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Earlier in the day, one might have thought that there would have been rain. The dark clouds, however, seemed to have quashed the sun's heat, preventing any serious weather from happening at all: By the time people had gathered in the parking lot, the dark clouds had already started to dissipate. Even if they hadn't, we've never been known to let good sense get in the way of our plans...
On this evening we decided to do the complement of last week's hike by going to the Prince of Wales mine. Last week's hike took us nearly to the top of the Silver Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon where we stopped at the Wellington Tunnel, a portal located near Davenport Hill, somewhat short of the pass. This tunnel was part of a much larger system, all owned, at one time, by the Walker brothers (of Walker Bank fame, as it turns out) so it seemed fitting that we visit the other end of the workings. Piling into our vehicles (and Tim riding his motorcycle) we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon - briefly losing Tim, who stopped to fill his canteen - and parked at the trailhead in the pullouts just below the houses near the mouth of Grizzly Gulch.
Because of its approach to the road, the trail can be difficult to spot unless one is looking down the road. Once the trail had been spotted, we traipsed up the hill, eventually intersecting the remains of an old mining road that had, at one time, serviced the area in and about Grizzly Gulch. Following the powerline, we eventually broke through the trees and took a left at the meadow, following the steep mining road along the left side of the Gulch. At the top of that road, we took another left, following yet another road that took us over the pass and into Silver Fork.
Mike, in the lead, arrived at the mine first, followed shortly by me and then the group with Bruce, Renee and Achim. After a few more minutes, we spotted Gordon and Tim, backtracking on a road that was a little ways below the Prince of Wales mine, but before long, they had recovered from their minor navigational error.
Having recently visited the Wellington Tunnel not too far below, the memories of its 20 horsepower steam engine were still fairly fresh in our minds and it was interesting to compare, from memory, the differences between it and this 40 horsepower engine. Both were of the then-typical "firetube crossflow" design in which exhaust gases flow through tubes horizontally, heating a large, pressurized water jacket that is the majority of the boiler. As you might guess, this 40 HP engine is somewhat longer and larger in diameter than the 20 HP engine, but they both seemed to be of the same basic design, both employing double-action pistons. This engine, being intended to operate a hoist, had been geared down considerably in order to operate the dual drum on which the hoist's rope was wound. In this instance, the hoist, with a car in each of the two parallel shafts, improved efficiency somewhat by using gravity: As one car went up, the other went down. The engine was, at one time, on the first floor of a two-story building that completely covered both shafts and still apparent amongst the rusting metal is the original band-type drum brake that was used to stop the motion of the cars. This building and steam hoist, apparently built in about 1872, was used into the early 1930's, but it burned to the ground sometime prior to 1960.
With everyone gathered around the steam engine, we took pictures and watched as the sun set behind the ridge, the clouds being backlit in gold contrasting with the deep blue sky, accompanied by the thin crescent of the recently-new moon. Along with the setting sun came cooler temperatures, catching some of the party by surprise - especially those that had joined the WNH group for the first time.
As it grew darker, I dug out of my pack a gel cell battery, tiny inverter, and a slightly-modified EPROM eraser, all with the intent of seeing what sort of minerals would fluoresce. An amateur-geologist friend had mentioned years ago that the vicinity of the Honeycomb ridge had numerous outcrops of different species of Wolframite, a tungsten-bearing mineral, that (amongst others in the area) would glow when exposed to ultraviolet light: This area had even been prospected during World War II in order to assess its value as a strategic mineral source. Wielding this lamp I noted that some of the rocks did, in fact, glow with a sort of "lightning bug" green color. This effect would, no doubt, have been more dramatic if my shortwave UV lamp had a Wood's Glass filter to remove the visible light that somewhat masked the effect: For later study, I pocketed a couple small pebbles that exhibited the green glow. Occasionally examining other rocks on the way down, I noticed that such fluorescence was common in rocks along the road to a point about halfway between the ridge and Grizzly Gulch, but below this, it was difficult to find any rocks that glowed at all.
Mike, in the lead, headed down first, followed by Achim, Renee and Bruce. Having stayed behind for a few minutes to perform a quick UV assay, I caught up with Gordon and Tim, who'd briefly paused to take pictures in the last remaining sunset rays. Together, we followed the trail down to a fork where the road split from Grizzly Gulch to go toward Silver Fork and Tim decided to head to the left, uphill, in order to see if he could find the steam engine in Grizzly Gulch. We quickly verified that the engine wasn't in that part of the Gulch, but probably just upstream a short distance, so we abandoned the search. At about this point, Tim noted a well-worn trail that went along the left side of the gulch, opposite the mining road that we'd followed up, so he decided to follow this trail down. While Gordon and I were stumbling down the steep mining road, we could catch the occasional glimpse of Tim's flashlight as he followed this trail and before too long, we were reunited in the meadow: Tim reported that this trail was, in fact, quite good and that had it been taken on the way up, it would have been a good alternative to the mining road.
At this point, we rejoined the mining road underneath the powerline but we hadn't gone more than a few hundred feet when Achim called on the radio, wondering where we were. After a few minutes of shouting and shining flashlights around, we could see that, instead of crossing the meadow (where the mining road and the trail that Tim had followed had converged) that Bruce had led them down another road. While this trail would have eventually gotten them out of the gulch, it would have been very easy to have overshot the vehicles completely - possibly require a nighttime bushwhack - so they decided to backtrack, at Gordon's recommendation, rejoining the road at the meadow, and soon joining us for the remainder of the descent. At about this time, Mike reported having emerged from the trees but, being unsure of the trail's alignment, did a little bit of cross-country tracking before finally being convinced that he was on the right trail. Nevertheless, he was waiting for us when we finally stumbled onto the road.
At the vehicles, we turned our eyes skywards, looking at passing satellites and astronomical features that cannot easily be seen from the valley. One of the more prominent of these features was the planet Jupiter, visible in the southern sky. Setting up my spotting scope on the (flimsy) lightweight camera tripod, we could easily see Jupiter's four Galilean moons, once again reaffirming Galileo's heresy. Achim, the best-versed amongst us about the constellations, was pointing out a few other features, including the rough location of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.
After an uneventful drive down the canyon and back to the parking lot, Bruce, Gordon and I sauntered over to TGI Friday's for a late-night dime lime.
The Prince of Wales mine was largely developed after 1870 by the Walker brothers, who also owned the claim to the Wellington tunnel (just down the hill below the Prince of Wales mine in the clearing near the top of Silver Fork where remnants of a 20 horsepower steam engine may be seen) and constructed a pipeline of more than a mile in length, mostly underground, to feed the steam engine at both locations. The source of water were some springs in Grizzly Gulch (just below Twin Lakes Pass) with the pipeline going up the slope and then following the contour across to the pass at the top of Silver Fork, the entire system being fed by a 15 horsepower steam-driven pump at the spring. Apparently, the entire roadway from Grizzly Gulch to the pass at the top of Silver Fork had been covered by a snowshed to protect it from avalanches - a length of approximately 1800 feet. What remains of the Prince of Wales mine are pieces of the 40 horsepower steam engine that drove the mine hoist. Originally, this machinery was housed in a 20 by 50 foot two-story building (with the engine in the lower level) that completely covered both shafts and provided protection against the frequent snowslides from above.
As can be seen from image #3752, this engine was manufactured by the Ames Iron Works of Oswego, New York. This company operated from at least 1862 into the late 1950's or early 1960's. At about the time of World War II, with the business in steam power declining, they started to concentrate on other products, notably tanks during the war as well as heavy equipment such as hot water boilers, etc.
This steam engine was a so-called crossflow fire tube boiler - the "crossflow" part coming from the fact that the "steam" end is on the side opposite the firebox. As might be expected, the engine was also of the double-acting type (that is, pressure is applied during both directions of the piston's travel.) If you look carefully at the main piston assembly, you can also see the cross-linking to the control valve - the one that is used to divert hot steam to one side of the piston or the other. In modern-day heat exchangers, the fire tube boiler has been replaced with other types owing to its tendency to "disassemble" itself rather spectacularly when it did fail - particularly if the operator allowed the water level to get too low and flash boil.
This mine was also tied in with the Wellington Tunnel (the one just below it) as well as the Annie and Antelope Tunnels (also owned by the Walkers) in Honeycomb fork and some remnants of this road can still be followed as it winds around and drops into Honeycomb.
The Prince of Wales mine was one of the more successful of the mines in the Wasatch, operating in one form or another (mostly under lease) until the mid 1930's and its main product was Galena (lead sulfate) as well as lead carbonates such as Cerussite, and various copper-bearing minerals such as Malachite.
The following Historical info about the Prince of Wales and related mines was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller.
According to Keller, the engine at the Prince of Wales Mine was rated at 40 horsepower and was on the bottom floor of a two-story building, with the upper story being used for living quarters for the miners. As a matter of interest, the half-buried engine at the Wellington Mine was 20 horsepower and the one at the pumping station in Grizzly Gulch was just 15 horsepower, with the water pumped from the Grizzly Gulch station being piped first to the Prince of Wales mine and then being gravity-fed to the Wellington Mine.
Keller further states that the Prince of Wales Mine was one of the more productive in the area and was last operated by lessees into the mid 1930's: He does not make mention about when it was that the building burned down, although that apparently happened sometime between the mid 30's and 1959. What he does mention that the Prince of Wales Mine does connect with the Wellington Mine as well as the Annie Tunnel located almost directly below the Prince of Wales Mine in Honeycomb Fork) and several others in the area. Apparently, ore was hoisted up to the surface at the Prince of Wales mine and than transported to Alta along a rail line which, at one time, included a 1800 foot long snowshed to reduce the danger from the frequent snowslides in the area. Furthermore, Keller also mentions that there are remains of a road that runs from the Wellington tunnel, around the ridge, and descends into Honeycomb Fork - except for the last descent into Honeycomb Fork that has eroded completely.
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