Commonwealth Mines June, 2005

We were pretty interested when Kent told us that he found what was probably the Commonwealth Mine during a hike around the Snoqualmie Pass area last fall. For some reason, not much information exists about what went on at this venture in the late 1800's. A day was picked, and we met at the appointed spot at Snoqualmie Pass, just as the dark clouds above started to pour out their contents. We sat in the trucks for a while, put on boots, and waited it out for a while. Sure enough, it slowed down enough that we decided to brave it and start up the trail.

Red Mountain got a dusting of snow overnight, strange in June

Hodges mentions the Commonwealth in his 1897 "Mining In Western Washington" compilation, stating that "J.W. Walrath and Robert Diamond have the Commonwealth, on which a 250-foot tunnel has shown a large body of copper pyrites." No mention of location was given though, but the "Inventory of Washington Minerals" puts the claim in Section 34. Not much to go on, which may account for the lack of information after the mine was ultimately abandoned. We were pretty excited, as there was also a rumor of pirate treasure at the mine.

The route soon was in the open, below the mine dump

We followed the trail in the cool weather, gaining elevation. Kent now stopped at a spot, and indicated this was where we needed to start climbing to intersect the dump. Trail legs suddenly became climbing over rocks and logs legs, and progress was slow. Devil's club presented itself for the most attractive handholds when they were really needed. After a few minutes though, we came out upon the loose waste rock from the mine. After a couple hundred feet of elevation, we met the rock face at 4095' feet elevation, the location of the lower adit.

The lower adit had water in it so we saved it for last

We peered inside the lower adit, trying to get a glimpse past the foot or so of water that filled the mine. We rested briefly here, as the plan was to climb to the upper adit since Kent reported it was dry at the portal at least. There was more dump material that came down from above and left, so we continued up this for another 50 feet or so of elevation, past a clump of trees to the upper adit, which was almost hidden in the greenery and had a fallen log in front of it. The elevation here was 4150'.

We made our way into the upper adit and looked at the junk there

After looking around at the upper adit, we pretty much agreed that the pirate treasure rumors were just a myth. Just inside the upper adit, there was some rough shoring that framed the mine tunnel. A pile of waste rock lay inside, the miners quitting the endeavor before it could be dumped outside. Balancing on the shoring was an old McCulloch aluminum helmet, a coil of thick nylon rope, and rubber boots. We got our equipment out and went inside.

At the end of the furthest drift in the upper Commonwealth adit

The helmet and boots looked to be a product of the 60's or 70's, so someone had been here since the mine was abandoned. Looking above the shoring, we could see that there was a length of nylon rope hanging down a raise that was dug on an incline, maybe 50 feet or so. Maybe McCulloch was doing some prospecting here some time ago. The boots looked pretty serviceable, so possibly the equipment had been stashed for some later work that never happened. Past the shoring, the tunnel looked like it just ended. Or did it?

There was some interesting mineralization near the back of the upper adit

Twenty feet or so past the shoring the tunnel seemed to end, with a short tunnel to the left. Here was the remains of an obviously overused wheelbarrow. Our lights now revealed that the tunnel drifted sharply to the right. And down a ways split again into two more drifts. We could feel the excitement of the unknown, and after a brief hesitation, made our way down the rest of the tunnel.

We waded through the water in the lower Commonwealth adit

The main tunnel went another 20 feet or so, and split to the left and right. The right drift went about another 24 feet and ended unceremoniously. The left drift only extended about 12 feet to a blank wall. So much for a huge discovery. The deepest tunnel extended about 85 feet from the portal. After taking pictures, we made our way out and had something to eat. We then packed up our equipment for the short trip down to the lower adit, and dropped back down the slope.

The lower adit was narrow and cramped, not a place for the claustrophobic

Upon reaching the lower adit, we donned our rubber boots since it seemed pretty deep inside - and unknown. The first person to go inside, poked around with a stick while going in slowly to test the depth of the water ahead. It turned out not to be too bad, about a foot or so deep with some mud for about 75 feet. After that, the tunnel rose slightly to a sandy and rocky floor. It was a strange narrow tunnel, with some fascinating natural occurrences such as stalactites and a weird alien looking thing (one of many) that was either a rotting spider or some type of plant matter.

After 250 feet, the lower cramped adit ended suddenly

At about 100 feet in the mine, a steep narrow raise went up to the right and curved around out of sight. The thick mud brought no takers for further exploration in that direction. From the green mineralization that was seeping down, this might have been the location where copper ore, if any, was extracted.

Heading down the mine dump was definitely easier than going up

We moved on slowly, with occasional bangs of helmets finding the low tunnel ceiling. Some ancient drill steel lay underfoot, rusting for 100 years in the same place. A couple of areas had large rockfall on the tunnel floor, which made us nervous. After about exactly 250 feet, the tunnel ended in solid rock. This indeed must be the tunnel that Hodges described way back when. We turned around, and taking pictures made our way back out into the bright light again.

It was strange to explore an unknown mine. We talked about what we had found, and what some of it meant - but we would never really know what had went on here. We packed up again and started slipping and sliding straight down the mine dump, our footprints marring the previously undisturbed surface. Once down at the trail, we took a scenic route out of the basin, the weather improving as we went.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Commonwealth Claim information.
• Mining In Western Washington (reprint) - L.K. Hodges. A few comments about the Commonwealth.