Kimball Creek Mines April, 2004

Our trip to the Kimball Creek mines took place after our exploration of the Grand Central Mine in April. After returning to the truck, we continued up the rough road, scraping through tree branches that increasingly poked deeper into the old roadway. The road bed was OK though, and after about 1/2 mile (past the Grand Central) we stopped at a large mound of dirt where the road made a switchback. We could have kept driving further on the old road, but we wanted to be here where the creek met the road.

We parked just before a washout and switchback in the road

We packed our lunches into our packs, and crossed the small creek. We could see where an old road bed had been, and followed it for the prescribed 150 feet. At this point, we cut up the gentle wooded hillside towards the Clara Mine. After a few minutes, we circled around a large tailings pile in the woods. In front of us appeared a dark adit in the dirt, the Clara Mine at about 1500'. It hadn't taken us long to get here, now being around 11:20 am.

The climb up to the Clara Mine was in a mossy forest

We peered into the darkness, at first seeing only a few beer cans inside. As our eyes adjusted, we could see a narrow dirt tunnel that had evidence of collapse. There was no way we were going in this mine! An old wheelbarrow frame and rusted "barrow" sat nearby. We sat around for a few minutes, took pictures and rested. We then started down the hill, returning back to the old roadbed and continued on.

The old road now hardly resembled a road - with brush everywhere and trees taking over in the middle. We weaved through the obstacles, nearing Kimball Creek which was increasingly noisy. We came to the edge of the creek and carefully made our way out onto the old "bridge" which used to span the creek - now resembling fallen logs arranged in a somewhat parallel direction. The crossing here was tricky, mainly because of the new small trees growing up from the bridge timbers. A fall wouldn't have been fatal, but also would not have been pleasant. We regrouped on the opposite side.

The Clara Mine dump had moss and debris covering it

The Clara Mine was collapsed and looked dangerous to enter

There was the remains of an old wheelbarrow outside the mine

From here, one could still see the remains of a roadbed. We kept walking along it, following a small muddy mineralized stream. After some careful footwork around the rusty water we came to the source of this stream - a large flooded, muddy tunnel at about 1350'. Again, going in this tunnel was out of the question. Evidently this used to the haulage tunnel to the road from the upper workings long ago. It was now about 11:45, and we decided to push on to the upper workings.

We crossed Kimball Creek on the remains of the old bridge

This gross looking water was emanating from a mine tunnel

The Mud Tunnel was the old haulage tunnel from the upper workings

Now we backtracked towards the creek again for a few feet, and turned south up the hillside. After about 80 feet, we found the flat area that used to be the home to several small mine buildings. No sign of any buildings exists now. From here, one us went straight up the hill, the other traversed south for a few hundred feet before starting up the hill.

The upper adit was collapsed and dangerous looking

Using walkie-talkies, we both converged upon a large mine dump in the woods. At the top was another collapsed adit in the dirt. According to sources, this adit had been blown open and explored in recent years, but again due to the conditions we wouldn't be going in. Instead, we retreated to the top of the mine dump where we ate lunch in the sun and listened to tunes.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Kimball Creek Mines information.