Yeager Mine Trail

Fifteen Skyliners hiked on Yeager Mine Trail on 27 February 2016. The day was perfect for hiking, with the merest dusting of wispy clouds on the far horizon. We left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot just a couple of minutes after 0800 and headed across the mountain, traveling south on Hwy 89A. About 21.3 miles from the parking lot, we turned left onto a dirt road. This road is identified as Forest Road Road 643 on the Motor Vehicle Use Map¹ but as Forest Forest Road 151 on another Prescott National Forest map². It may also be referred to as Powerline Road. In any case the first 0.9 miles of the road, to the junction with FR 9002S (Yeager Mine Road), is heavily traveled and maintained in excellent condition.

At the Yeager Mine Road turnoff we found the following signage.

Signs posted at the Yeager Mine Road turnoff

The Mingus Mountain Academy sign shown in the photograph (above) elicited some curiosity and after a little research I found it describes itself as a “residential treatment center for emotionally and behaviorally at-risk adolescent girls.” The mountain lion shown on the sign is the symbol of “a student-run organization, similar to a high school student government.” I have never actually visited there but the campus looks quite impressive from afar. The below photograph was taken at a distance from Forest Road 643, perhaps half a mile south of the sign.

Mingus Mountain Academy – photographed from FR 643 on 20 February 2016

Forest Road 9002S (Mingus Mine Road), although less well-maintained than the dirt road from Hwy 89A had been was still navigable by passenger cars for the first 0.3 miles. We then came to a fork in the road with a sign (right) indicating that Mingus Mine Road veered off to the left and became a private road. We still had not reached the old Yeager Mine site and according to the maps I consulted in planning this hike, the forest road continues well beyond that point. That could only mean that Mingus Mine Road and the forest road split at this point with FR 9002S continuing straight ahead.

However, I had scouted the area earlier and noted that the road ahead, although still suitable for 4-wheel drive vehicles, was quite rough. In addition, a trail sign (left) at the fork indicated that Trail 501 (Mingus Mine Trail) started there. I had been surprised at finding the sign at that spot because all of my maps showed the trail starting about 0.8 miles ahead at the end of FR 9002S.

Parking where the private road branched off, we hiked 140 yards up the forest road to the old Yeager Mine site for a group photograph.

Left to right: Gary Jacobson, Bob Rauen, Floyd Gardner, Lila Wright, Dolly Yapp, Loren Pritzel, Colleen Maktenieks, Daisy Williams, the author, Jim Gibson, Karl Sink, Dave Beach and Jim Manning – two hikers not shown

Yeager Mine was an underground Cu-Au-Ag mine, owned by the Shannon Copper Company, and was in production during the period 1890-1949. “Workings included an inclined shaft to the 1300 level, drifts extending mostly to the East a maximum of 750 feet. Production was 9,627,987 pounds of Cu; 2,466 oz. Au; and 77,134 oz. Ag (to 1919). Additional 800 tons of Cu-Ag ore in 1922”³.

Little is left of the Yeager Mine site, just some indentations in the earth and a few battered found-ations where massive machinery once stood (right). The shafts have been filled in for safety reasons and the slag piles have largely been flattened and eroded so as to largely blend into the terrain.

From just above the mine we could look back across it and on across Prescott Valley to the mountains beyond.

Looking across Prescott Valley, Yeager Mine is visible at left (see bare spot)

After visiting the mine we trudged on up the forest road, crossing a property boundary line and entering Prescott National Forest. We passed the remnants of an old abandoned dwelling with associated outbuildings on our right and, just across the road from it, what appeared to be a old filled-in prospect site.

About 0.8 miles after leaving Yeager Mine we came to a fork in the road. The road to the left was quite distinct and appeared to be fairly well traveled. The right fork (red arrow below), showing less sign of travel, led straight up the spine of a ridge that separated two washes.

The arrow just above the resting hiker points to the correct trail

This is the point where, according to my reference maps, FR 9002S ends and Yeager Mine Trail starts. A Trail # 501 sign (left) was posted to show the way and this sign, unlike the one we had seen at Yeager Mine, prohibited all but hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. Jeeps, ATVs and other motorized vehicles are prohibited. However, someone has pretty well obliterated the part of the sign that prohibits ATVs. There is left only a faint end of the red line that ran through through the ATV symbol.

Another 0.4 miles, consisting of a steep 400-foot climb along the spine of a ridge, brought us to the junction of a short side trail that leads to Tunnel Spring. I had noted this spring on the map and was determined to explore it. The distance to the spring turned out to be about 0.1 mile and the first 100 yards was wide, clear and easy to hike. The rest of the trail was a little overgrown in a few spots but never difficult to follow. What we found when we arrived was a seep spring. A closer examination indicated that the seep had at some time in the past been dug out by tunneling into the side of the mountain and a pipe had been inserted to channel the flow of water into a series of narrow watering troughs. Although water no longer flows from the pipe (below right) and the troughs (below left) are now empty and discarded, there is enough left to tell the story of what once was.

We paused for a short time at the spring before returning to the main trail to resume our sharp climb up the mountain. On the way out I stopped to photograph two of our hikers (right) making their way through the most overgrown portion of the short Tunnel Spring Trail.

Back at the main trail we took a head count and found that we were missing a hiker. This had so far been an easy-to-follow trail except for the single somewhat confusing spot where the trail had turned up the ridge spine between washes. We had thus not worried too much about being a bit spread out. Now, we were in a quandary. Had the missing hiker gone ahead, had he turned back or had he wandered off the trail for some unknown reason? We called his name, sent a hiker back to the spring to look for him and sent people ahead to see if he had continued up the trail. Finally, we found that he had turned back without telling anyone when he reached the overgrown section of Tunnel Spring Trail and, rather than wait for the group, had continued on up the trail by himself.

While waiting for our lost hiker to be found, I took a series of photographs that I could stitch together for a panoramic view across the valley from the trail junction, an elevation of 6340 feet.

View from the junction of Mingus Mine Trail and Tunnel Spring Trail

Once we were all back together we headed on up the trail for lunch at a saddle above Mingus Springs. To reach there we hiked another 0.7 miles and climbed about another 450 feet, ending at an elevation of 6893 feet. I found a sunny spot with a cushion of grass and had a nice long nap after lunch.

Someone asked whether it would be possible to access the upper Yeager Mine Trailhead by vehicle. The answer is yes with a caveat that the last 0.7 miles requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle. I had, as a matter of fact, done just that last November. It is therefore possible to position passenger vehicles at both ends and hike this trail one way. This would be a short hike of only 3.2 miles. That distance would include the 0.7 miles required to reach the upper trailhead from a place where a passenger vehicle could be parked as well side trips to explore Tunnel Spring and Yeager Mine.

To reach the upper end of the trail by passenger vehicle from the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot (map below), travel south on Hwy 89A for 15.2 miles, turn left onto Forest road 104 and go 1.5 miles, turn right on FR 413 and go 2.3 miles, turn right on FR 132 and go 0.4 miles then turn right onto FR 105 and go 0.7 miles and park at the intersection with FR 9626A. From there it is another 0.7 miles by foot or by 4-wheel drive on FR 9626A to the upper Yeager Mine Trailhead.

How to access the upper Yeager Mine Trailhead by road

On the map shown below the two short sections of blue track at either end of the trail (red track) are the forest service roads by which Yeager Mine Trail may be accessed. The road accessing the lower end of the trail is Forest Road 9002S and the one accessing the upper trailhead is Forest Road 9626A. The lower trailhead is accessible by passenger vehicles; to access the upper trailhead, passenger vehicles should be parked at the junction of FR 105 and FR 9626A. From there it is only 0.7 miles by foot or 4-wheel drive to the trailhead.

For the lower end of the trail, the map shows a “new trailhead” and an “old trailhead”. The old trailhead is where all the maps I found indicated the trail started; the new trailhead is where we found the first posted sign indicating that we were on Trail 105 (Yeager Mine Trail).

The red track on the map shows our track on the way up the trail and includes side trips to the old mine site and to Tunnel Spring. It measures 2.5 miles in length. Our return journey, without the two side trips, was shorter and the entire hike measured only 4.3 miles. The highest elevation was 6893 feet and the total ascent was 1365 feet.

1Motor Vehicle Use Map, Prescott National Forest, 01 August 2012

2Prescott National Forest “map”, published 1993, revised in 2000

3 http://www.mindat.org/loc-41726.html