The Smoky Mountain Valley is known for its gold deposits. The famous Round Mountain Mine sits just across the valley, and has produced over 10,000,000 ounces of gold since it opened in 1906, and its still going. The Buckeye is a similar story in location and development. The mine has been worked for precious metals, unlike the mines up the canyon that were primarily prospected for Tungsten. The Buckeye mine shows very similar qualities to the Round Mountain Mine, ore being located in a wide vein of limestone. There is a lot of history up here and a lot of gold to be mined. If you are looking for a rich gold mine with extensive reserves, set in the heart of gold country. This may be the site for you. The Buckeye is a massive complex of drifts on both sides of a steep and narrow canyon. In 1868 the mine was documented as having over 2000′ of workings. The mine has been worked intermittently up into 1958, which was the last documented operation. Gold was still the main export. The claim covers a lot of land thanks to the steep canyon walls. A series of adits and shafts probe the mountain and expose a large ore body that can be traced throughout the workings. There is also a good amount of water that has been tapped somewhere in the lower levels. A slow flowing waterfall runs down the sides of the lowermost shaft, and has for years as evidenced by the thick moss that has grown down all sides of the shaft. Its depth and dereliction are unknown and the shaft was not explored. At the base of the canyon there is a large old tipple and loading station that was reportedly used to ship the ore from the Buckeye out to Austin for processing as late as 1958. This is a large, expansive operation with a substantial lode that is still waiting to be worked. There are remains of three, large, rock structures, which were likely houses, on the eastern edge of the claim. The old mine road breaks off from these houses. Up at the mines there is an assay house of sorts with foundations, remnants of a forge, bits of cupels and crucibles. At the assay house, a braided steel cable holds a 1930s era tram car. The car moves freely on the cable and if it was motivated by a small motor, could easily transport ores or people across the deep canyon. On the opposite, or south side of the canyon, there are 2 adit entrances; one smaller, well cut, timbered entrance complete with signage and nails on the check out board. There is also a larger, double-wide adit entrance a few hundred feet below the small adit. The cabling and tram station are positioned here. There is no easy way up to these adits. A steep hike, bushwacking up the side of the mountain is your only option. It makes a good case for putting a small motor on the northside to motivate the tram car across. A large adit on the north side is cut following the gold lode and shows very nice samples and ores inside. The lode runs along the spine and the base of the mine, the cut being made directly onto a fault line where the richest ores were found. A small raise near the back shoots up from a good sized stope that still shows good gold ores. The raise height is undetermined and it would take a pretty tall ladder to get into it. This drift ends at a little over 200′ at a face that has the blast pattern already cut and ready to load. Obviously they were not out of ores to work. The gold lode is easily identified and shows no sign of pinching out, but the mine has not been worked since 1958. There is adequate room to park a limited number of vehicles at the claim, near the old assay house. The road up the canyon is in relatively good repair and can be navigated without issue with a good 4WD with clearance. It is wildly overgrown with Tamarisk so you will get some rocky mountain pin stripes in a full sized truck. It’s a secluded canyon that does not see a lot of traffic as evidenced by the old miners trash that is still all over the site: bottles, old signs and such. The weather here is temperate for the most part. Winters are going to get a bit snow-packed in January and February but will be clear by March at the latest. There is clean, running water in the base of the canyon that is year round. Heavy vegetation – pines and large cedars – will provide plenty of wood for support of your mining operation. The tailings have been separated into various piles around the claim. There is visible, native gold in the quartz in high grade piles. Also, some native silver and cubes of pyrite can be found with a bit of digging in the deeper piles.