My explorations involved a lot of up and down climbing. These photos are not in the same order as taken on my visit, but were arranged to fit better between two pages.

The first tunnel that one encounters has been fenced.

The short tunnel, barely 20 feet long, was probably fenced because of its proximity to a popular trail.

Steps made from RR ties climb the slopes at several locations.

The second tunnel at the mine is also fenced/gated.

View into Tunnel 2 from the mouth.

Looking back toward the tunnel entrance.

This was the main tunnel at the mine. It goes about 150 yards into the hill side.

When the tourist gem mining (see page 2) was in operation, they apparently wired this tunnel and offered walking tours. Cables and a few light fixtures are still visible.

This particular tunnel was cut through solid rock.

One of the old lights...

Further along the tunnel... I had my headlamp and three more light sources with me.

Four-way intersection near the end of the tunnel. None of the side passages went far...

After reaching the tunnel's end, I headed back. Here's the four-way intersection from the other side.

Heading back...   Too bad that yellow wasn't a vein of gold! In the far distance you can just see a hint of light from the mouth of the tunnel.

Almost back to the mouth of the tunnel.

Heading back down to river level, I found the remains of another tunnel. The front roof of this tunnel has slumped / collapsed, and it is flooded.

Another set of old steps leads up a steep drainage on the north side of the ridge.

Here I found a deep open cut, with the mouth of a tunnel at the end.

This is the same cut, with the tunnel, from ~1900.

Unfortunately the dirt roof at the front of the tunnel has slumped. At the top of the collapsed dirt is an opening, maybe 10" high, through which one can peer back into the tunnel.   But with nothing but dirt above me, no way was I going to crawl through that to get inside!

Another of the many open mine cuts on the property...

Near the top of the ridge, I spied another opening.

The front roof had partially slumped, but there was adequate room to enter.

This tunnel was dug through mostly dirt.

End of the tunnel. It was only about 150 feet long.

Coming back out of tunnel 3. Showing the partially slumped opening.

This view shows how close to the town of Helen the ridge and mines are. Continued on page 2...

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