Mariscal Mine

We followed River Road as far as Mariscal Mine.  The road beyond the mine became extremely rough and our off-road abilities probably wouldn’t hold up to the extreme conditions of the road as it continued.  But, luckily, the road was in good enough condition to allow us to see this very cool deserted mine area.  Altho this mine is known as the Mariscal Mine today, in the past, it was also known as the Lindsey Mine, Ellis Mine and Vivianna Mine.

Mariscal Mine Operations

This was a good view of the overall mine operations, at least as they exist today.  Cinnabar ore (used to make mercury) was discovered in the mountain that the mine is situated on back in the early 1900s.  This mine was responsible for the production of about one quarter of all the mercury produced in the US between 1900 and 1943.  The area where I was standing when I took this image was the location of the homes that the miners lived in (not visible in this image).  They were very plain and square, and I’m guessing belonged to the lowest level worker. 

Kiln

As I headed up the path toward the main mine operations, I noticed a round structure off on the left of the path.  As I photographed it, I wondered if it were some sort of catchment area.  However, I noticed that the inside of the structure wasn’t smooth and non-porous enough to hold any sort of liquid, like water.  As it turns out, this was an old brick kiln.  As we’ll see in just a bit, this kiln was most likely used to fire bricks used to build a furnace that processed the ore to extract the mercury.  As I walked further down the path, I did come across stacks of bricks in the area, mostly broken at this point.

Window

As I continued up the path, I came across some stone buildings, in various stages of falling apart.  I was taken by the view thru this window, up closer to the actual mining operations.  I do love this old building ruins, and couldn’t resist capturing a few images of them.

Two Windows

Here’s another view of another of the deserted stone buildings.  I found out that these stone buildings, built by the Vivianna Mine owners, perhaps built as homes for some of the managers and supervisors of the mine, were never occupied.  The time the mine was known as the Vivianna Mine was toward the very end of its functional existence.

Mine up the Hill

I was beginning to get a better view of the mine shafts that still stand as I moved up the path.  I always find it interesting how nature tends to reclaim her territory once man tires of using her environment and moves on.  The prickly pear cacti seem very happy in their reclaimed space.

Condensers

I was very curious about these 4 circular formations in the slab of concrete.  It appears there were once 6, but these 4 are all that’s left.  I believe these are the remains of condensers.  I think the ore was processed here to extract the mercury from the ore that was mined.

Scott Furnace

Here are the remains of the Scott furnace, and the mine shafts in the background.  And, I can now see what the kiln was used for.  The broken bricks that I mentioned above were all just below the remains of this furnace. 

Fossil at the Mine

On the way back down the path, returning to our Jeep, a fellow explorer spotted this wonderful fossil in the stones on the path.  I don’t know what it’s a fossil of, but love the texture in the piece.  I like to think of it as a piece of art in this relic of past industry.

Enjoy!