The Lincoln Mine
in the Mineral Mountains of Beaver County, Utah
Submitted by Jason Reber

I was traveling from Cedar City (in Southern Utah) to Salt Lake City on one of those rare days when I actually wasn't in a hurry. As usual when traveling between the north and south ends of the state, I was traveling along the "back way" which runs from Cedar City to Milford, on to Delta, up to Eureka, past the west side of Utah Lake and finally into Salt Lake. I take this route because it affords a much better view of the Great Basin.

As I was approaching the small town of Minersville, just outside of Milford, I decided to stop and investigate an area I had read about in George Thompson's book Some Dreams Die (Highly recommended reading). He described the Lincoln mine, located just north of Minersville, as being started in the mid 1800s as a lead mine (the lead to be used for making bullets). When a high silver content was discovered in the ore, the mining became a bit more interesting! The pictures and captions that follow briefly describe the area.

This less than impressive map scan shows the relative location of the Lincoln Mine. Where the road forks at Minersville, travel about 200 yards towards Beaver and look for a good dirt road heading North towards Bradshaw Mountain. (The road shows as dashed lines on the Map, if you look carefully). I traveled the road in late February, and it was in excellent condition despite being a bit wet. The main dirt road is well maintained and I had no problems traveling along in a 2 wheel drive S-10 pickup.

While traveling north along the dirt road, I noticed this old excavator off about ¼ mile to the East. I found a dirt road heading over that way, and decided to check it out. It looked like the excavator had not been used for several years. It had been used to remove a few hundred cubic yards of rock, but I have no idea why. However, a bit up the hill to the east, I found what I was looking for- the tell-tale waste piles from an old underground mine.

This nearly vertical shaft is the lowest on this particular hill, and is partially caved in but still accessible. The wooden remains behind the shaft appear to have been some kind of support structure, probably a simple hoist support . The 3 shafts in this area (near the excavator) are not the main Lincoln mine. I believe they were dug before the main mine (which is located about half a mile to the north), but I'm not certain. Based on size of the waste piles, it appears that a significant amount of ore was taken out in this area, but nothing compared to the main mine. Any more detailed information on this area would be greatly appreciated.

Back on the main road, and a bit to the north of the lower shafts, an old equipment area can be found on the west side of the road. This old boiler is easy to spot, along with the remains of several other old pieces of equipment. I'm not sure what process was performed here- I didn't find any stamp mill or coarse grinder remains, but there were remains of a very old conveyer system. Perhaps the ore was transported a few miles west to Milford to be ground and processed. I suspect one use of the area was used to generate compressed air to run pneumatic drills up at the main Lincoln mine. I found several remains of old air hoses near the mine, suggesting that pneumatic drills were used to drill the rock in preparation for explosives.

The piece of equipment in the foreground appears to be and old steam engine, based on the large fly wheel, belt drive wheel, and various piping. It was probably used to drive an air compressor. The old compressors used in those days look very similar to a steam engine. I wish I'd spent more time looking at this engine and gotten some better pictures. I am definitely going back some day to get a better look.

This is the smaller shaft of the Lincoln mine. You can see the waste piles from the mine from the equipment site described above if you look to the north east. The mine is near the top of Bradshaw Mountain. There are several roads that meander off towards the mine- you could drive right to it in a 4WD truck (probably a 2WD if the roads are dry). It's pleasant hiking too, which is how I chose to get up there. If you look closely, you can see the ore cart tracks coming up out of this shaft. It looked deep and still very open- my flashlight died (of course) so I didn't get a very good look inside.

This is the main opening of the mine. The picture doesn't show it very well, but it's very large in diameter - about 10 feet or so. I could see no ore cart tracks at the entrance, so I'm not sure how the ore was hauled out. This shaft enters the mountain as an adit (horizontal entrance). I sure wish my flashlight had been working, because I believe this mine is wide open for a long way into the mountain. You can see the usual graffiti painted on the rock near the opening- darn kids! The rock this mine was dug into looks very hard. What a tremendous amount of work it must have taken to sink this mine into the mountain!

A few hundred feet down the mountain and to the west, I found this tunnel heading eastward into the mountain. As you can see, a few inches of water is present in the floor of the tunnel, suggesting that it was dug to drain the mine. The water flowing out of this tunnel formed a nice little stream with a significant volume of water flowing. This also would indicate that the adit shown above does not stay horizontal for too long- reason enough to NOT GO IN THERE. Because of the angle of the sun, I could see quite a ways into this drain tunnel. It was very intriguing.

This powder storage building is located a few hundred yards down the hill from the mine. The construction inside suggest that it was built around the turn of the century. Many deaths caused by explosives stored near mines in the 1800's prompted the creation of regulations which forced mine owners to store explosives in storage facilities located a reasonable distance from the mine.

 

This photo was taken a few hundred yards south of (and down hill from) the Lincoln mine. As you can see, this area is covered with typical Great Basin flora and fauna- Pinions, Junipers, and Sage Brush.

Final Impressions
This area is well worth visiting if you are interested in mining remains. The scenery is not nearly as spectacular as other places in the great basin, but I have yet to find a historical mining area with such excellent remains, and that's actually not fenced off or posted as private property. If you find yourself in the general area, stop by. I would recommend visiting in the spring or fall, as the temperatures will be much more comfortable at those times of the year. One other thing- DO NOT ENTER ANY OF THESE MINE SHAFTS IF YOU ARE NOT VERY EXPRERIENCED IN THAT TYPE OF EXPLORATION. I peered into the mouth of the shafts, and that was good enough to tell a lot about what occurred underground. BE CAREFUL!

Note from Dave: We thank Jason for his contribution and encourage you to visit his web site!

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