Walker Mine Traditional Cache

Walker Mine

During the 1920s and 1930s, Plumas County was Number One
in state copper production. Engels Mine on Lights Creek in northern
Indian Valley produced $25 million over its lifetime. Walker Mine,
15 miles south, put out $23 million. Walker Mine competed with
Engels Mine as the most productive copper operation in the state
during the 1920s, achieving this status in 1929. Situated at a
6,500-foot elevation in central PlumasCounty, the mine is about 12
air miles east of Quincy. During its two-and-a-half decades of
operations, Walker Mine had more than 1,000 employees and 3,000
residents during its peak years.

George Bemis made his discovery at Walker Mine with
local assistance in 1904. However, mining operations did not begin
until 1911. Initial yields by 1914 were sufficient to warrant
construction of a bunkhouse and three cabins for workers.
High-grade ore assaying 12 percent copper was struck during October
1915. A new flotation plant was completed in 1916 with a daily
capacity of 85 tons. The mine’s sawmill, run by Charles
Campbell, was capable of cutting 7,000 feet daily. Electricity
arrived in 1917, when a power line was brought from Indian Valley
to the mine by the Great Western Power Company.

A unique feature of the Walker Mine operation was its
9-mile tramway, completed in 1919. It was built to transport copper
ore in 3-foot- by-4-foot buckets from the mine to the Western
Pacific Railroad (WPRR) siding at Spring Garden. There, the copper
ore was loaded into gondola carts and freighted to Tooele, Utah for
smelting. Also transported by the tram during winter periods were
food, freight, mail, and occasionally people. During winter, the
company town was cut off from the outside world, except for the
tramway. The line ran on wooden towers, each from 20 to 60 feet in
height. In winter, when the snow was extraordinarily deep,
crewswere employed near the summit of Grizzly Ridge to shovel the
snow out of the line of travel of the buckets.

The Boca & Loyalton Railroad (B&L) was built in
1901. The first B&L feeder track into Plumas County was laid in
1902, northwesterly through Sierra Valley and on to Beckwourth. In
about 1907, a 2-mile spur was builtnorth along Grizzly Creek in
order to haul logs. Five years later, in 1912, ice from Charles
Gulling’s 14-acre ice pond became another commodity to haul.
The Walker Mine Copper Company also used the Grizzly spur for a
brief period. Copper concentrates from the company’s mine on
the slopes of Mt. Ingalls were hauled by wagon to the Grizzly spur
and the B&L for shipment to the Southern Pacific Railroad
(SPRR), then eastward to Utah.

During Walker Mine’s most productive years, it was
operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. The company town of
Walkermine was built to support work crews and their families
during that period. The town supported a hospital, a movie theater,
a school, a library, dining facilities, a store, a tavern, a post
office, a service station, a baseball field, and a ski hill.
Occupants of Walkermine lived in 132 company-constructed homes, 4
bunkhouses of three stories each, and 68 private homes. During its
heyday, 75 students attended the school at Walkermine and were
taught by just three teachers. Walkermine officially became a
defunct settlement in 1941, when Walker Mine closed permanently.
The mine and the town were sold at auction in 1945. The beginning
of the end for Walker Mine and its company town occurred when
copper prices and yields began dropping and the company suffered a
loss of $300,000 in 1939. The monthly payroll in 1940 for the 325
remaining employees was $75,000. Now, nothing but scars and a
logged-over bit of rubble remain of this once-flourishing
area.