EISPIRATEN

The Andrew Curtis Tungsten Mine is a recently abandoned mine at the top of Cattle Canyon below Mt. Baldy. Trucks, mining equipment, clothing, paperwork, and a full mill are just a few of the things that are left behind at the site. The site looks untouched as if the miners left it yesterday, especially the office which still has notepads open on the table and instant coffee over the microwave. There are trucks who's doors are unlocked, conveyor belts with ore on them, even file cabinets still filled with documents and safety assessments. The Andrew Curtis Tungsten Mine is one of the San Gabriel's most recently abandoned mines which might not see another working day in the future.

I first learned about this mine's existence when I was driving up the Glendora Mountain Road with my Dad. I looked off to my left into Cattle Canyon to see 2 tractors parked about 200 feet from each other on the bank of the river. I decided to check the MRDS and found a page on the Andrew Tungsten Mine. I learned that the claim for the mine stopped being paid around 2012 but just to make sure everything was actually abandoned, I took photos of the mill site from the GMR over the next few years to see if trucks moved, which they didn't.

I planned 2 routes to the mill which both were 16 miles round trip, one starting at the junction of east fork and cattle canyon, the other at Cow Canyon Saddle. Honestly, I procrastinating making this trip earlier last year since the road is washed out in cattle canyon to the mine which meant it would be like 4 miles on no trail and maneuvering over small boulders.

My first attempt was with @LobsterTelephone from East Fork mainly to see if it was possible to climb the canyon on the road there. We gave up within roughly 40 minutes due to too many river crossings for our patience. Later that day, we tried from the Cow Canyon Saddle and only made it 4.5 miles down 2N09. Refer to a previous post on the details of the property and trespassing since I won't get into it on this particular post.

My second attempt was successful and was done with @LobsterTelephone .

We started at the Saddle and dropped down into Cattle Canyon within 1:45 hours. Next time, I would definitely bring a bike and stash it somewhere in the canyon. The first tractor was fully intact minus some of the cushion gone and a few dinged up windows.

The gravel road quickly disappears after that tractor and it becomes more of a scramble up the rocks through the open canyon. There is no tree cover so making the trip in the winter was definitely the way to go.

We stopped for tea and to fill up water bottles.


At around 11 am, we finally made it to the mill site! That shed in the foreground has some generators, a vibrating table for separating the ore, and some helixes spiraling downwards (can't figure out what they are for)
Behind the shed is the mill followed by the office and a work hanger.

The mill is still standing with all of its catwalks intact and stable to my knowledge.
This is inside of the office for the mine. All the coffee expired in 2014.
One of the trucks we found, had all of the compartments unlocked. The rats ate up some of the cushion and made a nest in the glove compartment.
We came to the conclusion that the road was probably washed away in a storm and it was too expensive for the mine owners to clear the road.

Some fun facts

• There was cell service at the mine. 2 bars LTE so enough to FaceTime my dad.
• We hiked 18.4 miles in 10 hours without seeing a single person.
• We did explore 2 out of the 3 tunnels. Didn't go to the last one since getting to it was an extra 1/2 mile and we were exhausted.
• This was the longest and hardest hike of my life and I will only do it again if I were paid.

Thank you!

Nice. Thanks for the report. Anything interesting in the tunnels?

Sweet! Glad you made it out there. Really surprising how much equipment and vehicles were left behind. Maybe the final straw was the road being washed out again, and they'd need to fix it to get the vehicles out.

We only explored the shorter tunnels. The longer one has over 1000ft of workings but we just didn't have time unfortunately. Maybe if I ever go back, I'll make it an overnight so I can spend more time there.

It would be very difficult getting the road cleared though. The majority of the canyon is flooded with massive boulders and most of the tires on the vehicles are flat. The miners would also need to repair the tractors or buy new ones.

I know this will probably make me a pariah here, but I think it's bullshit that miners can drag all their crap into the canyons and then just leave it there when their claim has played out or it becomes inconvenient to remove it. In any other context, that would not be tolerated. It certainly wouldn't be put on a pedestal and held in high esteem. But when it comes to mining, rusting and rotting equipment and garbage is treated almost reverentially as "artifacts." Sorry. I don't see that way. Miners should be required to post a bond before they ever start working a claim to cover the cost of removing all their shit when (not if) they abandon it.

Rant over.

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑I know this will probably make me a pariah here, but I think it's bullshit that miners can drag all their crap into the canyons and then just leave it there when their claim has played out or it becomes inconvenient to remove it. In any other context, that would not be tolerated. It certainly wouldn't be put on a pedestal and held in high esteem. But when it comes to mining, rusting and rotting equipment and garbage is treated almost reverentially as "artifacts." Sorry. I don't see that way. Miners should be required to post a bond before they ever start working a claim to cover the cost of removing all their shit when (not if) they abandon it.

Rant over.

I hear what you're saying, although after visiting the locations like the Big Horn and Allison mines, before vandals virtually destroyed/carried away many historical artifacts, getting a personal view of history was fantastic.

Trash and especially hazardous chemicals notwithstanding, the tungsten mine will be interesting history at some point in the future. Regardless, the mountains have already reclaimed much of the mine and will continue that process. This mine may have been established before current bonding requirement and if the company is now defunct, there would be on one to go after.

History preservation Vs natural beauty Vs Progress... Would the Egyptian desert be better off if we razed those crappy pointy piles of stones?

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑I know this will probably make me a pariah here, but I think it's bullshit that miners can drag all their crap into the canyons and then just leave it there when their claim has played out or it becomes inconvenient to remove it.

I don't think this is all that controversial, actually. Most of us would prefer less garbage in the forest. But if somebody did discard large, difficult-to-remove objects I feel fine with visiting them and taking photos.

What sucks about the trash situation is that unlike most abandoned buildings in the mountains, this site is built out of metal on concrete foundations so it will all stay around for a VERY long time. That massive hangar has another truck in it along with rows of shelves with tons of replacement parts for machinery.

Speaking of trash, did you see the 5-gal buckets next to the first bulldozer? Is that used motor oil?

dima wrote:Speaking of trash, did you see the 5-gal buckets next to the first bulldozer? Is that used motor oil?

I did find them and they are filled with dirt. Possible for panning

Oh, good. It looked like oil to me, but I can imagine it was just silty rainwater.

While it's unfortunate that so much junk was left behind, I think it's inspiring to see such artifacts of man's work in the mountains. This isn't like tossing candy wrappers and soda cans along the trail. Man needs minerals and resources to make important things for industrial progress, and he needs to get them from somewhere, somehow. Unfortunately, it looks like in this case nature proved to be a bit too much of a challenge for Mr. Curtis.

Thank you for the report and interesting photos!

So was Glendora ridge road open up to the saddle? The LA county public works website still shows it as closed from the Mt. Baldy village.

It was gated off at the village when I went up there. Two weeks ago I think?

Super cool report ?

I moved the climate change discussion to this thread in the Pub.

Question for Jeko. Did the route you took start at this gate? Many thanks in advance.

CrazyHermit wrote:Question for Jeko. Did the route you took start at this gate? Many thanks in advance.

Yes it did. It requires technically traspassing over the ranch owners property only for a few hundred yards but The rest of the route is forest service land. I'd try and pass super early in the morning or even try to make a cross country route around the property.

So the ranch property is just past the gate? I'm planning on starting this early, but I saw noticed the posted camera signs.

CrazyHermit wrote:So the ranch property is just past the gate? I'm planning on starting this early, but I saw noticed the posted camera signs.

There's technically 2 ways to get to the mine. One from East fork and the other from that gate but both require traspassing on land owned by the guys at Thompson ranch. So legally, they technically block access to the canyon

Got it. Thanks very much.

You can avoid the tresspassing by starting at the Bear Canyon trailhead, hiking up a canyon to the saddle South of Lookout Mountain, turning left, and then taking the trail back down to the fire road (the route to the ridge is the hiking route 3 of the HPS description for Lookout Mountain: http://www.hundredpeaks.org0/guides/15e.htm ). It drops you off at the fire road more or less at the other gate of the properly. Maybe there're 10 yards of trespassing.

Caveats:

The route to the saddle is scrambly. Doable, but it's steep and/or brushy in places. HikerGirl posted a TR at some point where somebody in her group fell and got injured over there. I've done it a few times with great success. YMMV.

The trail between the saddle the road was in great shape, but I haven't seen it since after the gate went up. I imagine it doesn't get a lot of use anymore.

You'd still be walking the public-yet-blocked-off fire road, so you might get a talking-to if you run into any of the land owners down there. I'm pretty sure it's legal, though. It'd be nice to find a route that meets Cattle Canyon further up, and bypasses the road entirely, but I haven't worked on that yet.

Thanks Dima.

jeko1034 wrote: ↑

CrazyHermit wrote:So the ranch property is just past the gate? I'm planning on starting this early, but I saw noticed the posted camera signs.

There's technically 2 ways to get to the mine. One from East fork and the other from that gate but both require traspassing on land owned by the guys at Thompson ranch. So legally, they technically block access to the canyon

Land rights in this area are such bullshit. A tiny stretch of the road is on private property, so they can cut off access entirely? I wanted to attempt reaching the mine via East Fork but there seem to be a lot of structures on their small section of land.

Here's some aerial shots of the mine site. Looks like there's a mining road upstream from the main buildings with more structures along the way.

CrazyHermit wrote:Here's some aerial shots of the mine site. Looks like there's a mining road upstream from the main buildings with more structures along the way.

That road by the mine is non existent currently. Literally the whole canyon is a wash with big-ish boulders everywhere. I absolutely hate the land ownership on those roads. Those guys in Thompson ranch literally block access to the canyon below and I personally believe it's to keep people out of their canyon. Something fishy is going on...

Too bad that road is gone. That would have made getting there a lot easier.

Here I'am the old claim owner ,along with father Ron ,I would appreciate you not posting stuff about my mill site and mine I'm fighting with blm to get them back working, my father died going on 4 years just stay out and stay safe you have no reason to go underground anywhere you have no msha training and you can get yourself killed or worse kill a friend .
Thank you
Charles Curtis.

After checking out the TR for the Tungsten mine I decided to make another visit.
Here are a few pics.