My California - The Bighorn Mine
For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by @socalsteemit I'm going take you to the largest and most profitable gold mine in the San Gabriel mountains...
The Bighorn Mine!!
The Bighorn Mine sits on the steep southeast slopes of Mt. Baden Powell. The gold bearing deposit was first discovered by mountain man Tom Vincent in 1859 while out hunting for Bighorn Sheep. Vincent dug the first tunnel, but without the resources to remove and process all the gold bearing ore, he sold the mine to a mining company. Over the years the mine has been sold and mined several times by several people and lots and lots of gold was pulled from it. Today it is an abandoned relic of the past. But with a short hike into the San Gabriel wilderness it can still be seen and explored to this day!
click to enlarge map
So on this trip me and my buddy drove up the Angeles Crest Highway into the San Gabriel mountains to Vincent Gap where our adventure began. We hiked out the old mining road for 2.5 miles to get to the mine. The hike goes in and out of the pine forest providing some shade, but also allowing for spots to enjoy the amazing views of Mt. Baldy and the San Gabriel high country as well as views way down into the upper reaches of the East Fork where I still personally mine for placer gold to this day! Once at the mine we explored all the old ruins and artifacts left at the old stamp mill. Then we headed inside to explore the mine!!
Views from the stamp mill
Exploring the ruins of the old stamp mill
The old stamp mill from the main entrance to the mine
The main entrance to the Bighorn Mine
Inside the mine
We explored all over the mine! I really wish I had brought a better camera to get more pictures from inside. My GoPro doesn't do well in low light situations. In it's prime the Bighorn mine had over 3,000 feet of tunnels. Now due to cave ins and shafts with broken ladders you can only explore about a 1/3 of that. But that still leaves a lot of fun tunnels to explore! We checked it all out. Every tunnel that didn't require digging out a cave in or rappelling down a shaft got explored. After having fun at the mine we headed back down the old mining road. But on our way back we took a short detour to go checkout the remnants of Tom Vincents old cabin! It's been maintained by forest service and other volunteers over the years but it's truly amazing that it is still standing there!
Arriving at Tom Vincent's cabin
Going inside to check out the cabin
We hung out at the cabin for the rest of the day just enjoying the solitude and being in the forest. Pondering and dreaming about what it must have been like for Mr. Vincent here over 150 years ago! We stayed there until dark and hiked out with our headlights.
The Bighorn mine is just one of many mines in the San Gabriel mountains. Many of which I have explored but most of which I have yet to explore. I find it all so fascinating, all the incredible history here, and am really looking forward to exploring many more gold mines in the future! Stanley-Miller mine, Allison mine, Bluebird mine... I'll see you soon. So, until the next adventure...
I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into
My California!!
Steemit World Map
Contact me on Discord
#SoCalSteemit is building and supporting the Steemit community of Southern California. If you are from SoCal and are into creating quality content here on Steemit, we'd love for you to follow us @SoCalSteemit and join our group on Discord
Animation By @zord189
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=derekrichardson
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=my-california-the-bighorn-mine
Want to have your post on the map too?
Congratulations @derekrichardson! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Who could believe there is a mining at such an heightt
Posted using Partiko Android
It is truly incredible! The things the old time miners went through just blow my mind!
That looks amazing matey.
The mountain views are real nice and I know what you mean about cameras in mines/caves. I've never been able to get decent shots in caves when I've been caving in the past. I think you have to fork out a decent whack to get a camera that's up to the job for low level light photography.
Thanks for sharing your day trip to the mines :)
Thanks @raj808. The miners here definitely had some nice views from this mine! I have a DSLR camera that is better for lower light situations, but I only brought my GoPro this time. The DSLR is big and bulky, and is quite a bit more technical to use, but I could've got some better pictures with it.
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #543.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting and supporting us.
Awesome! Thank you!
Can I please go with you on the next trip ?
Absolutely! I'll be your mountain guide anytime.
Yeah, I absolutely enjoyed it. Great location with those remains of old mills, mines, and cabins.
Thanks @manoldonchev, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Wow what a great trip to the mines. I really enjoyed walking with you on this trip. Could there be still some gold left to be mined here? You could also get easily lost in the tunnels.
It was a great trip for sure. There is still tons of gold left here. Back in the old miners days the price of gold wasn't high enough to make it worth working the mine. Nowdays the price is much higher but government regulations prevent any large scale commercial mining in the area. And ya, you could definitely get lost inside for awhile. The tunnels go in many directions with lots of junctions going up down left and right.
I'd love to visit that place