We were going to visit family for Mother's Day this year, to the town of Tooele, located 30 miles west of  Salt Lake City, Utah, and decided it would be fun to take a couple of side trips to the old mines around Tooele County.  This county is well known for the amazing variety of minerals, gemstones, geodes and fossils that are located in the mining districts here. In addition to the mining districts, many of the collecting sites are located along the route of the Pony Express, which actually began at Simpson Springs.  The world famous Dugway geode bed is located along the Pony Express Route as well.  There is something for everyone along this route, from antelope and scenic mountains, to geodes and historical relics.  Tooele County also is home to a large mining district that includes the Kennecott Copper Mine, plus the old mines at Mammoth, Silver City, Ophir, Mercur and Eureka.  Until recently, the only mine that was still operating was the Kennecott open pit.  It was still possible to do some collecting on the mine dumps of these other locations, most of which are listed in the Gem Trails of Utah by James Mitchell.  However, in the last couple of years, due to the rising price of metals, the mines at Silver City and Mammoth have been reopened and gates put across the roads to the dumps.  There are many "NO Trespassing" signs to go along with the fences too!

Needless to say, we had to limit our collecting to the roadside rock piles and the areas  that were not posted.  We did manage to collect some interesting rocks from a pile with a view of the old Mammoth Mine adit and buildings.  The rock was quite varied and  colorful--- some contained traces of azurite, malachite, galena, feldspar and smithsonite crystals.  Others contained parallel bands of dogtooth calcite, or were very heavy with minerals such as lead, silver, mercury, copper, sulfur, etc.  The main purpose of the Mammoth Mine is to extract the gold found there, with a secondary goal to extract the other minerals as well.  The mines in this area of Utah were opened around 1896 to 1910, with their peak around 1935.  There were some sizeable towns that sprang up along with the mines, but today most of the old buildings that survived are unoccupied.  The town at Mercur burnt up in a fire in just 2 1/2 hours, while Eureka survives today as a living ghost town.  The present day community below the Mammoth Mine consists of 40 or so houses with no wells----people have their water hauled in.  However, at one time the Tintic Hospital served this town as well as the nearby community of Silver City.  There is only a monument standing at the site now, built of some of that colorful local rock.

After leaving Silver City, we stopped in the town of Eureka.  There are lots of old buildings still standing, with an occasional shop selling antiques or other collectibles here or there.  There was a vacant building which used to sell rocks and fossils along with other collectibles, a couple of  old railroad engines, some rusty mining equipment scattered around, and one gas station.  Eureka is home to the High School which serves the surrounding ranches and other small towns, plus a store, church, etc.  I am sure most of the occupants take the 45 mile trip over the mountain to Provo or other towns located along Interstate 15 for most of their shopping needs!

We decided to stop at the Wonderstone collecting area on our way home, for some of that very colorful and interesting rock.  This locale is near the small farming community of Vernon, just a short distance from the intersection of Highway 36 and the railroad track.  It is about 1/2 mile from the paved road and is easily accessible for any kind of vehicle, unless it has rained or snowed.  The pit has grown over the years and now resembles a gravel pit, due to the heavy collecting of material from the vein.  You can easily fill your bucket from the piles, or tackle the vein for bigger pieces.  This vein is exposed and only down about four feet below the surface, so a pick and shovel should suffice.  The majority of the material here is like sandstone and rather grainy, will not really take a polish.  However, if you look further through the piles, you can find an occasional piece that is much harder, more like rhyolite than sandstone.  This material slices beautifully and is hard enough to take a good polish.  I am hoping to get a few cabs for earrings or rings from the pieces I picked up. 

After visiting the Mining Museum located at Desert Peak between the towns of Grantsville and Tooele, we learned that the gold mines at Mercur have been reclaimed and all buildings removed.  It seems a shame and a loss to the lover of ghost towns and rockpiles, to have all traces of this mine removed.  However, that is the wave of the future, and more and more of this reclamation will take place as time goes on. These experiences taught me to expect more sites being of limited accessibility in the future as commodity prices soar to new levels.  Be prepared to come with alternate sites such as the Wonderstone pit for your collecting, as fewer and fewer old mine tailings will be available to us in the future.

Happy Hunting!

Marilee J. Strech