Henline Falls / Silver King Mine.

This place is awesome. the whole area is awesome. i cant spend enough time here. 40 miles east of Salem in the Elkhorn Mining District, This was in the Opal creek area. All of the water in this area is crystal clear and turquoise blue. This is one of the main mining districts in Oregon, there are many mines in the area and just not enough time to get to them all. someday the Jewelhunters will be back for more.

Pictured: Henline Falls, Inside the Silver King mine.

Ochoco Mining District.

This was the Ochoco Mining District trip. this is located about 30 miles east of Prineville in the Ochoco Forest, we visited the Mother Lode Mine, Independence Mine and the Amity Mine. All cinnabar mines. Excellent Day trip.

2 school-houses near tygh valley

Both of these schools are on the same road within a couple miles of each other. Both are in excellent condition. They sit quietly in farmer's fields just waiting to be explored. We hung out in the sun all day and enjoyed the view of vast open space in all directions from the school porch.

Sauvie Island Feed Mill.

I dont have much information on this place. I Saw it from the road one day, went back, and took pictures. here are a few. There is much more to see here than what is in the photos.

Horse Heaven.

The enigmatic Horse heaven. Hunters have tried, and failed to get there on multiple occasions. Finally it was found thanks to the use of topographic maps, books and satellite imaging. Horse Heaven is an abandoned Cinnabar mine located roughly 15 miles east of Ashwood Oregon, another near ghost town. The mine was started in the early 1900's when a local high school student named Ray Whiting kicked over a rock and noticed the bright red rock known as Cinnabar.

Cinnabar is a rock that yields liquid mercury when heated. The camp Had a complete 20 ton mill and a reduction furnace that turned out 15,000 75 pound flasks of liquid mercury. About the time the mining was finished the mill burned down, and horse heaven was really finished. There has been somewhat recent mining activity further up the hill, and by recent i mean in the last 30 years. The main vertical shaft of the mine is over 300 feet deep and has 10 different stopes, or side tunnels that extend over 1400 feet long. One hundred thousand tons of ore were removed from the mine.

Pictured: Supposedly Ray whiting's truck. The loading triple for the main Shaft. An old bunkhouse. The old cookhouse. The entrance to a newer mine tunnel, collapsed 20 feet inside. The three similar photos inside the mine are interesting. Possibly lens flares but very strange, they show up in about 15 photos and they move, they have texture, edges and shape of their own. they appear in places a lens flare wouldn't be in other photos. these are the most prominent ones.

Shaniko?

So whats the deal with Shaniko you might ask? you probably aren't, but you might be. Well i will tell you.

Shaniko is a faux "Ghost town" look up ghost towns on the Internet and Shaniko will be there, claiming that it is the real deal. Not that you cant find real ghost towns on the Internet, but it is definitely a tourist trap.

Shaniko served as a transportation hub for the railroad and was a sheep herding town in the late 1800's . It was the self proclaimed "wool capitol of the world". By 1911, another rail line diverted traffic once served by the Columbia Southern railroad and the town begin to decline. A mid-1960s flood in Hay canyon near grass valley Oregon destroyed part of the Columbia Southern line and led to its abandonment. It remained the same until sometime in the 1980's the Portland tribune published an article about it proclaiming it an authentic American "ghost town", "a quaint and quiet little town on the prairie". People soon arrived by the masses and took lots of valuable antique artifacts of its sheep herding days with them. The owner of the Portland tribune has invested in the preservation of the town.

The only "ghosts" you will find here are painted on plywood and screwed to to walls. it has a phony bologna main street with obviously staged "artifacts". It's buildings still stand, complete with a warehouse (pictured) a two story hotel and a schoolhouse along with other buildings.

For the weekend warrior this "ghost town" may be choice, but we jewel hunters turn our noses up to such a terrible example of a ghost town. It does however have some interesting things to take pictures of.