Minnecaduca Lode September, 2005

According to one of the old mineral surveys done in the early 1900's, there was some mining done just uphill from the old Cleopatra Camp on the West Fork of the Miller River. For the past couple years, we had climbed up and down the hill on a couple trips to the Cleopatra Mine, and a few times had looked around for the Minnecaduca Lode workings that are shown on the survey. To no avail.

Jimbo waiting patiently for someone to quit screwing around

Jimbo had some time off, so I talked him into walking up the road again and taking a look around the hillside. He was up for it, so one morning during the week we met at the McDonalds just east of Sultan, mainly because now the Burg/Chev is no more (actually just a Chev now). After eating something, we took off to the West Fork parking lot, and parked next to a pile of old bananas and a pair of gloves that looked like they would be good for fighting brush. I was looking forward to a leisurely walk up the road, but unfortunately Jimbo took off ahead, double-timing it up the steep rocky first part of the road.

We took a brief rest after about 1/2 mile, at the first creek that washes out over the road. This is the location uphill of the Seattle-Cascade workings, a fine brush-bash of the thorniest kind. I told Jimbo of my short trip up the drainage last spring, where I quickly gave up having come to a nasty canyon of cliffs and huge fallen slabs. The lower adit is rumored to be closed up by rockfall.

The Coney Creek crossings posed no problems this late in the year, and we rock-hopped them. We took turns knocking the dew off the brush that was starting to encroach on the road, and in about 2 hours were standing around the familiar location of Cleopatra Camp. We took a few minutes to look around for the storied old truck, but gave up soon. Later we learned that the historic artifact had been stolen by some idiot, and federal agents had investigated the theft.

We climbed to the rocky slabs and started our search from there

Hodges mentions what was probably the Minnecaduca Lode claim in his 1897 report, 'Mining In Western Washington': "A ledge which promises to be as rich as the Cleopatra, though with less showing, is cut by King Solomon Creek a little below the Cleopatra Basin and is held by the Sunday and another claim of W. L. Sanders, E. B. Palmer and H. S. Phinney. On the surface it showed several streaks of gray copper and antimonial silver broken by granite horses and assaying 50 to 77 ounces silver, $10 to $16.40 gold. Two cross-cuts [probably open cuts] opened a streak of gray copper six to twenty inches wide, which assayed 365 ounces silver, $2.40 gold. A tunnel was then started further down, on which the ore is coming in." The Sunday Claim was the claim just above the Minnecaduca, and tunnel that was "started further down" was clearly the tunnel that is shown on the Minnecaduca claim survey. We were determined to find it today.

The Minnecaduca adit was tucked away on the dark woodsy hillside

We started up the now familiar hillside route. On previous trips up the hillside, we had muddled around and came up to a slabby cliff at times. This was to be our target today, since we figured the mine should be around that area. We hacked at some brush on the way, arriving at the slabs after about 20 minutes. Jimbo took the left side, and I the right, and we clambered up, around and over the whole area for about 1/2 hour, finding nothing. After a while, we both met up and started over closer to the creek, and wound down to a rocky cliffy area that looked promising. Nothing. Jimbo went down to the creek and looked around.

We were on the verge of getting skunked. I made my way back and sat up by the rock slabs to rest, having all but given up the quest of the Minnecaduca. The next sequence of events were slightly confusing, but went somewhat like this:

Jimbo:   Did you look down the slope below?
Rob:   No, probably nothing down there.

A few minutes later...

Jimbo (shouting now):   Hey, there's kind of a cut here that looks manmade!
Rob (shouts back):   Really? What is it?

A few seconds go by...

Jimbo:   (unintelligible gibberish, loud screeching)
Rob:   ???

A few more seconds...

Jimbo:   We should bring our packs down here!
Rob:   Why?

Jimbo:   I found the mine, dude.

The adit was dark and wet, and we wondered whether to go in...

... and it didn't take long before curiosity won, and we waded in

After a hundred feet or so, the tunnel was dry, a drift nearby

Well, I'll be darned. How many times has this happened - you're just about to give up and someone finds the mine two minutes later. Jimbo came up, we grabbed our stuff and staggered down the steep hillside to the adit, which was hidden pretty well but only 50 feet or so away from one of the old cat track switchbacks at about 2400'. We looked in and discovered that the Minnecaduca tunnel was pretty wet looking.

The right crosscut ended after 20 feet, remains of a dynamite box

We had no boots, so going in the mine would be a wading proposition. Initially we were discouraged, but after a while of looking and wondering aloud what was in there, we soon were getting our lights ready to go in. I had some aquasox to wear, and Jimbo would wear his boots without socks. We both crowded down near the portal on the boulders that had fallen from above.

Near the end was a small area that looked like a work table

Jimbo went in first, stirring up the old mine water making it a muddy mess. He followed a mine frog that seemingly was leading the way. Soon the frog was missing in action, probably a victim of a heavy foot. Oops. After about 100 feet or so, the tunnel got drier and we came to a crosscut to the right, as shown on the old mineral survey. It deadended after about 20 feet or so, some old remains of a dynamite box lay on the tunnel floor.

Some earlier visitors had left graffiti indicating they had been there

We came upon a small area to the left of the tunnel near the end, that looked like it had been a small work area at one time. Some boards rested on a shelf of rocks, and some tools lay around. An old rusted cup lay on the top, surely to have held whisky in the past for an old miner. We were careful not to touch anything, as it is illegal to disturb historic artifacts on federal land, and were content to just take pictures.

The old mining survey map was fairly accurate in the extent of the mine. We came to the end of the tunnel after about 250 feet, with the small crosscut to the right being about halfway in. So, it is probable that this mine never was worked much after the initial survey was done in 1900.

We finally got through the water and climbed up the rocks out to daylight

At the end of the tunnel was some graffiti somehow painted on the walls of several visitors in the past. One looked very old, one was from a guy named Wagner in 1981 (this act was known by 1981 as vandalism, way to go Wagner!), and one was from 1958 - a one 'H.E. Trenk'. This inscription was probably made by Henry Trenk, the leaseholder of the Aces Up properties in the late 1950's and early 1960's, virtually next door.

It didn't take us long to make our way back out, getting to the deep water again and in some places tip-toeing to keep the icy water off of some tender spots. Getting out of the portal was tricky, climbing out of the deep water over the large slick rocks. A drying session began outside the mine, and while we dried off, we took in the nice view from the adit down to the West Fork Miller river and up towards the peaks of the headwaters.

The Lower Cleopatra was tough to spot due to brush and downed trees

All geared up, we turned our attention to our next objective - the "lower" Cleopatra tunnel. We had in our possession a map from the U.S. Bureau of Mines that showed a tunnel along a watercourse that by our estimates was not very far away. We climbed up the hillside again, somewhat following the old switchbacks, but mostly just plowing up the open woods, and in about 10 minutes found ourselves on the major roadbed that leads into Cleopatra Basin. Instead of heading south towards the basin, we started down the 'road', running along small cliff faces and now a minefield of trees, rocks, and other obstacles.

In 5-10 minutes we found ourselves at a small creek gulch that flowed from above. If calculations were correct, the tunnel should be about 100 feet uphill. We struggled up the slippery dark rocks, and alternately climbed up and over the huge logs that now choked the gully. After a while we both broke into a tangle of large logs that provided a rest spot. Jimbo questioned where I thought the tunnel was, and I pointed behind him to a dark spot in the tangle, not without giving an abbreviated version of my own triumphant screaming gibberish. We both looked down into the dark hole below, and almost hoped that this wasn't it.

We looked in the Lower Cleopatra but declined to explore it

But, indeed it was the Lower Cleopatra prospect. We looked down to a claustrophobic tangle of greenery and rock walls which culminated in a tiny hole. I wasn't having anything to do with it, but Jimbo slid down and started inside. I had no choice but to follow after a minute or so.

We both squatted just inside the Lower Cleopatra tunnel and looked in to see what the conditions were inside. From our current spot, it was evident that much lanslide material had come in to the small adit and dammed it up. Just beyond us was deep water, and not nice deep water. The tunnel floor looked awful, and no one was really interested in mucking through it.

According to the U.S. Bureau of mines, the Lower Cleopatra adit is about 90 feet long. After our previous wading in the day, nothing could convince us to go into this one, so we saved it for someone else. Squeezing out of the narrow hole was again tricky, as well as muddy. Once out, we climbed down the steep hillside next to the creek, using vegetable belays most of the way down to the old roadbed.

Starting out of the Lower Cleopatra was tricky...

... and a difficult muddy problem that took some good moves...

...but quickly we freed outselves from this dark and evil prison

It didn't take us much time to backtrack down the hillside to the road at Cleopatra Camp. Once out into the somewhat open road, we were surprised to see that it was a very nice day - most of our time up to that point had been spent in the dark forest slopes and inside the mines.

Soon we were back at the truck looking scary to others passing by

We double-timed it again down the road, taking some time to look at some small fish that were swimming in pools along the upper reaches of the West Fork Miller river. Jimbo made silent plans. The brush was now dry along the road, so travel was easy.

We looked around at the old Cedar tree just below the King & Kinney site, and hiked a little bit up into the brush, making tentative plans to return later in the year. At that point we both put on our beer-goggles and stepped up the pace down the rocky road to the waiting truck and cooler. We hung out for a while, having a beer and generally acting annoying for a while before heading out.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Cleopatra Mine information.
• Mineral Resources of the Alpine Lakes Study Area (1975) - Gualtieri and others. Information about the Lower Cleopatra.