Note: A high clearance or 4×4 vehicle is recommended. The road leading up to the mines is just a dirt road and you will be about 14 miles away from the nearest town so plan accordingly.

We decided to check out the Jackson mines because we had a map that showed mines all over the place in the area and it seemed interesting.  We had no idea what we would find out there but we wanted to see it.

The first mine which I am calling the Jackson Mine #1 because it appears to be the largest mine with the biggest tailings pile.  It also has a head frame and an old structure right behind it.  This mine is sadly caved right at the top and it appeared to be a vertical shaft.

The mines in the surrounding area are also all closed and gated.  We found several vertical shafts that had some amazing potential but since they were gated we had no way of getting inside.

Travel up the dirt road a little ways and you will come to what I call the Jackson Mine #2.  This mine seems to be much older than the #1 mine and it has several very old buildings and shacks in the area too.  There were several dugouts and even an old outhouse next to the head frame to the #2 mine.  The #2 mine was a vertical shaft that is still open that went down several hundred feet.  We hooked up a rope to our friends truck and two of us decided to descend the vertical shaft just below the head frame to check it out.

This shaft was very dangerous and crumbly.  After our two friends descended about 75 feet they decided to climb back up as the walls were too unstable and they didn’t feel safe.

Two old buildings are behind the #2 mine and one appeared to hold some kind of hoist.  The other building was just an office or miners shack but it was located right next to a small adit.

The adit went in about 35 feet but it had a vertical shaft inside of it that dropped about 20 feet to another level.  We were very hesitant to go down the shaft, even though it had a ladder, because it was dirty and filthy with pack rat droppings and nests all over.  We don’t want to catch some weird disease!

After exploring a little bit up the hills we found another small adit that went in a few hundred feet and comes to an end.  It was still neat to check out and explore.

I did my own exploring and found several old stone monuments that were used as location markers for the mines.  I checked around one of the stone monument and found an old tobacco can that had a piece of paper in it which described the Notice Of Location for one of the Jackson claims.

I took a few pictures then returned the paper into the can and hid it in the same location.

Around the Jackson #2 mine we explored the other ruined dugouts and found tons of old food cans laying around.  There were other neat artifacts and mine entrances around the area but for the most part, they were all closed or caved in.