Tungsten Mine / Cattle Canyon abandoned?

[hikeandhike]

This fellow walked all around the site, sure looks abandoned:

[Matthew]

This fellow walked all around the site, sure looks abandoned:

I have been planning a trip up to that mine for ages but pharaoh beat me to it!!

I have taken photos of the mine site with a long lens from the GMR from 2018-2019 and from my photos and research, no trucks have moved. Also if you look at a mining claim database, the Curtis tungsten is reported inactive as of 2012ish.

[hikeandhike]

Interesting. Probably won't be too long, sadly, until vandals destroy it.
Neat area, for sure.

[Matthew]

Interesting. Probably won't be too long, sadly, until vandals destroy it.
Neat area, for sure.

I doubt vandels would want to hike 14 miles just to be vandels ?

[HikeUp]

March 2009. 2 weeks prior to this picture I saw the blue pickup (center of picture) on the road near Cow Canyon Saddle.

[dima]

I was on the ridge above Lookout mountain in the summer of 2016, and got a good look at the site from above. Inexplicably I can't find a trip report or photos of the site, but I got the impression that it was active then. Don't remember what gave me this impression.

So the road up to the workings is essentially gone? And there're mountain lions guarding the place??

Does anybody know about the access status of that road? What is private? If you start at Cow Canyon saddle and travel West, at which point are you trespassing? What if you start at the East Fork and go East?

[JeffH]

Cow Canyon Saddle has a gate across the road, in the last year there are some 'wings' added to each side - guess people were still going around to the obvious trail up to Lookout. You can see the gate in the foreground of this picture I took last Friday.

[dima]

That gate was actually installed while I was up on Lookout in 2016. It's not clear what that gate is blocking off, specifically. The old RV park just behind the gate is private, but 99% of that road is nowhere near that area. Who will yell at you if you go past the RV park?

[HikeUp]

I was on the ridge above Lookout mountain in the summer of 2016, and got a good look at the site from above.

Does anybody know about the access status of that road? What is private? If you start at Cow Canyon saddle and travel West, at which point are you trespassing? What if you start at the East Fork and go East?

That gate was actually installed while I was up on Lookout in 2016. It's not clear what that gate is blocking off, specifically. The old RV park just behind the gate is private, but 99% of that road is nowhere near that area. Who will yell at you if you go past the RV park?

The picture I posted was from that same ridge just north of Lookout.

The road is okay (i.e. legal I think) to walk on. I was walking down that road towards Cattle Canyon when the guy driving the blue pickup passed and waved. He was on his way to the mine up in Cattle Canyon. There are private lands (Thompson Ranch & Widman Ranch I think are two such holdings - not positive), but the road doesn't cross them. Not sure if there are private holdings around the Tungsten Mine site or not, but no one seems to care.

Back when Ze' & gang ascended Big Horn Ridge, there was a lot of discussion on this board about access into Cattle Canyon/Big Horn Ridge. The rumor back then was "an old dude with a gun" (search for "odwag") would confront hikers on the route but no actual sightings were reported by posters on this forum.

[JeffH]

That gate was actually installed while I was up on Lookout in 2016. It's not clear what that gate is blocking off, specifically. The old RV park just behind the gate is private, but 99% of that road is nowhere near that area. Who will yell at you if you go past the RV park?

I saw someone driving out of there on Friday afternoon about 2:45 as I was reaching the end of the Sunset Peak fire road.

[hikeandhike]

Oh boy, looks like this was just posted:



Interior of the mine

[Matthew]

Oh boy, looks like this was just posted:



Interior of the mine

I'm gonna try and make this trek asap.

[Tom.Kane]

I take my Mtn Bike down the Tungsten mine rd a few times a year and then hike up to the Tungsten mine itself, a beautiful and remote canyon even with an abandoned mine and all the associated equipment littering the canyon bottom. As you walk/ride down the Tungsten mine rd there are two canyons that cross the road and continue down to your left ending in Cow canyon itself, on the way down the first canyon I discovered a large Marijuana grow which was abandoned but with a lot of leftover trash, the second canyon which is quite a bit steeper and with more water had another Marijuana grow, abandoned with lots of trash as well. I had seen some of Pharos's video's before, he has done some trash clean ups in the past so I asked him if he would be interested in another such clean up effort of some abandoned Weed grow sites - He declined but went ahead and made a couple videos of the mine site and shafts with his friends. Good videos with some interesting information. I have ventured into the upper mine shafts above the plant and have never been so scared, I cant imagine working a full shift in those shafts, of stern stuff these miners were made! I have encountered some locals down on the road and they are fine with hikers and Mtn bikers for the most part, it helps if you stop and say hi, tell them what you doing back there as they are suspicious of tweekers and those who would try to steal/ cut up with blow torches old tractors for scrap.....which is what an old local told me! There are numerous bighorn sheep in the area and thankfully very few hikers/you tubers. A trip to Cattle Canyon is worth the effort as you will see a lot of sheep but no people.

[dima]

Thanks for the info, Tom. I just went to check out the area. Report here

[CrazyHermit]

The whole mine site and road are on private property. Pharroah had to get permission from quite a few people to film back in there.

[dima]

No, they're not. The only private property he walked on was the ~1/4 mile at Cow Canyon Saddle. Look at the assessor's map linked in my TR. The mine isn't private at all. I'm guessing they have (had?) some mineral extraction permit, but that's not "private property". For one, they don't pay property taxes (the assessor deals with those, I think). The guy in the video says he talked to a bunch of people, and that their privacy should be respected, but he wasn't specific at all about who he was referring to. And he didn't see a soul, so "privacy" wasn't being violated.

I feel comfortable going back. If/when I do, I'll certainly pick a time of day when running into people is unlikely, but this is mostly solid legal ground I think. And the Cow Canyon Saddle property can be bypassed, if one really wants to.

[CrazyHermit]

Why do you pick a time of day when running into people is unlikely? Just wondering.
I could care less if anyone goes back there, but you know it's private property. Just because you don't see a soul doesn't mean it's not.

[dima]

Very little of the route to the mine is private: the first 1/4 mile. One could tresspass it, or go around. Going at off hours makes it less likely that I'd be explaining this to a potentially cantankerous and gun-toting property owner whose property I'm not on. If I'm not understanding the property situation correctly, please set me straight.

[CrazyHermit]

I think you stated it perfectly. It's private property. And not just the first 1/4 mile. It's a patented mine, just like the property the Bridge To Nowhere stands on (which is also private property owned by the descendants of the owner of the Horseshoe mines). Not bustin' you chops, just stating a fact.

[dima]

I can only find evidence about the first 1/4 mile being private. Do you have any specific info about the rest? The assessor doesn't know about it, so they're not paying property tax. Is there some other type of private property? Hypothetically-speaking, let's say one walks up Cattle Canyon towards the mine site, but doesn't go near the structures, doesn't enter the adits, doesn't dig around, and doesn't pick up the rocks. This person is then unquestionably not in violation of the patented mine claim, right? Or wrong?

[Matthew]

So the Curtis tungsten mining claims are all inactive and have been since around 2014. I can do some more research to prove the site isn't currently owned but that may take some time. According to the assessor map, the land isn't owned by anyone and according to mining claims, the Curtis claims are all inactive meaning they aren't paying yearly fees to keep an operation going.

[CrazyHermit]

The Horseshoe mine has been inactive since the 1920s, still private property. That's why the bungee company at the Bridge To Nowhere has to lease the bridge from the Saunder's family for every jump. Another good example is the Falcon Mine, inactive for over 50 years, still private property. Monte Cristo Mine, private property. Gold Queen Mine, private property, Gold Ridge Mine, private property. A mine doesn't have to be active to be privately owned. Some of these claims date so far back you won't even find records, which is why the forest service sometimes tries to conduct surveys.

[dima]

The Horseshoe mine has been inactive since the 1920s, still private property. That's why the bungee company at the Bridge To Nowhere has to lease the bridge from the Saunder's family for every jump. Another good example is the Falcon Mine, inactive for over 50 years, still private property. Monte Cristo Mine, private property. Gold Queen Mine, private property, Gold Ridge Mine, private property. A mine doesn't have to be active to be privately owned. Some of these claims date so far back you won't even find records, which is why the forest service sometimes tries to conduct surveys.

This isn't "specific information", this is "rumors". If there aren't records of a claim, then the claim doesn't officially exist. The claimant may still shoot you if you dispute that, obviously, but that's a whole other thing.

The inholdings at the Bridge to Nowhere, and nearby at the Horseshoe mines exist as a separate parcels, according to the assessor's maps. Same with Monte Cristo. I haven't checked the rest, but you should, and then tell us what you find. Thompson and WIdman ranches are private. Curtis mine? Nope. The road down to Thompson ranch and Cattle Canyon? Public.

I'm not a property lawyer, but my strong suspicion is that they have a mining claim, which gives them some rights to the minerals, or something, but they don't officially own any above-ground land.

[HikeUp]

Here is the old Sierra Club "permission slip" to pass through the private property RV park to get up to Lookout.

http://www.hundredpeaks.org/images/permission.jpeg

"Current status" according to Sierra Club is...

"Although Route 1 has always included portions on private property, HPS'ers have been able to pass with permission. The property is now under new ownership and that permission is now uncertain. It is suggested that any HPS scheduled hikes take other routes until this issue is resolved."

http://www.hundredpeaks.org/guides/15e.htm

[dima]

So the RV park property was owned by the Tungsten mine guy? Think he sold off that land when he abandoned the mine, and no longer had reason to be there?

[HikeUp]

Not going to speculate.

[hikeandhike]

Interesting...notice the video was removed?

[SGBob]

According to the LA County Assessor, the property at the Cow Canyon Saddle gate was sold in 2018.