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| Weepah & Homestake Mines, AZ | |
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| | Weepah & Homestake Mines, AZ | | | |
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Weepah & Homestake Mines, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.57 Miles |
522 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.57 Miles | 2 Hrs 43 Mns | | 2.05 mph |
| 522 ft AEG | | | | |
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none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | The route attached below, shows a path that does not cross any no trespassing signs.
As long as I could, I walked through a small river bottom forest. There were enough trees, that leaves crunched underfoot, but the trees still had pleasant fall color. (Which I had noticed driving US-93 to & from Las Vegas last week.)
A mile and a half west of US-93, where the Santa Maria River bends south, I spotted Weepah Mine up a bluff. The climb was short, but steep and very slippery. I initially thought the adit was collapsed, which is what I was expecting, as satellite view had not shown any non-tree, non-boulder shadow where the topo had the >– adit symbol. I did find some interesting rocks, though. As I turned to descend, stepping in a fresh cow patty, I spotted the open adit behind a palo verde. Sweet!
The Weepah Mine adit was small, but I could enter by stooping. The drift tunnel descended fairly quick, but not nearly enough to qualify as an inclined shaft. It also got tighter as it went deeper. After about 200 ft., and without any backup, I decided it was getting too small. Rather than low crawl, as I had at Webber Mine [ youtube video ] , I turned back.
From Weepah Mine, I could see Homestake Mine on the south side of the Santa Maria River. The Homestake Mine was once owned by Tom Campbell, Arizona’s second governor. Sometime in the last 20 years, it was for sale for “only” $400,000 — cash — with the realtor swearing there were 80,000 ounces of gold somewhere inside. Which at current prices is over $100 million. Mines are called “claims” for a reason. 
Outside finds at the Homestake Mine included a leech pit, red barn / tool shed, gazebo, the foundation for the mill, small bunkhouse, collapsed home trailer and an outhouse with an actual porcelain toilet & plastic shower stall. 
At the base of the hill, the Homestake Mine is an obvious, large, adit. If you are in any doubt what adit you are looking at, painting around the frame even says “Santa Maria Homestake”. Best of all, it was not welded shut, like Buckeye Copper Mine. I dropped my pack, grabbed my large police-type Maglite, and headed for the hole.
That’s when I noticed, just inside, rebar gate.  Then, I thought maybe I could squeeze through the gap on the left. Easy peasy, even for this fat man.
he walls, floor and ceiling were solid rock, with almost no collapse, or even gravel underfoot. Just a thin layer of sand. There were no ore cart tracks in the 500 ft. drift level, so everything must have been hauled out by hand.
I found an empty electrical panel, and near the end of the drift level, an actual light bulb. Too bad it didn’t work. There was aluminum stove pipe tubing, probably for ventilation, scattered on the floor. No bad smells inside, despite finding a pile of bones bundled up into a ball by webs. I’m glad I didn’t meet that spider! 
(Can you see that eyes wide open emoji? I saw it. Looks like Haz supports emojis now? Let's try another one ...)
There were several small, timbered stopes in the ceiling. The webbed bones were at the bottom of an ore chute next to one stope. There was an inclined shaft, with a ladder going up, a hopper on the floor, then continuing down. Not sure if to a winze, or another drift level. No ladder to climb down.
There were flourescent orange markings throughout the drift level, including one that seemed to indicate Homestake Mine was last worked in 1986.
Back outside, I climbed the hill, finding two shafts, one of of them the top of the inclined shaft, with a small, dry-rotted head frame, in back of which was the cement anchor for a lift.
Afterwards, because I had seen enough cool stuff at Homestake Mine to fill a video — and then some! — I skipped a third nearby mine, saving it for another day. (And video.  )
Mine Exploring Video: https://vimeo.com/478455319 |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Light
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