Una Mine June, 2000

Route Information

It took us 2 trips to finally find the Una mine. It shouldn't be that difficult to locate, we just got messed up with trying to estimate elevation without adequate reference points.

This waterfall up the hill from the road is a landmark

Our first attempt started after descending from the King & Kinney mine earlier in the day. We had stopped to eat lunch near the old cedar tree, and then started up the West Fork Miller road for a ways, reading the route description from our trusty 'mine book'. Everything was showing up as planned - a glimpse up the hillside at a nice waterfall, and then shortly the densely wooded slope which met the shoulder of the old roadway. We started up into the steep woods for a hundred feet or so, then angled up right through in a more gently angled wooded slope. Orange flagging led the way through most of it.

The route up the steep wooded slope towards the Una camp

Soon we reached an open area, which in May was just starting to show the brackens emerging. Later in June, this area would be thick with the ferns. We made our way up to the top right-hand corner of this spot, to enter the woods again. Up we went in woods, still steep. We now were on the lookout for the old 'wagon road', which would take us to the Una campsite. A hundred feet or so after the bracken meadow, a faint path in the woods could be seen switchbacking up. We followed this up (flagging again) and the path became more pronounced as it made its way up the hillside in the brush. More like a trail, this wagon road was probably wide enough for a cart pulled by a mule or horse at the turn of the century. It was interesting to see what had grown into and over the path in the years since.

The wagon road here is well defined as it switchbacks up

After a couple switchbacks, the wagon road mysteriously ended. 50 feet more or so of vertical feet put us at the old Una campsite, which was identified by the little rock forge. Close by were the pieces of the old stove. Further over was a flat area, which possibly was the location of a small building. However, nothing much was remaining, indicating the probability that materials were salvaged at some point. The climb to the camp area had taken us almost an hour.

Now, the key was to make our way into the gully to the west and climb up a ways to where the mine was located. Seemed pretty easy. A few switchbacks took us uphill from the camp, and from there we beat some brush and found ourselves overlooking the small streamcourse and gully. 150 feet of vertical distance would put us to the spot where the adit was located.

All that remains of the Una mining camp

A close-up photo of the old stove fragments

We climbed up the gulch, sometimes along huge logs that found themselves lodged in the creek. Soon we came upon a vertical step in the stream, which was cascading down a pretty 'step' waterfall. We figured that 150 feet would put us about at the top of the waterfall. Hmmm. Funny that the description didn't mention the waterfall. We hung on to branches and anything else we could cling to, and made our way up the steep rocks and greenery on the right side of the waterfall. Soon we attained more level (but brushy) ground, and we perched more or less on the top of the waterfall. This was a good viewpoint back down to the river valley and across to the slopes on the other side of the West Fork Miller. We started finding what we thought to be ore chunks dropped during transfer from the mine years ago. No Una mine however.

A 2DrX member climbing the gully near the Una mine

We continued up searching for the adit, realizing that our chances of finding it were diminishing the higher we went. We must be way too far now. What went wrong? Why were we finding ore up there? Time constraints dictated that we should give up. Rather than descend via the waterfall, we crossed the creek and headed slightly west into the woods, and planned to descend around the step waterfall to approximately the camp area. After a brutal bushwhack, and a few branch rappels, we miraculously found the spot where we entered the gulch from the camp. Exhausted and beat up at this point, we made our way back down the wagon road and route to the West Fork road, and stumbled back down the road to the car.

During the next three weeks, we came to the conclusion that somehow we had passed the mine - that it was below the 'step' waterfall. In mid-June, we again had the opportunity to get away, and found ourselves hauling our equipment up the West Fork road again.

The brush and vine maple was starting to take over the old road, the old cedar being almost hidden by the new growth. We made pretty good time up the route to the Una camp, reaching it in about 2 hours. We used our radios and split up, one of us heading towards the gulch in a lower angle than before. Reports were positive, so we began our ascent of the gulch here and the estimating process for the 150 vertical feet.

Finally, we located the Una mine. Tin can used to hold claim notice

One of us took a radio and scouted ahead, climbing up the logs in the gully. After about 50 feet, it was easy to spot a slight path left on the gully that led to the adit in the woods. Radio confirmation then had our remaining member ferrying the packs and gear up. We now knew that on our previous trip we had entered the gulch too far up. 150 feet would have put us about at the middle of the 'step' waterfall and past the adit.

A 2DrX member at one of the dead-ends in the mine

The adit was on the side of the steep rocky hillside, in the woods. We quickly got our gear sorted out and prepared to enter the mine. The first part of the mine was flooded, which made us glad we lugged our rubber boots up the hillside. We stepped past some old relics, including what seemed to be an old drying oven, now submerged in the water. After 10 more feet or so, the tunnel floor was now dry. It winded back and branched after 30 feet. Both forks of the tunnel dead-ended after 20 feet or so. We were able to see some of the ore remaining, which is made up of black tourmaline (schorl) and hammered off some samples to take back.

We climbed up and looked at the huge blacksmith bellows

We had read about the old blacksmith bellows, located up the hillside about 30 feet and made the short climb to the natural cave where it sat. We were surprised how big it actually was and took some photos of it. [Webmaster note: as of May 2003, this artifact is missing.] After this, we loaded up and started back down the gully on our way back. We had plans that day to also bag the Coney mine up the valley.

The one item that remained a mystery was the fact that we had picked up pieces of the black tourmaline in spots high above the step waterfall. How did they get there? We guess that they must occur naturally there. Subsequent trips to the area revealed some baseball-sized pieces down on the road itself. Rounded from tumbling around in the spring runoff on the road, these rocks glisten when broken.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information about the mine and route.