#ore cart

[silverplumespectre]

Colorado Miners

George Rowe Museum Archives, Silver Plume, Colo.

[bettergeology]

The Estelle Tunnel is the lowest major working of the Cerro Gordo area mines in the Inyo Mountains of California. It is an arrow-straight tunnel heading at N70˚E 8,100 feet (2.5 Kilometers) into the heart of the Inyo mountains, and was dug to explore the lower reaches of several veins of minerals that spawned the Cerro Gordo Mines, one of the most profitable and largest mining areas in the Death Valley Region, having active mining for over a hundred years between the early 1850s and late 1960s. 

One of the larger mines in the Cerro Gordo Group was the Morning Star Mine, a shaft that plunged nearly 300 feet (90 meters) underground. It tapped the Morning Star Vein, a vein rich in silver, lead, zinc, and sulfides and had several thousand feet of workings developing its mineral potential. The lowest point of the Morning Star Mine is 1,400 feet above the Estelle Tunnel, so the Tunnel was a very deep prospect relative to the rest of the mines. It examined the very heart of the Inyo Mountains at 6,080 feet above sea level (1854 meters) including the axial fold of the Cerro Gordo Anticline, and the change in the bedding angles can be seen as one progresses through the tunnel. Near the portal they are fairly vertical, but at the point where the tunnel is blocked by a collapse, the beds are almost horizontal.

So there it is, a fantastic feat of mining that exposed fascinating geology. There’s way more to it, found in this geologic report, than I could explain.

REMEMBER, MINES ARE VERY DANGEROUS. I HAVE EXPERIENCE IN MINES AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO NAVIGATE THEIR RISKS SAFELY. STAY OUT, STAY ALIVE.