Tidal Wave District – Madison County, Montana
You can drive to the mine entrance shaft MTMAD_10528. The road to the other mine entrances has been closed but with an approved plan of operations you could reopen the road and drive directly to the other mine entrances.
This claim is accessed via an good 4WD high clearance road. Surveyors had no issues getting a full size truck to the claim site.
Contact us for exact coordinates

The Walker is a documented gold mine. There are two mine camps and a series of mines on the claim. The mines are cut on two different trends. The trends consist of quartz, gold and pyrites. The lower mines show evidence of a headframe and a double compartment shaft with a short adit cut in for shipping. There are some remnants of track and rail ties as well as a clear 4WD road that runs directly to the mines. The upper mines are positioned just above a small, year round spring which is a part of the mining claim. These mines are more developed and accessed by an adit with a partially collapsed entrance. The entrance will need to be cleared to be safely accessed, but the mine drift and workings are clear and stable with no slough inside. The upper mines consist of a series of 3 open stopes that are cut off of the main adit. The mines also explore a series of quartz trends that contain free milling gold and some pyrites. The claims can be accessed with a high clearance 4WD, required for some deep ruts that have occurred from seasonal runoffs. The claims are set on a hillside above the valley of Twin Bridges. The claim has been historically mined for gold. This claim has been historically called the Walker according to MRDS and is a registered gold producer. .

The geology in the Twin Bridges area is more complex than any other region in the Tobacco Root area. The oldest rocks of the region are gneisses and schists of the Pony series (pre-Beltian), which are overlain by extensive areas of Paleozoic quartzites, limestones, and shales. All are cut by irregular stocks of granitic rock, outliers of the Tobacco Root batholith that underlies extensive areas to the east of the district. The sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are complexly folded and the structure is further complicated by strong faulting.

Ores in the district occur in three types. Around Bear Gulch granitic intrusives came in contact with limestone and produced typical contact deposits containing copper and lead with gold and silver values. At the head of Bear Gulch and to some extent in the rest of the district, vein deposits in gneiss or schist are closely associated with granitic magma intrusions. The veins carry gold with some lead, silver and copper. The third type of ore is found in Dry and Wet Georgia Creeks and Goodrich Gulch. These vein deposits in gneiss or schists are associated with igneous intrusions not associated with granitic magma and are of an earlier age.[1]

This mine resides in the Dry and Wet Georgia Gulches Sub-district.

The two gulches in this district are located four and five miles due east of Twin Bridges. The gulches were the scene of the first mining in the Tidal Wave district. The Tidal Wave mine, on the ridge between Dry Georgia and Goodrich gulches, was first located in the 1860s. The Highridge (or High Ridge) mine on the southwest side of the mountains between Dry and Wet Georgia gulches was active in the 1880s and was a steady producer from the 1890s to 1910s. In the Buckeye group in Dry Georgia Gulch gold ore occurs in gneiss just below its contact with limestone. Other mines in the sub-district active around 1914 include the Democrat, the Empire and Bay State, Keynote, Ella and Argenta. The most important producers in the Dry Georgia Gulch from 1900 to 1920 include the High Ridge, the Sunflower, and the Corncracker. In Wet Georgia Gulch the most important mines in the first two decades of the Twentieth century include the Ella, Dullea, Lone Star and Argenta. The High Ridge was once again prominent in the 1930s.[1]

These mines are a series of adits, shafts and prospects cut on documented gold trends. These all are likely interconnected on lower levels. The views of the valley below are beautiful.

Access to the Mine: You can drive to the mine entrance shaft MTMAD_10528. The road to the other mine entrances has been closed but with an approved plan of operations you could reopen the road and drive directly to the other mine entrances.
Tailings Present: 10,000-49,999 tons. The tailings appear to be mostly waste rock. The tailings piles are not huge which indicates most of the good ore was taken off site for processing.
Entrance: The mine entrances MTMAD_10528 and MTMAD_10524 were timbered at one time but have since collapsed.
Mine Cut: Adits, shafts and prospects.
Depth / Length: 2000' est.
Minerals in the Mine :Historically the claim was worked for gold. Would anticipate finding gold ore inside the mines.
Foot Traffic in the Mine: None
Last Worked: 1970