San Francisco Mine September, 2004

Route Information

We had started up the route to the San Francisco mine a few years ago, after our trip to the Damon & Pythias mine, but gave up after a while due to lateness in the day. The plans to get back there sort of just sat waiting for a while, as we figured the mine was going nowhere. The planets somehow aligned on a wet looking day in September, and a solo trip was made back up the Money Creek road to finally bag the San Francisco Mine.

The route started out up an old road bed off Money Creek road

The approach drive was not too difficult, one drives up the two obvious switchbacks on the Money Creek road, and drives just past the next creek bed on the right. Not too far after this is an old roadbed cutting back to the NE. It looks like the Forest Service road crews had piled some old scraggly alder trees just in front. I turned the truck around and parked, elevation about 2620'.

It wasn't raining yet, but it looked like it could start any time. The brush along the old roadbed was wet as I made my way up. After about 5 minutes, the roadbed halted, near the edge of the stream. I climbed through thicker brush up and down into the streambed - which was essentially dry here.

The start of the route is up an old roadbed towards a creek

Now the route (as far as I could tell) just headed up the dry creek bed. On this day, the large rocks were slippery, and every so often large tangles of logs and debris had to be negotiated. It was somewhat tedious. After about 10 minutes, water in the creek magically appeared, and this had to be crossed at times as well.

The San Francisco Mine was by this small waterfall

For most of the travel up the creek bed, the gulch was wooded. 25 minutes or so after leaving the truck, rock walls began to enclose the creek on the right side. The San Francisco adit now was very near, and I spotted it on the right side just short of a small waterfall in the creek. Below the adit and downstream were the remains of the dump material, but it wasn't too obvious. The rest may have been deposited down the creek over the years. The elevation here was about 2790'.

To enter the mine, one must stand backwards and drop down into it

The area right around the adit wasn't very comfortable. I balanced my stuff near the adit entrance and got some lighting ready to go in. First I tried to move the rock slab that had fallen in front of the adit. No way. Maybe with a few other people. To enter the adit, I had to face outwards from the rock face, and drop down backwards into the dark hole. It was slightly unnerving, but once down in the adit there was enough room to maneuver around.

About twenty feet into the mine looking back towards the portal

The San Francisco mine tunnel was fairly non-descript, muddy in spots, and contained a few buckets along the length that held unknown contents. As I got near the end, I heard a creepy dripping sound. Any strange sound in a mine is creepy. I peered near the back of the mine, and decided that the sound was coming from water dripping onto a piece of black plastic that someone had left on the floor. Several iron pry bars or drill bits lay near also. After about 100 feet, I reached the end of the tunnel. For some reason I didn't feel like hanging around inside for very long. I retreated back to the portal and climbed out.

Elixir buckets with mystery contents could be found along the tunnel

Old mining maps from the 1890's show the San Francisco claim, and also a camp nearby. I found no evidence of a camp, but then, nature has a way of hiding things after 100 years. Evidently there wasn't too much excitement about this mine, because no more work was done on it.

Once out, I pulled down some annoying flagging nearby (not necessary here), and headed back down the creek bed. After about 10 minutes, the clouds parted and a nice spot along the creek invited me to stop for lunch. I relaxed for a few minutes and made a discovery: Spongebob Squarepants Cheez-Its are not REAL Cheez-Its. This was surprising, but quite evident as Cheez-Its are a 2DrX staple. With that, it promptly started to rain on my picnic. I packed up and clambered down the rest of the creekbed and obstructions until I came to where I need to climb up to the old roadbed.

After arriving back at the truck, I drove up the road a short distance and checked out another interesting feature which may need more exploration later - the remains of old surface tram and a small dammed up spot on the river. The dammed lake might have been a water source for the Apex tram terminal downstream, and the surface tram used for early transport from the Damon & Pythias mine.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. San Francisco Mine information.