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The following is taken from the article Two Dreams in the Middle Fork by Brad Allen in the Snoqualmie Valley History Magazine, Summer 2009 issue The Snoqualmie River's Middle Fork is the longest of the three rivers that come together below the western slopes of Mt. Si. Tracing its origins 11 miles east and 10 miles north of Snoqualmie Pass, the Middle Fork flows from the western glaciers of Mt. Hinman. The water, soon after melting from the ice, flows below La Bohn and Dutch Miller gaps. It was here that Andrew Jackspm "Dutch" Miller prospected and found copper ore bearing rock in 1896. The Dutch Miller Mining and Smelting Company was formed and paid quick attention to this rich find, initiating mining operations by1901. Small amounts of ore were removed in 1902 and by 1906 two shafts had been sunk at over 5,400 above sea level just below La Bohn Gap. Within a year 150 to 200 tons of ore piled up for transport to a mill. Samples were brought out by horse and graded. With high-grade copper content of 10.5% to 35% the three veins represented "one of the best prospects in the Cascade Mountains" according to one geologist. |
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The Westerner a Northwest magazine circulated from 1904 to 1916 calling itself the magazine "For all People of the Pacific Coast." The Westerner carried a series of articles and advertisements for investment in the Dutch Miller Mine during 1906 and 1907. Starting in 1906, shares in the Seattle-Boston Copper Company were available for $1.00 each, offered to "Every Man and Woman" who "Desires and Hopes to Be Wealthy." A bearded miner is shown next to the main adit at an obviously active mine site. All that was required was a road to get the ore out and every investor would be rich.
A later advertisement in The Westerner, thinly disguised as a multi-page feature article, tells of a road and aerial tramway being built up the Foss River (from the North and feeding into the Skykomish Valley) to the Dutch Miller mine. Riches seemed right at hand and yet, by the end of the decade, the prospect idled, the ore pile still in place, and tons of copper still deep within the faulted Snoqualmie Granodiorite. A faint dream still existed that a less expensive road to market might lay in Dutch Miller's original approach, the Middle Fork Valley. Meanwhile, at La Bohn Gap, Twenty miles up the valley from the furthest NBTC logged off area near Goldmyer, forty years had brought no progress but continued interest in the copper ore of the Dutch Miller Mine. First proposed as early as 1916, a Mine-to-Market road plan was formally submitted in 1942, approved, but work never commenced. The desire to access the ore continued with frequent geological exploration and some mining at the Dutch Miller mine into the 1950's. 
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Mining activity languished but efforts to access and transport ore to market continued, becoming more creative as preservation activities of the 1970"s pushed to bar mechanized access to the area. The Seattle Times reported in 1972 on a proposal to use tracked snow vehicles to bring the ore out during the winter while Dick Kirby, who worked as a Forest Service Fire Technician during the period, told of a clever idea to use gyroscopically stabilized vehicles to navigate the normal Middle Fork hiking trail. The Alpines Lakes Wilderness Act of 1976 protected the area but dreams of riches die hard. As late as 1988 a consultant's report lays out a scheme to tunnel under the wilderness area into the ore from a road extended to Williams Lake (inside the protected boundary). In spite of these many ideas, the copper ore today sits abandoned in a pile or still in its veins deep within the Cascade Mountains. The Middle Fork Valley continues to inspire people. Dreams ranging from recreation to tapping into great riches play out in ideas, plans, and schemes within the valley. Ultimately, most fall the way of the Dutch Miller mine with distance, geography, and weather colluding to leave rotting, half-pursued relics. Bibliography - The Westerner, various issues from 1905 through 1907 - Preliminary Feasibility Evaluation Dutch Miller Mine, 1988, Washington State Geological Library - The Seattle Times, September 5, 1972 |
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From the Foss
This is the gap between the Necklace Valley and Chain Lakes. It goes by various names such as "Crystal Pass" but might actually be the original La Bohn Gap. The snow patch just below the gap sits in the route to Chain Lakes from Necklace Valley. Be careful in there, this photo was taken during the last week of September and we could just barely skirt the ice. |
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Hiking to the Dutch Miller Mine is fairly straight forward although quite long with the current gate closures. If you can arrange a shuttle, starting from Alpental and then crossing to the Foss River trailhead is a nice 2-3 night trip.
