Blackbird Mine Area

We took another 4wheeler trip.  This trip took us to a mining area that had a town by it.  We found the outlines of a few foundations.  Jim tried metal detecting around them but all we found were pieces of metal and nails.  At least it was different from most of our metal detecting adventures where all we find is lead from bullets.  A creek ran through the area and must have been their water source.  The mine in the area contained manganese.  This is a purple rock and used to be an ingredient in glass making.  Really old glass turns purple in the sun from this mineral.

We found this to be a nice quiet area up in the mountains.  Not a lot of 4wheeling traffic and its nice and cool by the water.  We tried doing some gold panning in the creek but only got a little black sand.  This particular area isn't known for gold so we didn't think we would find anything.

The weekends at the campground are very busy.  Lots of campers come from the Salt Lake area to go 4wheeling here.  They bring all there toys and have a good time even if it is only for two or three days.  We are happy when they leave because it cuts down on the dust and noise.  We do our trips during the week when it is quieter.