Prettiest Mine Dump Contest

While it is still too cold to go collecting, I thought I'd share this picture with you and see if there are any other "pretty" mine dumps. The picture is below the Yule marble quarry in Marble, Colorado. This is a fantastic place to visit if you are vacationing in the state; the surrounding scenery is awesome also. My daughter and myself are located somewhere in this photo. I found tumbled pebbles in the nearby stream and would give them away to children as marble marbles from Marble.
-Dean Allum

what a coincidence: this month's photocontest on the german mining archeological site "untertage.com" is also about mining dumps
-> [forum.untertage.com]
cheers, Frank

Here is another pretty one. Whitehorse Copper, near Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Photo taken May, 2010. One is an image looking across the valley. The other is an image looking back at Whitehorse from the mine dumps. There are more images on my website, if you'd like to see them.



David K. Joyce



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 05:21AM by Rock Currier.

Dean,
Which location corresponds to your entry in this contest: [www.mindat.org] or [www.mindat.org] ? :S

Frank, David,
Thanks for the references. Turning mine dumps into ski runs is a great idea.

Michael,
The picture was taken at the GPS coordinates of the second duplicated site reference (loc-114417). But the references and district name of the first duplicate site are better.

The Yule Marble is uniformly white. It is present on the exterior of the Lincoln Monument and as the Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C. and Virginia. Marble is the official state rock of Colorado.

The quarry is actually a huge cavern inside the mountain.
[www.marbletourismassociation.org]

During the summer in the village of Marble there is an sculpture workshop for artists from around the world.

-Dean Allum

I unfortunately have no good photos, but the view looking out from the Harvard quarry in Greenwood, ME might be among the prettiest. Anyone have a good photo of it to post?

Martin

Is the contest the prettiest mine dump or the prettiest view from a mine dump?

Good point, Reiner :)
That is an important distinction.

Then again, is it really a contest if there's no prize for the best! >:D<

The prize is just the pride of having the best dump.... er... good looking waste....er.. the best piles....er....

OK you over-technical geeks, The prize is a white marble made of marble from Marble, Colorado.
The mine dump has to be part of the picture, but terrific scenery can make up for an ugly dump.

one will note that all of the comments from the cheap seats are Canadian...

including this one...
X(

Here's my candidate:



Oh yes, it's me as a scale ;)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 05:24AM by Rock Currier.

Oh wow Peter; that's a nice photo. I can almost see the red veins of ruby or pyrope bordering the outcrop, but how did those veins form so straight and in a box shape??? (:P) (sorry, couldn't resist.....) Actually the photo of the pile and shafthouse is very nice! Is that a vertical shaft there?

My contribution is from a very recent trip Nat and I took to Goldfield, NV which is where a bonanza gold deposit was discovered and mined in the early 1900's. There are literally hundreds of small tailings piles scattered all over the area to the east of town, and several of the original headframes are also still standing after 100+ years. A very impressive area for its scenic beauty and mining history.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 05:25AM by Rock Currier.

Peter has my vote for the prettiest headframe. I must say that your mine dump Allen is the prettiest I have seen other than maybe the one at Kipawa which is bright pink, black and white ( eudialyte, magnesiokataphorite and albite). Stupid me didn't take a picture of it but then who would have thought we would have a contest for the prettiest mine dump?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2011 10:28PM by Reiner Mielke.

Well for me the most scenic mine dump i visited was the dump along the edge of Mount Robilard (as it used to be called) at Craigmont Mine, Combermere, Ontario. The view is nice & the extensive dumps continues all along the side of the mountain, mostly hidden by brush. But in a few spot the dump rock is exposed.

One of my favorite spots, best visited on sunny days!

Michal.

You are allowed to enter as many pics as you want.
This one is pretty in a wierd way. Anyone who has been to the Harding Pegmatite Mine in New Mexico knows the other-worldly feeling of being surrounded by purple/pink quarry walls. Is this close to what you had in mind Reiner?

My favorites are in Austria:

View from the dump of the Rotenstein Mine [www.mindat.org] into the Inn valley.


View from the dump at the Kaiserbründl [www.mindat.org] .


Michael

On top a mine dump at Uis in Namibia





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 05:27AM by Rock Currier.

Rock Landing, Haddam, CT. This "dump" is classic New England. Just yesterday there was a earthquake in the area. Registered 1.3. Not much of an earthquake, anyhow, "the tremor was reported as an explosion by residents". These are in fact the famous MOODUS NOISES. We sit on 2 faults here in Connecticut. In the old days they were even thought to be "passages to hell"... amongst other things.