King & Kinney Mine May, 2000

Route Information

We had been waiting all winter to resume our explorations. Finally our schedules allowed us to bail from work for a day in mid-May. We had some new equipment and wanted to test some new systems we had in place. We decided to visit the West Fork Miller River area, a hotbed of mining activity in the early 1900's. The King & Kinney mine would be our first focus, since it seemed fairly easy to get to and advertised some interesting relics from the past.

West Fork Miller River 'road'

By the time we had driven up the Miller River road and found the unmarked trailhead, it was 8:30 am. We started hiking up the rocky trail, stopped many times to adjust our packs, which now had heavy rubber boots and other mine exploring paraphernalia strapped or hanging on. We had preset some waypoints for the GPS to find the old cedar tree, which would mark the cutoff point on the road to the mine, 1.4 miles up the road. Unfortunately, after about .5 miles, the road makes it's way along some steep cliffs up on the right side, and the satellites were no where to be found.

Taking a break before the climb to the mine

After about 1.2 miles, the cliffs subsided and the GPS locked in. We kept on track to the cedar tree waypoint, and soon the unit was informing us that the cedar tree would appear in 1 minute. Lo and behold, we looked up to see an old grizzled cedar tree standing in a small clearing at the right side of the road. Interestingly, we had not seen many cedar trees along the road until this one. Closer inspection revealed a thick cable hanging from the tree. Evidently this was the remains of a tramway that was used to transfer ore down from the King & Kinney. It had taken about 1/2 hour to reach the cedar tree, and we stopped here for a short rest.

A shot of the clearing and base of the cedar tree

We stepped past the cedar tree and started up the hillside into the steep woods. After a few minutes of steep climbing, the angle of the slope lessened. The travel became easier, and the woods there were quite open. Soon we saw some large scat - Bear! We would see other signs on subsequent trips in this area. After about 20 minutes or so, we started to angle right up the slope, contouring around the brushy talus slope to the right and below us.

A short traverse then brought the old wooden frame of the mine's powerhouse into view. Evidently the last group of miners had used a gas powered air compressor to power the drills. We set down our gear for a while, the checked out the relics. A penny from a few years back gave evidence of recent visitors.

The remains of the old powerhouse and air compressor

All geared up, with the King & Kinney mine entrance behind

After taking some pictures, we continued on the path up from the powerhouse a few feet, to where we could see the mine and rotting timbers framing the entrance. The area outside the mine was full of green plants, like a grotto, with views down to the valley. The mine itself was not very welcoming - peering into it revealed deep water and of course, darkness. It seemed to be full of one to two feet of water as far as we could see back. A raised section all the way down the middle hinted at the remains of the old ore cart railway that was once used. However, we were prepared. We sorted out all our gear, figured out what we would need, and then pulled on the rubber boots. Let's go!

The adit didn't make us feel too warm and fuzzy

But we were prepared to go in anyway

We went in as far as the collapsed area

We slogged through the water for the first 200 feet or so, the light from the adit fading slowly. Then it turned slightly left, and we lost all contact with the light from the outside world. Our headlamps and flashlights were surprisingly ineffective deep inside the earth. The sloshing of our boots, and the dripping of the water from overhead put us in a sensory deprivation state. Fortunately, as we went in deeper, we started seeing interesting thin stringers of glittering minerals on the ceiling and walls. This gave us a focus.

We found a shovel evidently left by one of the Seven Dwarves

Soon we came to the left turn in the tunnel, where the rock was now not as solid. This was collapsed and looked dangerous. End of the line for us. We finished our pictures and tried to collect some of the glittering material. Someone else had been here with a rock hammer also. We slogged out of the mine, into the bright sun and packed up. We retraced our route down past the compressor, and tried to shortcut the traverse. Bad move. We practiced slide alder tightrope walking for a while. The road was soon reached, and ate lunch quickly. We then started up the road to our next goal, the Una mine.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information about the mine and route.
• Walks and Hikes in the Foothills and Lowlands : Around Puget Sound - Manning. Good text about West Fork Miller river and mining junk in the area.