EISPIRATEN

I had received a personal invitation for a tour of the Monte Cristo Mine from Lars the current owner.

Last Saturday me, Ed, Jeff, Dima & Matt met Lars at the locked gate by the Monte Cristo campground.

We followed him in two cars. I've walked this road many times but driving on it was quite a different experience. I was in my friends Jeep and it was so much fun.

We drove past the fork in the road that leads up to Rabbit peak. Finally we arrived at the entrance to the private property where Lars resides in a trailer a few days a week. He has a care taker that guards the area and carries a gun.

Anyways, Lars was a very gracious host. He showed us everything on his property. He explained how his mining operation worked. He shared information on how he samples certain types of rocks to find Gold and some of his secrets on chemicals/solutions used in the process. He also showed us his secret small lab (that's what I call it) where he actually had a crucible and glass beakers.

He had old equipment & other interesting things.

After the lecture/stories on mining operations we hiked up the road to the entrance of the mine.

It was really cool to get a personal tour that we all enjoyed. Lars is both an Engineer and Chemist and maybe even a geologist. I just think he was very knowledgeable. A pretty smart man.

The guys asked alot of questions. We all learned alot. After the tour we hiked up to the top of the mine.

Lars also shared info on other mines in the area like the Spanish Mine, Mariposa Mine and if course the Black Cargo mine.

After more shared stories and conversations he showed us his dynamite storage stash hidden off trail.

Overall a great day spending a few hours with Lars.

@Nate you really would have enjoyed it. Sorry you missed it.

Here's a short video of some of the mine tour.
https://youtu.be/B4ASj6NFElI?si=86p3xj8QRRFUudVf

Lars,
Emailed me said we had a nice group and was happy we could visit him.

@Matt- Lars wants to send you pics of the maps you inquired about. I can forward you his email in a private message but it's on his business card.

I just don't want to advertise it

Super cool! Yeah, wish I could have joined, would have definitely appreciated the geology.

According to my geologic maps, they dug their shaft into the moon-rock anorthosite, but pretty close to its contact with Mendenhall Gneiss and Mt Lowe Granitic intrusion, so knowing the Gabes and knowing 200 million year old magma chambers - its basically a big intrusive igneous mess. Which maybe *that* explains why they mined in that location! I've never really "dug into" the geology of mining for gold. Capitalism wielding geology only awakens balrogs and stirs up other unpleasantries.

A few more pics

Dynamite, guns, and a secret lab! Straight out of Breaking Bad.

That's a wild and interesting trip report. Thanks for sharing all the photos.

Pretty cool, thanks for the report.

Neat! I've never been in this one, but I did find some near by a couple years ago. I noticed some copper carbonate minerals on the rocks near a section of the mountain with a bunch of adits. It would be nice to check that spot out in the future if there's another opportunity to visit. I need to check out the Falcon Mine sometime soon too, which is near by.