76 Basin September, 2005

The last few weeks of September 2005 were really nice, with warm daytime temps and crisp nights. However, the weathermen were forcasting the start of winter right at the end of the month - so a few of us decided to squeeze one last mine exploring trip in before the snow fell. Monte Cristo's 76 Basin had been discussed for a long time, and so the plans were made.

Just inside 76 Basin one can find a short side trail to the Liberty Mine

We all had keys to the Monte Cristo gate, and the last truck rolled up to the end of the road at about 8:00 AM. We stood around in the cool morning air sipping the last dregs of our coffee, and then took off across the townsite towards the Poodle Dog Pass trailhead. After a few quick and secretive moves, we found the correct route up to 76 Basin, now getting some good pounding by feet into a real trail. We switchbacked up through the open forest towards the creek.

At about 3000' (some 15 minutes or so from the townsite) one can make out a short side trail off to the left that traverses over towards the creek. This is the side trail to the Liberty Mine, and we walked over to check it out quickly. Someone had done some drainage work at the adit, and now the tunnel was dry. We would come back to this one later.

We arrived in the rocky 76 Basin and got ready to climb the hillside

After just a few more hundred feet of elevation gain, we looked across the creek and saw what appeared to be dump material. Kent and Jimbo jumped down to creek level and waded across, paying for their exuberance by getting wet feet. Kent climbed up a bit and located the dump material, actually the mine dump of the Sidney Mine, just upstream. If you look closely here in the creekbed, you can also see some twisted mine rails laying about. The Sidney Mine is very close to the creek itself, and because of this, the old rails were used at one time for ore carts to dump the waste rock downstream from the mine. Again, we saved this mine for later.

Above us the 76 Mine was situated under the prominent bulky bluff

Just past the Sidney Mine, the basin trail levels off and enters some rough stuff, large rocks and vine maple. We passed the cutoff on the right to the Sheridan Mine, making mental notes of the landmarks for the way back. Soon the trail pretty much disappeared and was replaced by talus and some newish-looking landslide rocks and material. Our main objective on this day would be the 76 Mine, located up to the left looking up the basin. We stopped to repack clothes and scope out a route.

The 76 Mine was allegedly the first mining claim staked in the Monte Cristo area, on July 4, 1889. It was this spot that originally attracted one of the Monte Cristo founding fathers, Joseph Pearsall, who saw a surface deposit of galena glittering in the sunlight indicating untold riches.

Soon Jimbo was seen clambering on top of the 76 Mine dump

The objective area was clear; the 76 Mine was located at the bottom of a bulky bluff above. A close up view shows the dump of the lower adit in some cedar scrub, the upper adit higher up in a steep gully. From our vantage point down in the gulch at about 3600', the best route seemed to be up a rocky gully that earlier in the year probably drained the snow from Wilmans Peak. We hiked up the gully for a ways until we felt we needed to bail out (no small task to climb the loose sides) and traverse south to the mine area.

Climbing up the last pitch among large boulders we started seeing some iron artifacts from the mining heyday, including some nifty old riveted pipe, which carried something at some point in time. A last nasty thrash though a cedar thicket brought us to the lower mine dump (now visible), and up to the lower adit perched under the sheer rock bluff, elevation approximately 4050'.

Ready to go underground, standing in front of the lower 76 Mine

We rested for a while in front of the adit, but it was uncomfortable and a little unnerving right beneath the huge bluff above. Kent had forgotten his rubber boots, and since the first part of the mine contained deep water, he chose to sit this one out. The others quickly got geared up and started into the cold water. Jimbo would use the "old tennis shoe" version of mine exploration footware.

Some of the old wooden air piping was still mostly intact

The water in the lower adit was fairly deep for 50-100 feet, then the floor of the mine angled up slightly out of the water. Ahead of Jimbo was a large downed timber. Great! Any fallen shoring in a mine is a bad sign. As I carefully scooted under the timber next to Jimbo, I saw that it was not a solid timber, but rather, one of many square wooden air pipes used for ventilation purposes way back when. A look inside showed it to still be in relatively good condition.

Most of the wooden ventilation piping has fallen down now, flattened on the floor of the tunnel, and serving as planking to walk on. One can see where the pipes were suspended down the length of the tunnel - at intervals there still are planks wedged in crossways that held the pipes. These planks make it neccessary to stoop down low every so often as one makes their way deeper into the mine.

Looking back at the (only) ore chute we saw in the 76 Mine

A bit further on the tunnel turned slightly left near a short right drift which ended after about 20 feet. We continued ahead for a few more feet down the main tunnel to a prominent ore chute. We could see up the chute, past the remains of ore that had last came down, to an upper level above. A shot up the manway next to the ore chute illustrated how difficult travel up and down would have been.

On down the main tunnel we travelled, stopping every so often to look into short drifts done on the left side. Every so often some ancient artifact could be seen, such as a gloppy old can of nails, probably used to build the ventilation pipe, or an old bulb (not sure how old this was) that was used for something.

Soft material had caved-in at the end of the 76 Mine

After passing a few drifts, and stooping under the seemingly 100th ventilation support, I started feeling slightly creeped out and suffocated - classic anxiety symptoms of claustraphobia... I informed Jimbo that I was getting the hell out of this place, but he told me in so many words that I couldn't leave him alone, and besides the tunnel should end pretty soon. I took some deep breaths, sucked it up and followed him for a ways. Sure enough, after a few more minutes the tunnel seemed to end in a narrow spot near a supporting bulkhead.

The USGS advertises this tunnel as being 681 feet deep, so we were in pretty far. It looked like the vein material had turned very soft, like clay, and had given the miners problems. The right side of the tunnel was shored up (and was giving away) as tons of material pushed down. The end got very narrow; at one time it might have been possible to go further, but we wouldn't. One interesting thing we noticed was the absence of echoes as we talked here - quite strange, as the loose material seemed to be absorbing the sound. Jimbo now was as freaked as I was, and we both made our way out of there pretty quickly. Besides, we were hungry.

We made our way up the steep gully to the upper adit, Jimbo already there

Back outside, Kent was waiting. While we were inside, he had found 2 short adits to the left of the main lower adit. We ate a bit, and gathered up our stuff for the next goal: the upper 76 Mine adit.

At first we climbed up almost directly above and to the right from the lower adit, along the rock face, but the lower guys then took a lower angle up and finally traversed over to the dump material that came down from the upper adit. After this, it only took a few minutes to locate and find the upper adit, which is located at about 4180'.

The upper 76 tunnel was much shorter than the lower tunnel

The upper tunnel was dry enough to wear our hiking boots, and split off after a few feet. The left drift only went about 20 feet, with the main part of the tunnel going off to the right about a total of 150'. We saw a few pieces of drill steel laying about, and a bizarre moth graveyard not too far from the portal. After a quick exploration of the mine, we sat outside and took in the great view down past Monte Cristo out towards the foothills and the sound. We could see winter approaching, as the forecast for the following week was for rain to set in along with lower fall-like temperatures.

We splashed back across the creek to explore the Sidney Mine

Our rest over, we stumbled and bumbled down the dump material towards the valley floor. Going down we pretty much took a direct downward direction, zig-zagging when necessary to avoid the worst of the brush. In 45 minutes or so we were back down on the valley floor, near the confuence of some slide material that now creates a dam in the 76 Basin floor. It looks like a small lake has formed here during the early summer.

No sign of the trail at this point, we just followed the gulch down, and soon ran into the rough trail down lower. In a few more minutes, we came to the large rock that identifies where to cut down to the Sidney Mine. We jumped down the embankment to 76 Creek, and splashed across to the mine.

Jimbo amazed at the red colors inside the Liberty Mine

The Sidney Mine was one of the early mines located in 76 Gulch. It is somewhat curious to explore this mine now, because one cannot go too far inside the mine (a couple hundred feet), but records indicated that at one time there were much more extensive workings. A drift off to the right is blocked off by a stockpile of ore, easy pickings for rockhounds. The left tunnel, passing by some shoring timbers that held the unstable tunnel roof from falling (dug too close to the surface), is impassible after a while, being way to narrow and short. It is unclear where all the ore came from.

After packing up again, we sped down the trail a few minutes more until we came to the familiar side trail to the Liberty Mine. Here we suited up again, and entered the mine. The drainage work someone had done proved to be helpful, and now it was dry enough to walk through with hiking boots. We marvelled at the different reds and oranges that were created from sulfide rust in the mine. Apparently no minerals worth mining were found in the Liberty, and it ends after 246 feet.

Packing up once again, we started down the trail, not far past the Liberty Mine cutoff one can see the landslides that have all but taken out the Lincoln Mine, situated on the east side of 76 Gulch. Back at the trucks, it started sprinkling. In a matter of weeks the townsite would be snow covered for the winter.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Monte Cristo mine information.
• Monte Cristo Area - A Complete Outdoor Guide - Majors & McCollum. Good info on 76 Basin.
• Monte Cristo - Woodhouse. Good stories about Monte Cristo and the mining history there.
• Mineral Resources of the Glacier Peak RARE II Area - US Bureau of Mines. Monte Cristo Mine information.