We
hiked to Conger and Monarch Mines on January 15, 2011. There were
seventeen of us and we traveled in five vehicles. Going toward Camp
Verde on Hwy 260, we turned right onto FR 361 directly across Hwy 260
from the Thousand Trails Road exit. We followed FR 361 for 4.3 miles
(GPS mileage) before parking where FR 361 turns to follow along the
foothills of the Black Hills and connects eventually with Cherry Road
to the south.
At
this point, the right fork of the road leads up the mountain to
Conger Mine. Still another road, now blocked off by the Forest
Service, once led northwest from here toward Monarch Mine. Donning
our packs we continued straight ahead following the road that leads
southwest to Conger Mine. (NOTE: On various maps, I have found all
of these roads to be marked as FR 361. However, the most logical
assumption is that the road running south, presently marked with a
sign to identify it as such, is the real FR 361). About 0.2 miles
from where we parked, another old mining road forks off to the
northwest. This road after about 0.2 miles connects with the road to
Monarch Mine beyond the closed off section, thus providing access to
the mine.
Having
decided to visit Conger first, we continued straight ahead and passed
another fork in the road about 0.6 miles from where we parked. This
road leads northeast from the Conger Mine Road, but then turns around
the shoulder of the mountain and leads southwest to Etta Mine, which
we visited in March of last year. Again we continued straight ahead
on the road to Conger.
The
first sign of the mine to come into view as one approaches, is a
metal scaffolding of some sort, barely visible on the right opposite
the hikers shown in the road ahead (photograph
below). It appears to have
been some sort of observation tower; however all the planking has
long since been removed leaving only a bare steel skeleton. Other
photographs, some taken during a January 6, 2011 visit are shown
following.
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First view of Conger Mine
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General view of Conger Mine
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Old ore hopper
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Another view of ore hopper
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After
everyone had thoroughly inspected the sight to make sure the miners
had left no gold behind, we continued on up the old mine road for a
short distance and then turned left on another road that follows the
wash up a canyon. This branch road (shown
below) leads up the canyon for something over a hundred
yards to the mouth of a tunnel that contains a spring.
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Side road leading up a canyon to a tunnel containing a spring
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The
tunnel runs about thirty feet straight into the mountainside.
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Mine tunnel with spring inside at Conger Mine
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Near
the mouth of the tunnel when we visited on January 6th, we
found ice stalagmites formed by water dipping from the roof. Rather
than being sharp on top they had grown with rounded heads, almost in
the shape of incandescent light bulbs.
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Ice stalagmites
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Ice stalagmites
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A
spring located at the rear end of the tunnel provides water that was
probably used in the gold mining process. This assumption is
supported by a graded flat area several yards downhill from the
tunnel where some pieces of an old installed piping system can still
be seen along with scraps of other miscellaneous pieces of equipment
(parts of old heaters, etc) that must have been used in the process.
Now,
however, the water is captured within the old tunnel and carried by a
plastic pipe down the canyon for use by cattle being grazed in the
area.
To
the right of the tunnel mouth and about forty yards further up the
canyon, is located another spring, again we thought previously used
for processing but now supplying water that is piped downhill for
grazing cattle.
The
following information about Conger Mine is from mindat.org
- the mineral and locality database:1
The
site showed “A surface and underground Cu-Au occurrence” with
“Mineralization (in) a vein deposit with ore in lenses and pods”
and the “Ore concentration was oxidation at near surface.” The
minerals listed by the source quoted are “Gold”
and “Pyrite.”
After
exploring the tunnel and the up canyon spring we returned to the main
Conger Mine Road and proceeded on up the mountain until it ended at
an excellent viewpoint. We paused here for lunch and a group
photograph (below).
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Left to right: Daisy Williams (sitting), Miriam Sterling, the author, Gordon
Bice, Donna Goodman, Anita Jackson, Dolly Yapp (crouching), Name
Withheld (blurry blue spot), Lila Wright (hand extending over the
San Francisco Peaks), Marvin Alt, Connie Woolard (kneeling), Bill Woolard
(only his nose is visible at Connie’s left shoulder), Linda Tovar, John
McInerney, Colleen Maktenieks, George Everman (squatting), Jim Manning
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George
had us carefully grouped in the above photograph to show the San
Francisco Peaks, visible under Lila’s outstretched arm. Despite
George’s best efforts Bill Woolard, managed to hide in the shade
with only the very tip of his nose showing.
Below
is a zoom shot of the peaks taken from the same spot during the
January 6th scouting hike.
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The San Francisco Peaks - photograph taken 6 January 2011
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We
had climbed about a thousand feet to reach the end of the road above
Conger Mine. This distance, of course, included the short hike to
the mine tunnel and the spring on up canyon from there.
Following
lunch we hiked back the way we had come past Conger mine to the road,
located just 0.2 miles above our parking area, which leads to Monarch
Mine. This short road runs along the face of the mountain for just
0.2 miles before connecting with the road blocked off at the parking
area. At the point where the roads run together a tank has been dug
into the old roadbed to prevent vehicular traffic on the closed off
section leading back to the parking area. Additionally, a wire gate
with no easy way to open it provided, is strung across the road.
From
here we headed on up the old road to Monarch Mine, which lies about
0.4 miles ahead. Along the way we investigated mining claim stakes
that seem to indicate that the claim is divided into Monarch Mine 1
and Monarch Mine 2. Specifically we found a location that was marked
as being the northeast corner of Monarch Mine 1 and the southeast
corner of Monarch Mine 2.
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The boundary line between Monarch Mine #1 and Monarch Mine #2
is just to the right of this sign
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Gordon checking survey markers
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Monarch Mine #1 - Gordon, Jim, Anita
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The
following information about Monarch Mine can be found at mindat.org
- the mineral and locality database:2
The
minedat.org site says that Monarch was an underground mine and that
mineralization consisted “of
coarsely crystalline, white quartz in lenses several feet in maximum
width and carrying bright yellow gold in wholly irregular pockets and
small shoots” and
that “The
mine was developed to 200 feet.”
The minerals listed by minedat.org are “Chalcopyrite,
Epidote,
Galena,
Gold,
Hematite,
Limonite,
Quartz
(var: Milky Quartz).”
After
rambling around the site for a while and not finding anything else of
significance we headed back down the road to our vehicles.
On
arriving at the place where the tank had been dug into the road to
prevent vehicular traffic, we doffed our packs, slithered under the
wire and proceeded along the old closed off section of road to return
to our cars.
The
entire hike was about 4.3 miles long and the elevation gain was a
little over a thousand feet. The route we took is shown on the
included map (below). The green
track shows the path to Conger Mine from the parking lot, the blue
track shows the short cut we took to intersect with the road to
Monarch Mine, and the red track shows the way directly from the
parking area to Monarch Mine. The dark gray track shows the route to
Etta Mine, not visited during this hike.
1
http://www.mindat.org/loc-31142.html
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