Aerial Tramway Headhouse

by Robert Bales

Title

Aerial Tramway Headhouse

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

We spent several days seeing some of the sites of this wonderful tour.
Mackay�s Mine Hill Tour is a self-guided tour of a number of historically productive gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc mines in the Knob Mountains adjacent to Mackay, Idaho, about 30 miles north of Arco. This is a cool riding area because it features riding across high trestles and ATV-width trails in a forested environment. Several loop trips ranging from 20 to 24 miles in length are available to tour the mines, and 20 interpretive sites can viewed along the way. The mine tour takes from two to four hours for an ATV or motorcycle, depending on the speed of travel and stops along the way.

Mackay�s Mine Hill Tour is a self-guided tour that includes most of the historic sites and structures that make up Mackay�s mining heritage. Some sections of the tour are accessible for all vehicles, and other sections are only accessible to high-clearance vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, horses, mountain bikes or hikers, All of the routes climb from about 6000 ft. to 8000 ft. elevation and may take 2-8 hours. The route to the renovated Shay railroad trestle is an 8-mile round trip and some of the route is a narrow, single lane without turnouts. Please use the map and know the routes best suited for your vehicle. Most routes
are narrow and have blind corners. The Tour is not passable for motor homes or RV trailers.

This structure, located at the 700 ft. level, was the upper terminal and loading station for the gravity powered aerial tramway system that connected the mines with the smelter below. Placed in operation in 1918, the system replaced the Shay mining railroad, in operation since 1905. This aerial tramway consisted of ore buckets traveling on a sixmile- long loop of 1 1/4" steel cable supported on 36 wooden towers. Ore was delivered to the top of the HEADHOUSE structure from a nearby tunnel. Today what remains of the HEADHOUSE loading station is still a formidable sight. Look closely to see examples of expert timber joinery and craftsmanship done almost a century ago.

Uploaded

July 31st, 2014

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