Mines, Mines and mines...

[ExpUt]

It has been an INSANE week.. I just got back from a 1000 mile road trip through Southern Utah, kicked off by once in a lifetime mine tour last Wednesday. I'll update more details as I get time but I was able to check out the Wasatch Drain Tunnel and the Emma Mine (via the Bay City Tunnel) in Little Cottonwood Canyon as part of a special tour. Before you say a word, YES I am working on duplicating this tour for Mojave Underground members... patience! I'll do my best to make it happen. Through this tour and a Monday meeting with Corey's LC contact (really cool dude named Brent), I have identified 3 additional openings in Little Cottonwood Canyon, again, I'll detail more as I sort everything out.

In addition to that I spent Wed-Saturday in the Maze District of Canyonlands, was able to see the Crystal Geiser near Green River explode (a Oil Well that broke into natural CO2 pockets) and then visited and explored a mine in the San Rafael Swell and a couple of coal mine sites along the road to Skyline Drive (above Castle Dale). I'm just plain beat!

[Stuart]

Wow, what a week for you Kurt! That would be amazing if you can get us a tour, if you need any help doing this let us know. How was the Wasatch Drain Tunnel? Any pictures? Tell me more!

We have also had a pretty busy week getting ready for yesterdays events. We will be making a post about this really soon.

[ExpUt]

Wasatch Drain tunnel was really neat. It is extremely well secured, in fact the tunnel we used to enter it was actually blasted in the 90's to provide a better access. We only went in ~1/4 mile at which point the tunnel is "plugged" and flooded to act as an underground reservoir. They have a giant filtration plant right in the middle of the tunnel

I'll get some pics up ASAP and we'll be chatting about the tour I hope.

How did the BBQ turn out?

[Mike]

Wow thats an amazing trip! Needless to say I'm quite jealous. I've been wanting to make a trip to southern utah for quite sometime now. We once had one planned, but due to gas prices, it never happened. Can't wait to see the pics!

[ExpUt]

Just downloaded my pics, I'll eventually get full galleries up but here are a few teasers in the meantime

Wasatch Drain Tunnel:


Bay City Tunnel (Emma):



The Maze:


Crystal Geyser:


Adit in SR Swell:

[Stuart]

The drain tunnel looks awesome! Its got the bolts and chain link and everything. You sure have a way of making me jealous. Hope you can get more pictures up soon. The BBQ was awesome, we are waiting on Cheever to get some more pix up of the Ophir Hill trip we took Saturday morning.

[ExpUt]

The drain tunnel looks awesome! Its got the bolts and chain link and everything. You sure have a way of making me jealous. Hope you can get more pictures up soon. The BBQ was awesome, we are waiting on Cheever to get some more pix up of the Ophir Hill trip we took Saturday morning.

The bolted and chained portion is actually a much newer tunnel (1985), that was cut to make a clean entrance to the old tunnel (that used to come out under an old building in Alta). From the bottom of that tunnel (~300ft) we intersected the actual Wasatch Drain Tunnel which of course connect many of the mines in Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Little Cottonwood drainage. As an interesting note the mailman used to deliver mail to Brighton via the Wasatch Drain Tunnel, too funny.

So you went back out to Ophir Hill eh? What areas did you explore? I'm interested in seeing your pics! What else did you check out?

I want to meet up with you guys (MU Officers specifically) one of these nights and talk about some of the little projects & opportunities I've been working on, besides the Little Cottonwood Mines I've detailed recently (6 openings now), I'm working on getting us into one of the major Park City mines, a tour similar to that of the Harley/Ophir Hill and my recent Little Cottonwood tour, ie completely legal and hosted by an extremely knowledgeable guide. There are some details that I need to figure out but I'm sure we can work on something! I'm free most evenings, and days too if thats better for you. We could meet over lunch or here at my place, talk it over and let me know!

[Derek]

Kurt,

We are planning a trip this Saturday with Gold Rush out to the Dugway range. Are you going to be able to make this trip? If so we could possibly talk about it then.

Derek

[ExpUt]

Kurt,

We are planning a trip this Saturday with Gold Rush out to the Dugway range. Are you going to be able to make this trip? If so we could possibly talk about it then.

Derek

I'm not sure if I can make it or not though I'm trying. I'm supposed to hike some Little Cottonwood and American Fork mines with a friend on Sunday and don't want to miss his "guided" tour. If I can re-schedule I'll try and come out Saturday night as I have a wedding Saturday afternoon.

[Crystal]

Wow, you have been busy! If you could get us into a Park City mine that would be awesome!!
We defiantly all need to sit down and work something out.
Delivering mail using a drain tunnel would be pretty exciting.
In Ophir Hill we made our way back to the stope with all the silver ore, we also took a branch off to the big room and ore bins. We found a funny saying "This way out" and followed it up the stope to where it let to a large pool of water. Good trip.

[UnderUtah]

The Park City tour sounds like a great opportunity. I remember the now defunct Park City Silver Mine Adventure, and decending 1500' into the Ontario in complete awe some number of years ago. What a mine! Looks like you have had a lot of fun lately! Ophir Hill was a fun tour, Stuart acted as our docent and led us into a number of new areas including a huge stope with an almost perfect, faultless hanging wall lying at about 20 degrees that extended up and down an incline with a free span of at least 500' x 150' in the largest section. Many hand-stacked rock walls and pillars and a large ore bin were discovered in the stope. While everyone picked at the galena Stu and I followed a muddy, mucky river of orange and black custard reaching nearly a foot deep in places to its terminus about 1500' further back than we had earlier explored. The mine had dried-out in places, but the big incline we saw last time was pouring steam like simmering tea kettle. Amazing how dynamic these spaces are. We had along Alan Farnham, Senior Editor at Forbes during the entire day of exploring and BBQing. He seemed to have a great time experiencing the Ophir Hill with our group and meeting and greeting our luminaries at the BBQ. The real trip took place in the wee hours leading-up to the actual event - we had to change plans a few times and after no sleep and a number of persuasive phone calls Mike and Stu regained holy favor and we were given unprecedented access to the mine. Apparently our efforts in carrying the battery box out of the mine coupled with Harley's endorsement really impressed Leo. On this trip we filled a few garbage bags on our way out to help leave a good impression. All in all a great time - wish you could have made it!

Miah

[Stuart]

Yes.

I want to meet up with you guys (MU Officers specifically) one of these nights and talk about some of the little projects & opportunities I've been working on, besides the Little Cottonwood Mines I've detailed recently (6 openings now), I'm working on getting us into one of the major Park City mines, a tour similar to that of the Harley/Ophir Hill and my recent Little Cottonwood tour, ie completely legal and hosted by an extremely knowledgeable guide. There are some details that I need to figure out but I'm sure we can work on something! I'm free most evenings, and days too if thats better for you. We could meet over lunch or here at my place, talk it over and let me know!

My schedule is packed, but I think I may be able to work something out. We will get back with you soon on a time/day/meeting location. I love it when things work out and we are able to get a really good legit tour of a mine, I'll do almost anything to get a look underneath Park City Apparently from what we have seen this last weekend the name Mojave Underground is being associated more and more with responsible, experienced, and educated mine exploration. In using the proper channels and doing small favors we are making big progress!

[Mike]

Very much interested in the PC area and its mines. Were working on finding a time we can all get together and visit.

I've got the Gallery photos from the Set 27th trip uploaded in the gallery.

http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery...p?g2_itemId=29

Look forward to some good discussion.

[ExpUt]

I've been doing some research on the Emma (Bay City) and the Wasatch Drain Tunnel this afternoon in between work. Man what I would give to get to do some more exploring in their (hoping to make it happen).

The Wasatch Drain Tunnel connects into some of the major mines in Big Cottonwood Canyon (Maxfield, Cardiff, Columbus-Rexall, etc). As its name would suggest it was built to drain the water out of some large operations. All said its been said its nearly 50 miles of connected workings. It can still be accessed in several different locations, I'm not sure if the connection is still 100% possible but there is plenty of exploring left to do!

The Emma (which we accessed via the Bay City Tunnel) was no different, it was worked from the early 1870's to 1918, producing over 4 million dollars in silver. Its workings are likely somewhere in the. The Emma Ridge between Big & Little Cottonwood Canyon has nearly 100 miles of passages, this mine likely in the 20 mile range? The Emma gained major fame when it nearly brought the US and England to war in 1873, it took an apology from a US President (Grant) to settle the matter.

Sorry for the low res but this map will give you an idea how many mines there are in the Big/Little Cottonwood Area, all of the red lines are underground workings

[ExpUt]

...All in all a great time - wish you could have made it! ...

Wow, it really sounds like an epic opportunity. Hope to join you on the next visit!

...My schedule is packed, but I think I may be able to work something out. We will get back with you soon on a time/day/meeting location...

Very much interested in the PC area and its mines. Were working on finding a time we can all get together and visit...

Sounds good, we'll chat more then.

So Stuart, ya have your own key to the Ophir Hill now