[Gamuru]

Several months ago, while learning how to use the BLM's website for retrieving mine plats, I came across Mineral Survey No. 1253 located outside Darrington on Jumbo Mountain.

This is Mineral Survey 1253, aka the Queen Ann Mine plat.

What caught my eye was the rather large tunnel located on this claim. A quick guess put the workings in the neighborhood of 1,000 feet or so. Very interesting!

Here's a closer look at where we were headed. We parked downhill from the cabin site, then followed a stream up. After locating the cabin site, we continued up the hill until we found the lower and upper adits of the Queen Ann Mine.

Since then, the Queen Ann (or Queen Anne) mine kept popping up here and there in old publications so I finally put it on my To-Do list for this last weekend. The weather was showing sun and fun in the forecast, so my wife and I made plans to hit the hills. After breakfast, we gathered our gear, hopped in the car, and headed for Squire Creek southwest of Darrington. The road in was in pretty decent shape. We found a place to park just past a recent clear-cut logging tract and downhill from our objective. Gear on, GPS fired up, I selected the cabin site as my destination and off we went.

My hiking buddy, April.

Across the ditch and straight up the loose rock hillside, we climbed about forty-odd feet to a landing that turned out to be an old access road. We followed it to the right until it intersected a stream, where we turned and headed up a small cut. The cut widened out with a prominent ridge developing on the downhill side. We crossed back over the stream to the ridge and continued to follow it. The terrain seemed to be leading right to the cabin site. As we neared the end of the cut, where the hill started up again, my GPS let out a beep letting me know we made it to where the cabin site should be. April and I began to scour the area, kicking up brush and turning over ferns, looking for any sign of a camp site. As mentioned before in other posts, old miners tended to be lazy with their garbage. They generally discarded it on the downhill side of their cabins. If you can find the garbage pile you can follow it to their cabin. We crisscrossed the area several times but finally had to conceded defeat. Nothing! Either my map was off or the forest had reclaimed every sign of their existence. We huddled for a minute and took a bearing on the lower tunnel. April suggested a route leading away from the tunnel but an easier climb to gain some needed elevation. I followed behind when I heard her exclaim she found an old can. I quickly joined her at what would turn out to be a rubble pile. She had found the garbage dump!

How do you know when you're getting close to a miner's cabin? Tin cans litter the forest floor.

We followed the cans and bottles up the hill to a landing where we discovered several artifacts left by the Queen Ann miners. An old cast iron stove, a wood burning barrel, several pieces of milled lumber (probably a door or window frame), cans and pans. All pretty neat stuff.

This was a nice surprise. Usually the cast iron cook stoves are busted into a number of small pieces. This one was in "decent" condition. This was found at the cabin site.

Some sort of pot found at the cabin site.

This appeared to be a wood stove made from an old oil drum. I'm not sure if it was original or added after the mine was vacated.

After examining the finds, we turned our attention once again to the lower tunnel. The mine plat showed a miner's trail leading from the cabin site up the hill to both it and the upper tunnel. We could plainly see the road leading in from below to the cabin and soon found the footpath leading away uphill. The hill became very steep at this point with large rock faces protruding from it. At one point, we had to cross under and climb around one. Being not-so-good with the whole heights thing, this was not my favorite part, but I pressed on. Keep in mind, the bare rock showing is always a good sign. Dirt mines tend to collapse where hard rock mines usually stay intact. We followed the miner's trail where we could, but after several decades, the forest was doing a fine job of erasing their footsteps. After a few hundred feet, we noticed a tailings pile starting to appear off to our left. That's a good sign, especially this far down. For one thing, it means there's a mine uphill, and another, the bigger the pile the deeper the mine.

To the casual observer it looks like a rock pile...

We finally came to a spot where it just looked like there was activity. We both took a moment to survey the area in earnest. April was below me on the hillside. I asked her to head into a small cut to the right of the tailings pile to check out a dark spot against the back wall. I watched as she made her way back. As she neared it, I heard her call back, "Yep, we got a mine!" And just about as quick, she dropped her pack and disappeared into the darkness. I hurriedly made my way over to her. There she was sitting in the darkness, about all you could see was her giant grin glowing in the darkness. "Pass me down my hardhat and another flashlight. I got a little too excited and forgot them," she said sheepishly. Like a kid in a candy store, I tell ya!

The lower adit was found just to the right of the main tailings pile.

This appeared to be some sort of scooper or bucket. Whatever it was it was in sorry shape.

I got out my hardhat and joined her in the tunnel. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, it became apparent we were not going to be exploring this tunnel. Though you could see quite a ways back, the entire length was dug in loose rock. The tunnel was heavily shored, but time and age had taken their toll. The roof was now several inches above the shoring and all that was holding up further collapse was a bit of good luck. We took a few pictures and spent some time examining a relic at the tunnel's entrance, but left the rest as we found it.

This tunnel is a perfect example of one you stay the hell out of. UNSAFE!

Back outside, we took a new bearing on the upper tunnel. Looking at the tailings pile, we had a pretty good idea where it was. Even from where we were, you could see a prominent landing above. We stuck close to the treeline and climbed the loose rock up. Sure enough, this was our goal.

The Queen Ann Mine

We dropped our packs and examined the area. There was a pretty decent stream gushing from the mouth of the tunnel. Shining our flashlights back into the darkness, we could see wooden rails emerging from the pool of water. We decided knee boots should suffice for this excursion. We donned our hardhats and headlights, fired up the lantern, and headed in. Sure enough, the water level soon began to recede as we entered the tunnel.

Just inside the upper adit, I snapped this photo. For some reason, it came out really red, but we both like it so it stays in the collection.

This tunnel was unique for me as it's the first I'd seen that had a rushing stream coming from it that went clear to the back. Usually the running water lets up after you get inside, but this one had several springs feeding it all the way back. The tunnel started out fairly straight, but then began to veer right as they followed the vein. On the right was a short drift followed by another on the left. Then, the main tunnel made a hard right for awhile before turning back into the mountain.

Copper staining. Very pretty.

The walls showed evidence of the ore they were seeking. I believe the old mine books show this as a copper producer with gold and silver showing as well. There wasn't much inside on the way of artifacts other than the strap rails, still intact, leading right to the very end. We did find a busted up dynamite box toward the back caught up in a pile of rubble, a few tin cans, and several business cards left by previous explorers. With all the running water, most everything at ground level had probably either rusted or washed away by now.

Looking out the mouth of the upper adit.

All in all, we had a great time enjoying a bright, sunny day in the woods. It felt good to get out, stretch the legs and get some fresh mountain air. Finding the cabin site and the mine open intact was our prize. What a great day!

What a beautiful day to go out into the woods and play!

[BirdDog]

Thanks for posting that, very entertaining and interesting. Congrats on finding it. Nice pics, even the red one.

[Jim Dockery]

Cool TR, thanks.

[puzzlr]

Good story and pics. Thanks.

[touron]

Great report!

[Gamuru]

Thanks!

[mbtigger]

That was great. Quite an adventure!

[Jimbo]

[Dayhike Mike]

Very cool! Great pictures too... Thanks for posting!

[Obi Tony Kenobi]

Great trip report!

[Daryl]

You are my hero, i love your adventures.

[Magellan]

Real nice story telling G!

[Matt]

Fascinating exploration. Thanks.

[tmatlack]

Don, Very cool. Tom

[Mine Explorer]

Will be heading up to this mine on Tuesday! Stay tuned for a trip report or at least a few pictures.