A blast from the past: A trip to the Eddy Creek Mine

PLAINS – In the early 1900s the Plains mining district located in Sanders County saw activity in two major mines around the area – one in Swamp Creek and the other in Eddy Creek.

According to the Montana Abandoned Mine Lands website, a rich tellurium float on Eddy Creek brought a rush of prospectors into the area in 1906 where a mine was developed later on.

Although there was no further reports on the telluride finds, in 1905 the Eddy Mining and Milling Company was organized to expand claims on Eddy Creek. A plethora of gold, silver and lead was reported – the land of ore containing $8 to $36 per ton in either of these metals.

According to the website, the production in the Plains mining district was low, never reaching the full potential of the mining operations people had once hoped for.

The Eddy Creek Mine now lays long forgotten in the mountains of Sanders County hidden within the dense forest and the steep terrain.

In an effort to relive some of the rich history of the area, I set out to find the Eddy Creek Mine – a journey that proved to be a long one.

After hearing numerous stories about the mine, now abandoned, I set my sights on the area. The Eddy Creek Mine lays four miles into the mountains, a journey I decided to take on horseback.

After saddling up the horses and heading out, my crew of explorers passed over Eddy Creek and into a thick, lush wilderness. As the cool breeze from the creek and the thick overlay of the trees cooled the excruciating heat, the ride became bearable the further we traveled into the forest.

The trip to the main mine followed an old forest service road, once the original road constructed to get to the mine. The road was still in fairly good condition and the trek was an easy one on horseback, although it took over two hours to get to the site of the mine.

Once we reached our destination, there was almost no evidence of a mine anywhere. A small shack that once was used to store dynamite away from the cabins and mine was one of the only clues leading to the location of the mine.

As we began to search through the thick timber for the rickety old bridge that would lead us across the river and to the mine, it was still hard to believe that once upon a time people mined up here full time. Once a bustling place, now the quiet and stillness of the valley takes over.

After tying up our horses and searching for our entry point, we found the bridge – the path overgrown with trees and shrubs. As we carefully picked our footing place on the bridge full of holes and rotten logs, we crossed the slow creek. Once across the bridge, evidence of the mine began to appear.

A pile of quartz rock, once crushed at the site and sifted through for unrefined silver, was still laying in a heap – many of the white rocks crushed into smithereens.

A log wall appeared in front of us. Although I am unsure of what the wall held up or in, tracks for the mining carts were still situated on top. Once we made our way to the top we followed the old, rusty, broken tracks into the brush, weaving our way in and out of trees and bushes.

With a few scratches and bruises along the way, we made it to the opening of the mine. The wide door was swung open and we carefully made our way to the entrance – a giant hole blasted out of the rock and framed with what looked like a wooden door frame.

I’ve often times been curious about this mine and through all of my questioning of the locals, I was scared to go into the dark hole. I’ve heard rumors of bear and mountain lion tracks headed into the mine, a place where the temperature drops twenty degrees and becomes frigid. But as always, curiosity got the best of me as I began to enter into the dark tunnel.

The floor, flooded from what I assumed to be runoff from the creek, was wet and mushy, each step echoing further into the mine. We traveled on the old mining tracks as we entered further in, doing our best to avoid the water beneath our feet and the tracks.

It’s quite amazing how dark the tunnel gets, the daylight barely stretching past the entrance where the darkness begins to take over.

Needless to say, the fear of the unknown and the lack of a flashlight made for a quick turnaround. After entering the mine and getting into the tunnel about 20 feet, the darkness was overpowering. We quickly exited the mine back into the light of the day.

Many locals have made deep trips into the mine, journeys of courage and bravery – a journey I was unwilling to take without a flashlight.

As we exited the mine, we scoured the hill of smashed quartz rock digging for unrefined silver. Coming up with what we thought were a few rocks with chunks of silver, we left happy until later on we discovered the bright flakes were just Fool’s Gold – a worthless metal, a metal only good enough to keep as a souvenir of the day’s journey.