Perimeter Fence

The tangled telegraph lines between Mitchell and the engine house keep the old pole from topping in the wind.

A huge steel tank, one of several left over, left over from either the Ashland Oil or Allied Chemical periods.

On my second or third trip, the cross had broken in the wind.

The end of Dock 5 is warped and bent from a rail accident that left some ore cars swinging like a stringy wrecking ball into the end of the superstructure and accompanying stair. The stairs are still navigable, but it wasn’t recommended by the CN workers that were with me.

I revisited the mill years after my documentary. Now it is even more destroyed and surrounded by new fences.

Identical warehouses seem a little newer than the rest of the plant. I suspect these were added in the mid-1950s for the Korean War, during which about 200 buildings were added to the complex.

One thing I like to do at Gopher is imagine the shape of the planned buildings based on the partial structures.

Short-stack remains of mounts for rod and ball mills, if I was to bet. The concentrator separated junk rock (tails) from the copper and silver ore, to such a point it could be smelted.

Grain is taken from the bottom of the silos through a conveyor in a tunnel. These blowers keep the air in the tunnel fresh.