Mines and Tokens, Bishop

Mines & Tokens

Bishop - 8

All Bishop photocards and Tokens courtesy of Rich McCutchan
unless otherwise noted

See USE NOTICE on Home Page.

Champion Sparkplug Mine	Champion Sparkplug Mine
Champion Sparkplug Mine	Champion Sparkplug Mine
Champion Sparkplug Mine	Champion Sparkplug Mine
Champion Sparkplug Mine
On August 26, 2017, at a showing in Bishop of an old movie showing the Champion Sparkplug Mine work back in the 20s up until it closed in 1946, Eighty-eight year old George Clarkson, who worked at the mine, told several stories about how a mule could carry a 600 pound cast iron block for a compressor up that steep trail. They had rigged a tripod with a chain fall to raise the load off the mule to let her rest from having that 600 pounds on her back on the steep trail. But while they were moving the tripod to the next spot, she started off uphill with that load, and never stopped until she got to the camp above. George was employed to get electrical power generated at the ranch below (Hydro), and get it up the hill to the mine to run the compressors for jackhammers. The power poles were 43 feet long, and were carried up the switchbacks by two mules that had a turntable on their saddles. He described how they would have to alternate going forward and backward to get the pole around the switchbacks. Think about it. The operation closed down in 1945 and the Champion Mine reverted to public domain in 1982. (Text taken from Mountain Mouse Land website)

Champion Sparkplug Mine

Champion Sparkplug Mine Geology
by J. F. Cooper

U.S. Vanadium Tungsten Mine - 1940	U.S. Vanadium Tungsten Mine - 1940
Pack train headed up to the U.S. Vanadium Tungsten Mine at Pine Creek	Packers headed up to the U.S. Vanadium Tungsten Mine at Pine Creek
Pack train headed up to the U.S. Vanadium Tungsten Mine at Pine Creek	Caterpillar diesel D8 tractor equipped with No. 8A bulldozer is removing snow from the road leading to the tungsten mine, northwest of Bishop. - March 21, 1955 United States Vanadium Company, Bishop, CA (Photo courtesy of ebay)
Sheelite, CA Sue Norton Short writes: My dad worked for Union Carbide for years. He was a tram mechanic. My family lived in Sheelite, Rovana, and Red Housing - all company minine towns. Here is a photo of Sheelite when I lived there. (Photo courtesy of ebay)	12/21 Pine Creek tungsten mine. (Photo courtesy of Rafael Rodriguez)
12/21 Pine Creek tungsten mine. (Photo courtesy of Rafael Rodriguez)	12/21 Pine Creek tungsten mine. (Photo courtesy of Rafael Rodriguez)
Rafael Rodriguez writes: My father told me this story, of a time where he was once working as the Head Chef at Mammoth Mountain, when one of his co-workers came and asked him if he could give him a ride after work so that he could apply for a job that was listed on a newspaper ad. The job. MINERS NEEDED the pine creek mine was hiring and my father drove him all the way up to pine creek where snow started falling, it was a nice and sunny day when they left Mammoth. My father waited for his coworker to pick up an application but while he was waiting, he pulled out his disposable camera and shot these 3 images. November 2021

Bishop - Red Front Pool Room	Bishop - Red Front Pool Room
L.A. Department of Water and Power	L.A. Department of Water and Power
Town of Bishop Dog Tax - 1917
Bishop Dog Tax	Bishop - Owens Valley Bank
Good For One Dance Token	Good For One Dance Token
Mike's Recreation Parlor	Mike's Recreation Parlor
Monolithj Pool Hall	Monolithj Pool Hall
The Red Front - Bishop, CA	The Red Front - Bishop, CA

Holland's "I'm Good for One Dance" token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)	Holland's "I'm Good for One Dance" token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)
Bishop Club token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)	Bishop Club token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)
Valley View Hotel token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)	Valley View Hotel token - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)
10/21 Pastime Club - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)	10/21 Pastime Club - Bishop, CA (Ebay posting)

Mill and houses of Tungsten Mines Co., near Bishop. Inyo County, California. 1918 (Courtesy USGS Denver Library Photographic Collection)
12/21 Pine Creek Tungsten Mine (Photo courtesy University of Riverside Digital Collectiions)
12/21 Casa Diablo Mine - 1912 (Photo courtesy University of Riverside Digital Collectiions)	11/23 Man with horses on the mountain at Pine Creek Canyon - circa 1930 (Photo courtesy USC Digital Library)

10/21

Photos courtesy Michael Lueders Mill and houses of Tungsten Mines Co., near Bishop. Inyo County, California. 1918

300 ton mill in foreground, 200 ton mill in the background.

Sierra Nevada - Story of the Pine Creek Tungsten Mine

11/21

Mines in the Pine Creek Canyon Area

Adamson Mine

Brownstone Mine

Hanging Valley Mine

Lakeview Mine

Lambert Mine

Pine Creek Mine

Tungstar Mine

11/21

From the book Mine in the Sky by Joseph M. Kurtak (Courtesy Rich McCutchan Archives)
Tungsten: A Treasure in the Sierra Nevada by Union Carbide
Processing & Beginnings
Unfortunately this book has long been out of print and is very difficult to find.
Treatment of Pine Creek Tungsten Ore
Uses of Tungsten Ore
U.S. Vanadium Company Advertisement	Arch Beauregard in 1916, the year he and Billie Vaughn made the Pine Creek tungsten ore discovery
North-South vertical projection of the north orebodies of the Pine Creek Mine.
Living Accomodations
Employee housing built in 1938 near Morgan Lakes - nicknamed Okieville.	Emily Joyce using snowshoes to get around in Okieville - 1943 The Story of Okieville
The Joyce family residence at Okieville Brothers Leo and James Joyce were contract miners in the open pits above A Level - 1943	Top - Tenthouse living near A Level - circa 1939 The "Red Houses" constructed on lower Pine Creek in 1940
A Level camp at 10,900 feet housed up to 250 employees during WWII. It was abandoned in 1949 when operations were move to the Zero Level tunnel.	Rovana in the late 1940s
Rovana - 1949
Scheelite on Pine Creek - 1942	Employee housing just below the junction of Gable and Pine Creeks - 1941
Scheelite school - 1943	A Level camp and bunkhouses - 1943
Tungsten Products camp ag 10,500 feet near Morgan Lakes - 1937	Cabins built by miners in the early 1940s below the Lakeview Mine
The Tungsten Products camp at 10,500 feet near Morgan Lakes.
Portraits
3rd & 4th grade classes at the Scheelite school - 1947 Front row (L/R): Ronny Lane, Bill Lorimor, Don Cortez, Bob Gribben, Bob Anderson, Bobby Cruz, Mike Webster, Lowell Powell, UNK Middle row (L/R): Lenny Palmer, UNK, Lainni Palmer, UNK, Linda Joyce, David Keltz, Mitch Vasser, UNK, UNK, Eddie Lane Back row (L/R): Myrtle Walsh, UNK, Zoe Ball, UNK, UNK, Ethel Peterson, UNK, UNK, UNK, Janet McTaggert After the Scheelite school burned, Myrtle Walsh began teaching at the Round Valley School until retiring in 1975
George Brown packing a load of timbers for the mine workings at Morgan Lakes - 1937	Cooks at the Morgan Lakes camp cookhouse L/R: UNK, Cook Art Pomeroy
Cook, Art Pomeroy and packer George Cherst at the Morgan Lakes camp. George is preparing to haul a power pole with two mules using swivel pack saddles - 1937
08/22 The Camp Cook A poem to Art Pomeroy by David S. Bromley (Poem courtesy of Catherine Verissimo - Art Pomeryo's granddaughter)
The Mining Crew at Zero Level - 1957 Front row (L/R): Red York, Ed Norton, Shorty Dobb, S. Smith, Van Meter, Russ Jones, Burngette, Joe Eastwood, Duncan, Whitney, Carter, Gene Edwards, Jack Hancock, Red White, Foss, Stokes Middle row (L/R): Anderson, Rich Fleming, Bill Moon, Ed Sturdevant, "Wagon Wheel" Bob Melton, Schumacher, Skeeter, Hazolting, Roy Fleming, Rusty Perrow, Al Dutton, Chuck Horner, Tom Claybourne, Mendenhall, Slim Basset, Tony Grovena, UNK, Hose Nose, Sid Belgard, Goldilocks Leach, Doc Edwards Back row (L/R): Bill Patton, Pete Snyder, Wilson, Larry Willis, Red Olsen, Miner Mike, Don Reid, Bill Lee, Smily Salcido, Airdale Heath, Shorty Orr, Okie Robbins
Ray Kurtak in his garden at his home in Rovana - 1996	L/R: Clarence Hall, Merel "Doc" Shaw - 1938
Engineering - Geologic staff and Surface Crew at Zero Level - 1957 Front Row (L/R): Ev Birch, Lawson Wright, Don Markl, Don Wyman, Tom Pollett, Bill Beam, UNK, UNK, Art Shaw, Mitch Vasser, Don Henley Back Row (L/R): Rudy Kilgore, Harold Race, George Hall, UNK, Tom Crocker, Milt Funk, Roy Campbell, Herb Hardy, Jim Benner, Gerry Preston, Dave Traylor, Ernie Piersall, Ray Gray, Jake Crocker, UNK, Clair Kunkel, Jim Sweeney, Jerry Shelhammer, John Corwin, Dutch De Graffenreid, Merrill Curtis
Ray Kurtak analysizing samples with an atomic absorption machine at the Pine Creek metallurgical lab in 1960	Mitzie the mascot relaxes with mill shift boss Royal Jackman at the A Level bunkhouses. The deer was the pet f camp cook Art Pomeroy. - 1939
Mary Lou McKinley at the Pine Creek Millsite housing in late 1940. These homes were damage by a massive avalanche the came down Morgan Creek canyon in 1952	The George Brown family heading out on a packtrip up Pine Creek circa 1942. The Browns started the Pine Creek Pack Station in the mid-1930s.
Operations
Tungstar Mine buildings at 12,000 feet on the side of Mount Tom - circa 1941	Tungsten Mines Company mill and camp in Deep Canyon near Bishop - 1918
Original Tungstar mill constructed in 1939 near the junction of Gable and Pine Creeks	U.S. Vanadium Pine Creek Mine Zero Level surface facilities in the mid 1950s.
U.S. Vanadium Pine Creek Mine A Level operations
The Pine Creek Mill soon after start-up in 1941
01/23 At 8,000 Feet, California "Mine in the Sky" Is About to Enter Vahalla by Chelsea J. Carter 08/22 Union Carbide's Tungsten Mine in the Sky by Union Carbide - Metals Division
Level A in the winter and spring of 1948 - 1949
View down Morgan Creek from the mine workings at nearly 13,000 feet on Wheeler Ridge - 1995	Looking north at the Pine Creek Mill and tailings ponds. - 1990 The mine road switchbacks up the right side of Morgan Creek .
Looking north at the headwaters of Morgan Creek. Mt. Morgan on the left. The Pine Creek ore bodies are concentrated along the left margin of the pendant (the light & dark metamorphic rocks on the right) near the contact with the granite slopes of Mt. Morgan extending down 3,400 feet.
The "Mill on the Hill" at A Level operations during the winter about 1939	Using stoper drills to place bolts in the ceiling of the mine working - circa 1956. Roof bolts helped secure unstable rock slabs and were an insurance against cave-ins.
Clarence Hunt operating the single-drum hoist that moves the cage up and down the 1,565 feet. He was responsible for the safe transport of workers between the different mine levels.	Miners in a two-level cage preparing to ascend the 1,500 feet between Zero and A Levels in the Pine Creek Mine - Circa 1957
Tungstar Mine Tram in operation - 1943	A miner loading ore into one of the underground transport cars
A cable-drum slusher bucket dragging ore out of a stope to an ore pass.	A rotary tipple at Zero Level dumped ore cars into a jaw crusher, which broke the rock to three-inch size in preparation for the trip to the mill via aerial tramway - 1950
Using mules to pull ore cars at the Tungsten Products Co. - circa 1927	Cleo McCracken packing a mule train laden with tramway cable up the Tungstar Mine trail - 1939. Cleo is packing a string of 15 mules in this train
Gordon Irvine inspecting a spool of hoist cable used in the raise between the Easy Go and Zero Levels - 1968	George Brown packing a 1,400 foot (3,000 pound load) long continuous strand of tram cable on a string of 15 mules up the Tungstar Mine trail.
Using a "rope block" pulley system to raise the counterweight at tower no. 11. Tension was provided by a dozer and the worker, standing on the cables, kept them from getting tangled.	A trolley locomotive brings cars laden with ten tons of ore out of the Zero Level Tunnel in the mid-1950s.
Caterpilar Company clearing the mine road of snow during WWII.	Porter Whitson catching a ride on a loaded tram bucket at the Tungstar Mine in 1940. Many employees used the tramway as transportation to and from the mine site even though it was prohibited by company rules.
George Brown (white shirt) and Cleo McCracken using a two mule swivel packsaddle system to haul mine rails up the Morgan Creek trail to A Level - 1937	Rows of flotation cells inside the Pine Creek Mill. These recovered copper, molybdenum, and scheelite concentrates from the ore.
A bank fo gravity tables saved any scheelite not recovered by the flotation cells.	Pine Creek Mine interior. Marcy ball mills and Akins spiral calssifiers located behind the workers, ground and sized the ore to sand=sized material. This was then fed to the Sterns-Rogers flotation cells in the foreground, which produced copper, molybdenite, and scheelite concentrates. 1943
Pine Creek Mill interior, ready for wartime production. Remains of the Tungstar tramway on the north side of Mt. Tom - 1996	Zero Level tunnel upgraded for ore haulage. The large pipe on the right carried in air to ventilate the inner mine workings and the small one delivered compressed air to run drills and mucking machines.
The completed tram in operation. A loaded bucket approaches tower no. 4 near A Level. The buckets rode on rollers along the fixed upper cable, while clamped to the lower continuously-moving cable.	Workers competing the Zero Level car-dump and crushing plant - 1949
Plan view of the Pine Creek operations.	Rotating digesters in operation at the Pine Creek Mill. These were key to the successful treatment of the Pine Creek ore.

08/22

Pine Creek Mine - Sheelite, CA	Hauling equipment to the Pine Creek Mine
Hauling equipment to the Pine Creek Mine

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This page was last updated on 24 April 2024