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

Little Bighorn, MT - Cabela's, Billings, MT - Livingston, MT - Cameron, MT - Victor, ID - Grand Teton National Park, WY

Thursday, June 6 - Monday, June 17, 2024

We've been busy seeing things and I haven't had time to update my blog.  Thankful for a day to catch up.

On Thursday, June 6 we drove to 7th Ranch RV Camp in Garryowen, MT for two nights.  We had full hookups for $53.25 per night.  It was a nice campground and they even give you 2 tokens for a 'free' ice cream.

We went to Little Bighorn National Monument on a beautiful, windy Friday.  They had a very good park ranger program and a video on the battle and battlefield.  The park ranger brought out some good points about how the culture was in the day.  Although Custer seemed a bit arrogant he was following orders - to get the Indians on reservations.  It wasn't right, but that was the mentality back then.

It was very sobering to see the gravestones of the soldiers and the Indians scattered all over the hills.  The actual battle took place over about a five miles stretch of the hills.  It's beautiful country with a sad story.

On Saturday we drove to Billings, MT to Costco to get the truck tires rotated.  First we went to Walmart and got resupplied, then to Costco, then we spent the night in the Cabela's parking lot.

It was pretty warm but cooled down at night, and the interstate noise wasn't bad either.  We took turns going into the store.  I bought a little lantern and John bought some new boots.

Sunday morning we left for Yellowstone's Edge RV Park near Livingston, MT.  My cousin and his wife who we went to Alaska with, Bill and Lisa, are staying there for a few months.  It's a beautiful area and I can see why they like to stay there!  It was $82.62 per night for full hookups.  A little pricey but worth it to see family.  The weather was rainy with a thunderstorm so neither one of us got a picture of the campground.  We went out to the Emigrant's Outpost for dinner.  It was really good to see them again!

Monday morning we headed to Blue Moon Saloon and RV Park in Cameron, MT for three nights.  It was full hookups for $54.94 with a military discount.

It was a nice little campground out in the middle of nowhere, but quiet and a perfect place for a base camp for visits to Earthquake Lake and Virginia City.

We went to Earthquake Lake area on Tuesday.  On the night of August 17,1959 there was a 7.5 earthquake in the Madison River Canyon.  Eighty million tons of rock collapsed into the Madison River at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, moving up the other side of the canyon.  I had seen pictures of the slide but nothing prepares you for the scope of it.  Truly amazing. Twenty-eight people who were camping nearby lost their lives, and the slide dammed the river, forming Earthquake Lake.  Helicopters were sent in to rescue the people that were trapped because the roads were either flooded or broken and they couldn't get out either way.  They quickly made a channel to release the Madison River.  There was also damage to the Hebgen Dam upriver from Earthquake Lake.  If you're interested you can watch a video about it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8r82QpXM8&ab_channel=ForestService.  

Part of an old tourist cabin area.

This was part of the old road that now ends in the lake.

The slide area.

We didn't pack a lunch but we should have.  It took mostly all day to see everything.  We ended up in West Yellowstone at the Old Town Cafe.  I had a hamburger and John had fish and chips.  Both were very good.

The next day we went to Virginia City and Nevada City, MT.   Gold was discovered in Alder Gulch in 1863.  Within weeks Virginia City was a boom town of thousands.  Between Virginia City and Nevada City (1-1/2 miles away) over 100 million dollars was mined in the 18th and 19th centuries.  In the early 1860s, during the first three seasons, over 30 million dollars was taken out of the gulch.  The discovery of gold in Last Chance Gulch (Helena) in the summer of 1864 foretold the coming decline of Virginia City. Many residents soon moved to Helena. Virginia City's population collapsed to only a few hundred in the early 1870s and never recovered. In 1875, the territorial capital was relocated from Virginia City to Helena. After 1900, few new buildings were constructed in Virginia City and many old structures collapsed. Some were destroyed by fire or torn down.  In 1889 there was interest in preserving the town.  Today it is the best preserved example of an old mining town.  Many of the store owners just up and left, leaving everything intact in their stores.  

We rode the train from Virginia City to Nevada City and back.  It followed Alder Creek.

After we ate our picnic lunch we drove to Nevada City.  I had purchased a pass for the train ride, Nevada City Museum, and panning.  I didn't realize that the museum was a living history museum, with buildings being brought in from other locations to preserve them.  It was interesting, but we've been to other living history museums, so if I'd realized what this was I probably wouldn't have purchased the pass.

Ever seen a two story outhouse before?

After we walked around the town we went to the River of Gold panning area.  One would think by the name that we would be panning for gold, but it turned out to be garnets.  We got one pan each, and we both thought that would last very long, but it took me an hour to pan mine.  We got a few pretty garnets.

Thursday, June 13 we packed up and went to Mike Harris Campground near Victor, ID for four nights.  Bob and Gail Speer, friends from our Montana group, are workamping here for the summer.  It's a forest service campground, $15 per night with electric and our senior pass.  It's been fun catching up with our friends. We went out for Father's Day dinner to the Knotty Pine Supper Club. It was really good and pretty reasonable.

Right now as I write this it's very lightly snowing.  Much better than the heat and humidity at home.

On Saturday we went to Grand Teton National Park.  We had been there before on our way back from Alaska, but it was cold and raining and we couldn't see anything.  This time it was a beautiful sunny day with some wind.  We used our GyPSy tour guide (now GuideAlong).  They have many audio tours that are satellite based.  It senses where you are in a place and tells you about what's up next.  We really like them (except for their earth is millions of years old theory).  Here are some Teton pictures.

This is the house at Murie Ranch.  The Murie brothers and wives were instrumental in saving the elk herds and proposed many conservation efforts.  It was a very cozy house.

This is from the same angle as when Ansel Adams took his famous picture with the Snake River in the foreground.

Overlooking Jenny Lake

We looked ahead at the weather and decided to stay here two more nights.  We would have been traveling today in the rain, and we would have missed the snow, such as it is.

I can see I need to do the blog more often to break it up.  But sometimes I'm having such a good time I forget all about it.

Wednesday we're heading north.  Again the Lord is providing sites for us.  We are so blessed to be able to take this trip!

We'll be Roving on...

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

Genesis 1:1