History
One hundred years ago (roughly from 1903 to 1909), my grandfather Bert Enderton was the superintendent at a gold mine in Eastern Oregon, the Know Good Mine. You can read here what my father wrote forty years ago about his early childhood and about growing up near this mine. Earlier, my grandfather (#182 in the Enderton family tree) had worked at Harrison Gulch, where my father was born, and elsewhere.
The Know Good Mine is near the town of Cornucopia, Oregon. Once a booming mining town (as its name suggests), Cornucopia now consists mainly of vacation cabins. The mines in the area pretty much ceased operations about 1942, I think. Cornucopia is near the town of Halfway in Pine Valley, now a cattle-raising area. Here is a picture of downtown Halfway. To the west lies Baker City, which is on the Oregon Trail.
The Know Good Mine must have been modestly productive, but was not the most successful mine in the Cornucopia area. My grandfather left in 1909, selling his house in Baker City, and moving briefly to Los Angeles before going on to a mine in Mexico. Later he was superintendent at the Fortuna Mine, near Yuma, Arizona, for many years before his retirement. But that's another story (complete with a lost gold vein).
The Trip
In September 2004, my brother Donald and I set out to see the Know Good Mine. The only reason we knew where to look was that Don had put extensive effort over the last few years to collecting information. He obtained maps from the County Assessor, showing the rough location of the Know Good claim. He was able to contact Larry Bush who works for United Nuclear Corporation, a uranium-mining company in New Mexico, which (perhaps) owned the mining rights, and who had been to the mine. (United Nuclear is now owned by General Electric.) And Don had made two earlier trips to the area.
Don and I arranged to meet at the Boise airport on September 7, where he rented a Toyota 4Runner 4WD vehicle. We then drove to Halfway.
The next morning, we went to Cornucopia. From there a dirt road leads up to the Union Mine. The road is, by any reasonable standards, completely impassable. Nonetheless, Don drove up it (four-wheel drive, low range, bouncing over many rocks, scraping past bushes), and parked at the Union Mine.
Here is a topographic map showing the Union Mine (blue arrow), where we parked. Then we walked up the wagon road toward the Last Chance Mine, near the point shown by the red arrow, located with the help of a GPS unit (the only way to find it). We then took what could be considered -- with a little imagination -- to have once been a trail, toward the Know Good Mine (yellow arrow).
By noon I was at the Know Good Mine! (Don went almost to the mine, except for the last 15 minutes.) At least we're pretty confident, based on all the information, that I was at the right place. What is there? Mainly a pile of tailings (the rock removed from the mine) and a bunch of old rusty pipes. I did not see a mine shaft, which apparently had been covered over by falling rock. As a souvenir, I pickup up an old broken stove leg that was lying on the pile of tailings. And a rock with pyrite.
Here are some pictures taken from just above the mine: looking down at the mine, with Pine Valley beyond, looking up from the mine, looking up from the mine and to the left, looking up from the mine and to the right. Also the mine from below, and the mine from further below.
