Grand Central Mine April, 2004

Route Information

We decided to plan a return to the Grand Central Mine early in the spring - actually not a real return, since we never found it last year. After exploring the Mohawk Mine last January, we attempted to locate the Grand Central Mine, and spent an hour or so on the forested hillside just above Money Creek before giving up. This time we would find it.

We parked at the turnout and packed up for the climb

The weather wasn't looking too great, at least not like the last few nice weekends. We met at the gas station and were in no hurry, getting something to eat and relaxing. Soon we were speeding up US 2, past the small town speed traps and a few state patrol cars that seemed to be setting up shop for the weekend. The Money Creek exit came quickly, and we soon arrived in the small hamlet of Miller River (identified by the house with all the cars and the Tyvek on the sides, no signs of the siding project being completed for the last few years.) We turned up the Money Creek road, and soon were at the concrete bridge 1/2 a mile up.

Hauling gear up the road just before the uphill trail

Here we veered left up a non-signed spur road that parallels Money Creek for a while and climbs up the side of Temple Mountain. We put the truck in 4WD and climbed slowly up the rough water bars that appeared every so often. The road wasn't bad though, and someone had been up recently with a chain saw to log it out. We continued until the odometer registered .5 miles. Here was a small turnoff on the right, and we pulled over. This was approximately the same spot that we started out last year, at an elevation of about 1135'.

Steep climb following flagging up the open forest hillside

We finished packing up all of our stuff, bringing the rubber boots and helmets because we knew virtually nothing about conditions inside the Grand Central. Our tune selection on this trip would be "Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes" and we listened for a while before starting up the road. We only had to walk a few feet up the road before we saw flagging off to the side, and a suspicious foot path leading into the woods. We started climbing up the open forest.

Examining the main adit of the Grand Central mine

Someone had flagged the heck out of the route, so all we did was follow flag after flag (seemingly every few feet). As we climbed, we recognized the area from last January. However, now we veered more right as we climbed up the hillside. Last year we had climbed more left up the hill, and scoured the hillside to the far left. Wrong way. It was a steep route for one of the first outings of the year; after about 1/2 hour of climbing we finally arrived at the cliffs on the hillside and the Grand Central adit - elevation about 1400'. Out came the mini-Sony stereo, and we rested for a while and took pictures.

Starting into the bowels of the mine, view is out towards the portal

After goofing around filming movie footage with our cameras, we finally dug out our helmets, rubber boots and lights. Unfortunately, at that point the song playing was Led Zeppelin's "In My Time Of Dying" - not great inspirational music for going deep in a strange mine, and a song that even Led Zeppelin refused to play on tour due to superstition among band members. Bummer. We started in anyway, taking pictures as we went.

We had no idea really what we would find inside the mine, since there was no detailed written reference. We knew there was a winze somewhere to be avoided. We halfway expected was something like a hundred feet of tunnel into the hillside, ending in a deadend. It turned out to be quite different. One of us went in first, with the other coming along after a minute or so. The tunnel curved back slightly, and after about 190 feet we both met up at what seemed to be the end of the line. Or was it?

The first person in was stopped, not at a dead-end, but stooped down at a low spot at the 'end', shining his light though what seemed to be a small hole. Huh? It was slightly claustrophobic and confusing for a while. Could we go any further?

Looking through the small caved opening, can't quite tell...

... whether if it was safe enough to continue through the opening

Off to the right was a high stope and a rickety ladder leaning up

The 'hole' was small because a large slab of rock had fallen down just past, almost sealing up the tunnel at that point. Looking though more revealed a large stoped area off to the right - we couldn't quite see the top, but could see an old ladder leaning up near the bottom. Much rockfall was strewn around. Yuck. It wasn't obvious what was to the left.

To the left were tilted walls, and a large timber laying in mud

After much hesitation, one of us plowed through the opening and scanned around what turned out to be quite a large space underground. The Grand Central 'Station' was the result of miners stoping upwards, carving out a large amount of rock which was believed to contain ore. The right side of the stoped area went up about 30 feet, and timbers were placed up above to (what we believe) support the miners and equipment as they worked up higher. We didn't go over there, feeling more at ease to view from a distance. (It is creepy to stand many feet underground in a spot where stoping has been done, illogically expecting something to come crashing down from high above.)

Water dripped down into the winze, water level 10 ft down

We turned to the left. The winze had to be somewhere nearby. The walls were tilted here, and we crossed a deep muddy area on a large timber placed as a makeshift bridge. After about 30 feet, a dark area loomed ahead, obviously the winze. Carefully, we inched towards it with our lights. Sure enough, some broken timbers lay on the ground ahead, with blackness below. Looking closely, we could see that the winze was full of water, but about 10 feet down. A person falling in probably would not be able to climb up the steep walls, not unlike a rat in a barrel. We each attempted to get the other to take closer pictures, but in this case there were no takers and we both settled for close enough.

We were surprised to see that the tunnel did not end at the winze. Instead, it made a right turn by the winze, past a pile of timbers into a creepy drippy section. One of us pushed on into this last section, following past the wet section, around a gentle curve, through some very reddish mud on the floor of the tunnel until it finally ended, in a normal dead-end fashion. After some quick pictures, we met back up near the stope section again. [Here is a rough sketch of the mine layout.]

A red muddy part of the tunnel was encountered before the end

There was one more person waiting to come out the caved area...

...and after some serious stooping he finally gets past the bad part

The uncomfortable feeling of being in a dark hole for too long was starting to set in, especially being on the wrong side of some minor caving activity. We made the decision to get out and arrived at the small hole to get back to the main tunnel. After an awkward crouch through it, we were tromping back toward daylight. The headlamps were getting dim, and the high powered flashlights getting hot. It felt good to get outside again.

Outside the adit, we packed up and listened to the small stereo. We took a quick hike above the portal, and looked at a small natural cave above. Somewhere higher was a collapsed tunnel, but we were too tired to climb any more. We then followed the numerous flags down again, this time the travel was easier. In a matter of minutes were were at the road and the truck again. The whole adventure had taken barely 2.5 hours.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Grand Central Mine information.