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REFERENCE
SECTION: GHOST TOWNS & ABANDONED MINES
HOUGHTON MINE, GOODSPRINGS DISTRICT, NEVADA (2009) |
The Houghton Mine
(also referred to as the Victory Mine) is located in the Goodsprings
Mining District, between Jean & Goodsprings, Nevada. Little
information is available on the Houghton Mine that I've been able
to find, but the Nevada Bureau of Mines lists the dates of operation
as 1917-1944, with the primary metal being mined as Zinc. The mine
has been scoured of equipment & materials.
Goodsprings was named for cattle rancher Joe Good, who used to water
his herd at the springs named after him. The town of Goodsprings
thrives to this day, but has many reminders of its glorified mining
past. In fact, there is an effort underway to have the former grade
of the Yellow Pine Mining Railroad designated as a trail under the
federal Rails To Trails program. The mining district extends well
beyond Goodsprings and generally incorporates mines around Sandy
Valley & the Potosi Mountain range as well. This section covers
a wide area throughout the district, including photos in & around
Goodsprings township proper.
Strikes in the area were recorded beginning in the early 1880s,
but high transportation costs stymied development until the SP,LA&SL
Railroad (aka "The Salt Lake Route," forerunner of the
Union Pacific) rails were laid through Jean in 1905, less than 10
miles to the south. In 1882 the Keystone Mine was located west of
Goodsprings, and a small mill was constucted in the town. The Yellow
Pine Mining Company was formed in 1901, by combining several smaller
claims located in Porphyry Gulch, roughly 4 miles northwest of Goodsprings
town. The increase in ore output from the various area mines demanded
better transportation to the SP,LA&SL railhead at Jean, and
so in 1909 an attempt was made to acquire the remaining assets of
the defunct Quartette Mining Company's railroad (the locomotives
& some equipment had already been acquired by the Arden Plaster
Company); the deal was not consumated until more than a year later,
and the Yellow Pine Mining Company Railroad was completed in June,
1911. The railroad was approximately 12-1/2 miles long, and featured
steep grades all along its length: 4 to 5% in the "easy"
section out of Jean, and then up to 12% in short sections
along the rest of the route! Runaways and accidents were not uncommon
during the railroad's lifespan. The railroad ran from Jean northwards
into Goodsprings (where the Yellow Pine Mining Co. mill was also
located, along the railroad route), and then northwesterly to the
Yellow Pine Mine. Several other mines were also served by the railroad
along the way to enhance revenue, a very few with their own spurs.
Many of these mines are privately owned, and posted "No Trespassing."
If you don't have permission from the owners, please do not trespass
upon private property! The BLM has also been active in the area,
sealing off unsafe mine entrances & installing bat grates over
others (to support the native bat populations found within some
of the area mines). Many of these mines are very unstable and unsafe!
So please STAY OUT & STAY ALIVE! And in the meantime
enjoy some of my exclusive photos of the interiors of these mines
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OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Here's the middle adit, which only went back into the mountain about
20 feet, and we discovered this debris left behind by the volunteers
who tried to seal up the left adit: boxes that contained the expanding
polyurethane foam and their protective suits worn during their "work."
You gotta be kidding me! So let me get this straight: volunteers
go through a LOT of work to move rocks, open up packages of expanding
foam to seal off an adit, but then are too lazy to dispose of their
trash & unused foam bags, all of which would have fit in ONE
LARGE TRASH BAG?!?!? Unbelievable! I am thoroughly disgusted. What's
worse: leaving these mines open for exploration and risking the
occasional knucklehead who might get hurt inside, or creating a
greater nuisance while attempting to seal these mines up by leaving
behind such quantities of litter? |
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Back
to Houghton Mine Page |
Back
to Goodsprings Mining District Page |
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to Ghost Towns & Mines Page
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