 with timbers from the original structures and was renovated in 2007.  It was actually quite a large cabin.

The road at the beginning of the tour was very good, but got very rocky and rough the higher we went.  They say you can take your automobile on the roads that are green but I wouldn't take my car on it!

We drove the top green route and decided not to do the blue route, which they said was ok for trucks but looked a little sketchy.  Things we missed were the headhouse for the aerial tramway, another cabin, White Knob townsite and Cliff City townsite, a smelter, railroad trestle and ore bins.

After we got back down the mountain we went to Mackay Reservoir.  The Joe T. Fallini Campground is there.  We had driven through many years ago on our way to Montana and wanted to look at it again.  It's a nice campground but first come first serve, so makes it difficult to get in.  The campground was full when we drove through.  We looked at a couple of boondocking sites right outside the campground as it's BLM land but there wasn't a lot of level ground.

Tomorrow is another outing!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Genesis 1:1