North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

Stehekin Mining District

MINERAL RESOURCES: MINING

Horseshoe Basin

Cabin on cliff at mine in Horseshoe Basin, 1910.
(L.D. Lindsley photo, University of Washington Libraries Photo Collection)

Horseshoe Basin, in both its upper and lower sections, had the largest concentration of mineral claims of all three mining districts in the North Cascades. Beginning in 1889, minerals were traced from the Doubtful Lake mines to Horseshoe Basin by M. M. Kingman and the Pershall brothers. [145] By 1899 more than forty claims had been located in the upper and lower basin. [146] Of all the mines, the Black Warrior gained the most notoriety. Located in lower Horseshoe Basin, the Black Warrior was one of a group of three patented claims (the others being the Blue Devil and the Golden Gate), but only the Black Warrior could boast any major development work. The mine was discovered by Kingman and Albert Pershall in 1889, and was the second major mine to be located in the Stehekin valley (Doubtful Lake Mines being first). Two years later, the discoverers sold their holdings to a Markle and MacFarland of Portland, Oregon, for the unprecedented sum of $30,000, making this the largest sale ever for a mining property in the valley. [147]

The new owners of the Black Warrior operated under the name of the Horseshoe Basin Mining and Development Company. They developed the mine by drilling hundreds of feet into the hard rock ledge and constructing a mining camp. Lake Chelan photographer Lawrence D. Lindsley visited the Black Warrior camp in the early twentieth century and remarked how a cabin at the mine was wired to the rock to keep it in place; he remembered entering this cabin by way of a ladder through the floor. Lindsley also mentioned the large cabins at the bottom of Horseshoe Basin known as Pershall's. [148] This was originally a mining and supply camp, built prior to 1895, and used by miners on their way to and from Cascade Pass, Doubtful Lake, and Horseshoe Basin Mines. [149] In later years, this camp would be known as Rowse's Camp.

The Black Warrior received its patent in 1901, and was probably mined into the 1910s. Many factors, including high costs and low profits, caused mining activity between the 1920s and 1940s to be sporadic. [150] Not until 1946 did mining in Horseshoe Basin revive. Motivated by promising assays and by the state's efforts to complete the long-awaited mine-to-market road over Cascade Pass, a new company now attempted to develop the mines in the basin. The Black Warrior Mining Company incorporated and began work in 1946. A road was extended from Cottonwood Camp as far as Rowse's Camp. From here the Black Warrior company built a truck road in 1947 that reached the lower basin. Adverse climatic and topographic conditions coupled with the expense of moving ore downlake proved overwhelming. When a snow slide in the 1950s leveled the company's facilities and destroyed the road, the decision was made to cease operation. [151]

Today, the basin is quiet. Most of the rusting equipment from the lower camp has been removed and the site is now Basin Creek Camp, a hikers' campground. The Black Warrior mine, since listed in the National Register of Historic Places, has two "rooms" flanking the main adit which hold wooden shelves, tables, and support timbers. Blasted from the rock in the 1940s, one room was used by miners as a kitchen and the other for sleeping quarters. To ensure your safety, please do not enter this or any other mine. [152]

While mining was underway at the Black Warrior, claims in upper Horseshoe Basin gained attention. The Davenport, among others, was a significant find by Kingman and Pershall in the 1890s and was worked for many years. Henry Freeland Buckner was active in this area in the early twentieth century. In 1904 he contracted to blast a tunnel into the mountain, reaching 120 feet by the year's end. Its purpose was to crosscut the rich ledges running between the upper and lower basins. The work was halted temporarily in 1905 to lay steel track for ore cars. Between 1909 and 1910, Buckner was still supervising a crew of miners, who by this time had reached a mining depth of hundreds of feet. [153] Work eventually ceased at the upper mines until the later 1940s when the Black Warrior began operating again. The Horseshoe Basin Mining and Development Company renewed work in the upper basin, building a cable tramway from the floor of the basin to the edge of the upper basin, to facilitate the removal of ore. Another cable extended beyond that point for about 6000 feet. [154] Although cabins for miners were built in this area as early as 1901, heavy snowfalls required that they be rebuilt each year. Despite these valiant efforts these mines ultimately failed as well. Only adits, a 500-foot tunnel, an ore cart on tracks, and miscellaneous machine parts remain as proof of the miners' work in the upper basin.

Black Warrior Mine entrance, ca. 1940s.
(NOCA-Stehekin photo file)