The Fly Syndicate: MGL Mine

More Northern Nevada mine exploration, this time the northeastern peripheries of former Lake Winnemucca in the Nightingale Mining District. The MGL mine was an extensive tungsten mine with a fairly large mill (below) situated at the foot of the canyon.

Facing west towards former Lake Winnemucca.

Remnants of an old ore chute.

When off road in Northern Nevada, always carry recovery equipment, tire patch kit, shovel, pull pall, snatch block, recovery straps, winch, etc...you'll need them.

The MGL ore bin is in remarkable shape considering its age. At nearly three stories tall, its an impressive sight.

An ore chute at the end of ore tracks only 50 yards from adit #1.

A well framed adit nicely preserved.

Most of the portals look this way, the lose rocks and dirt on the hillside often sloughs off and make the portal look extra menacing. Generally speaking, its the portals that do this, 4 feet in you're roses.

End of the ore tracks where they'd fill trucks I'd presume with ore.

I'd love to reclaim these 10x10 timbers, they look fresh from the mill.

Work table.

Miners weren't spellers, should be "adit #2".

An odd masonry wall with a passage through, beyond was not looking safe. Was this was used in place of cribbings for support? Very odd and it looks like it took some time to build.

Dual ore chutes. Looking up each chute, you can see light some 75 feet up.

Upper working connected to lower working via this metal chute which was fastened to the hillside by steel cable.

A top this huge stopped out pit is another ore chute, this one is out of rock, look close at the top of the pit, there is a chute chiseled out of rock atop that connects to yet another set up upper workings.

This pit is vast, much bigger than the picture suggests, no way out if you go in other than through a quarter mile of mine shaft in the pitch black.

Storage, possibly for TNT.

This road is bad, especially for a full sized truck, the long wheel base had me one the verge of a rollover, had to have the kids get out and walk twice as I locked up and inched past a couple of bad washout.

Further north is school bus canyon. Getting there is a challenge, a big dry creek washout makes you fish around a few hundred yards looking for a crossing, but it can be done. I still can't figure out how it got its name.

Yeah, its what it looks like, someone took a bowling ball cannon up there and blasted bowling balls clear through the school buses....damn, where was I when this was going down?

This canyon is probably worse than MGL. Frequented by jeepers, it has obstacles that have drive arounds, however, these drive arounds weren't exactly meant for a long wheel-based vehicle. Again, had kids out walking for fear of a rollover with them in the cab. Not sure I'd do either MGL or school bus canyon again in a newly purchased full sized truck.

This off road adventure up Coyote Canyon allowed us to step back in time and visit our native and mining pasts. It started out as just a way to get out with the boys and see some country you can only access with a worthy off road rig and a good map. The trip far exceeded our expectations and won't soon be forgot. Forgive the picture-rich post which has nothing to do with fly fishing, but this winter's fly fishing has been a drought (pun intended) and I couldn't help myself.

The trek began early one Sunday morning in Reno, then east towards Wadsworth, north through the Pyramid Paiute Reservation and the budding metropolis of Nixon, then northeast through old mining roads and canyon washes until you reach the eastern slopes of the Nightingale Range near the intersection of Washoe, Pershing and Churchill Counties.

As you leave Nixon bearing north east, you'll parallel a ravine which appears to have held a substantial water supply at one point. This ravine (pictured below) would be the pre-Derby Dam terminal arm of the Truckee River which supplied Winnemucca Lake with its life blood....water. Before Derby Dam diverted water from Pyramid Lake, it was approximately 100 feet higher and overflowed its banks creating another 6.5 mile section of the Truckee River which fed Lake Winnemucca. Derby Dam was built in 1903, the aforementioned arm of the Truckee stopped flowing soon thereafter and the lake was dry by 1939. Its hard to believe that only 120 years ago, Paiutes used to stand on the river banks and harpoon fish as they migrated between the two lakes. Additionally, the Paiutes hunted migratory water fowl that used the former lake for food and refuge. Following the lake's demise, the migratory path of the waterfowl shifted to the north.

Would you ever know gazing upon this expansive desert playa (below) that less than 90 years ago it was a 100-foot deep terminal lake teaming with wildlife and supporting Indians along its shoreline?

There are extensive Tufa rock formations which border both Pyramid Lake and Lake Winnemucca's shorelines. Tufa is a porous variety of limestone that generally forms along lake shores. You'll find Tufa throughout the Great Basin in the footprint of Ancient Lake Lahontan. Paiutes inhabited many of the caves which abut its peripheries. Below we found a set of caves which appeared likely to have been used as shelters thousands of years ago.

Below, soot from fires appears to have coated the Tufa pillows in this particular cave which adjoined the shoreline of former Lake Winnemucca less than a century ago.

Perched high on the mountain, an smaller cave sits above the first which also appeared to bear the signs of ancient fires. Though we were on its eastern shores, the petroglyphs on the western reaches of Lake Winnemucca date back from between nearly 11,000 and nearly 15,000 years ago and are widely considered the oldest petroglyphs in North America.

Coyote Canyon trail often takes the form a seasonal wash.

Below are the lower workings of the Jaybird Tungsten Mine. This adit was through pretty solid granite which was not fragile like shale or limestone workings. A floor void of debris and an adit w/o the need for cribbings for support gave me confidence to take a quick peek inside. Watch for the black damp, generally not a concern near a portal (I don't have a death wish and I didn't go that deep).

A stope braced with large juniper logs...where did those come from, the Nightingale Range is devoid of timber.

Good to see some guzzlers full of water in a dry year like this.

An old mining cabin at the Nightingale Mine, partially buried...I suppose for insulation?

The Nightingale Mine was the biggest tungsten producer in the district. Its massive workings and tunnels follow a vein of limestone and shale which abut a layer of granite.

Below is a winch frame atop a deep shaft.

I believe this mill was built by the Gold-Silver-Tungsten Co, Inc. and was designed to handle 100 tons of ore/day but saw very little use. Mining companies often times got ahead of themselves and built infrastructure that wouldn't always be supported by the minerals in the area.

A flat bed of sorts, looked like it was part of a wagon but who knows.

Here you can appreciate the size the the limestone vein which was mined as far as 128 feet down. These open stopes continue for approximately 1,600 feet (north to south).

Portals like this dot the hills.

A road less traveled.

Either the beginnings of a shaft near High Grade Mine or one which outlived its usefulness and collapsed

High Grade Mine Cabin

Needs a little TLC

Smoke shack? Storage/cellar? Can't figure it out, it had a stove flue in it, but was too small to house people...anyone know what it is?

Finally something they can check out.

Below is the upper MGL Mine Canyon, I don't know its real name but it hides a "secret" mine on the upper western slope (the road to the right).

I wouldn't have stumbled across this mine were it not for Google Earth. You wouldn't expect a mine to be here...you wouldn't expect anything to be here.

TNT was stored here years ago.

Away from anything which could set it off.

Not sure what this cabin was use for, it was on the same grade as the ore bin seen toppled to the right.

Another shot of the ore bin.

16" pipe? Where did they get the water to necessitate such a massive diameter pipe? What did they do with the water? Was this used to power a monitor to strip the hillside? There are a couple meager springs nearby....that's it.

Okay, this is the type of mine that doesn't give you a good vibe. Fractured limestone, unstable everything and collapsed cribbings to the right.

A quick picture of this crazy timber framing that goes up 3 levels and down as far as light will let you see. Time to get the "@#$%" out and view from a safe distance above.

Even outside of the mine you need to be mindful of where you step. most dangers lurk above the main portals where stopes and air shafts inconspicuously protrude through the surface.

Here you can appreciate the magnitude of the workings and just how hopelessly screwed you'd be should you fall into them. You also have to ponder the skill, labor and dedication required to mine this back in the 1920's and 1930's.