The Taber Mine is situated in the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, at an elevation of 5,300. The property is an underground placer mine located 6 miles beyond La Porte on the road to Quincy in Sierra County, California. The mine is in the Gibsonville mining district, and on a northern extension of the historic Mother Lode/Melones fault zone. The mine is approximately 100 miles north of Sacramento and 90 miles west of Reno, Nevada. The property is accessed by a paved county road from La Porte and is 27 miles from Quincy. The property covers approximately of 650 acres of unpatented mining claims.

The main tunnel and a branch tunnel are open with rail, vent, compressed air and water lines for over 1000 feet. The focus for the development of the property should be toward opening up the large virgin reserves in the back channel. Present development plans should follow the 1931 plan to extend a tunnel 1950 foot from the branch or main tunnel to underneath the channel at the site of borehole No. 3. There a raise would be made to intersect and than to cross-cut the channel. After this exploration cross-cut, the bedrock tunnel could be adjusted to gain the best access point for mining. The reasoning was to eliminate the hoisting of ore and the pumping necessary when working below grade at the end of the main tunnel. This would significantly increase the production rate and allow for shutdowns with minimal maintenance and quick startup times between shifts. A 300 foot escape and ventilation shaft will be necessary for the mining phase. Three quarters of the channel could be worked without pumping or raising ore. Ore would later be recovered from the lower section of channel exposed at the end of the main Taber tunnel after the upstream mining was finished. The upstream workings would enable the diversion of water from the below grade workings making it easier to work them at a later date. A bedrock haul and drain tunnel could be advanced up and downstream under the channel until on-grade with the channel from this initial exploration tunnel. This would present many opportunities for access to the channel above. This practice also eliminates the need for ground support for the main haulage. It also makes following the lead more flexible. The processing facility consists of a 100-ypd trommel scrubber/screen providing three cuts to the material. The two smaller fractions go through different sluice boxes, and the smallest goes across a duplex jig to pull all heavies. Settling ponds are used with the water being recycled for the mill. The tailings are taken to the dump area which can be expanded easily for long term use. The owners of the Taber Mine have maintained a Plan of Operations with the Plumas National Forest since 1984. There has been a good working relationship with the Forest Service through the years and no future problems are anticipated. A SMARA reclamation plan and bond is filed with the Department of Conservation, Division of Mine Reclamation. Sierra County is the lead agency and has always been 100% behind the project. The water that discharges from the mine has a neutral ph and contains no contaminants as tested by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. There has always been good working relationship with Cal-OSHA and MSHA. No citations have ever been received, nor has anyone been injured at the site.

Gibson Creek is the nearest stream passing east of the portal and is ephemeral. Springs up the hill provide a water source to the site, and the discharge water provides water for the processing. The auriferous quartz channels are locally covered by thick layer of volcanic tuff, locally called “pipe clay”, which is overlain by volcanic mud flows. The main tunnel and branch pass through a volcanic dike that intruded part of the front channel. The bedrock is a “Calaveras schist” the strike being perpendicular to the channels. The mine is just downstream of the serpentinite belt that is bordered by heavy gold bearing zones.

Drilling and light blasting techniques are used for breaking up the tight gravels. The gravels are easily scrubbed clean by the trommel as they are not cemented. The ground holds well by itself but in large areas it has to be supported by split-set bolts and wire mesh as practiced by similar mines in the district. No sulfides or other minerals that have a potential for hazardous contamination are present in the wash.

Our family inherited the Taber Mine from Lulu Taber, the daughter of the original owner in 1974. The old history of the mine is one with many unfortunate circumstances, deaths and timing primarily and not related to the tenure of the ground. Horace Taber made a fortune on the front channel from 1853 until 1870. He believed there was a back channel under Gibsonville Ridge and in 1870 he financed the driving of the main Taber tunnel and reached it at about 3800 feet in 1898. Because of his work the adjoining upstream mine, the Union discovered the back channel on their property and it turned out even richer than the front channel and they mined it for more than 30 years. Horace died 1899 and the property passed to his wife and children. From that time on there was a lot of financial difficulties. In 1903 the decline and the channel cross-cut was developing good paying gravels ($6/carload reported), but being driven by a stock company that thought more of selling stock than mining and the development soon stopped. A miner’s lien shut the mine down in 1904. All the work had been accomplished using a pelton water wheel and dynamo for power until 1903 when a steam boiler was introduced.

After many years the Taber’s re-acquired the property and leased it to McGowen and Atchison in 1929 and they formed the Taber Development Co. They sank three boreholes in the center of the property and into the back channel. In a letter dated 9-3-1931, McGowen wrote “Our third borehole at the Taber drilled to a depth of 390 feet passing through 16 feet of quartz gravel to bedrock. We undoubtedly have the extension of the Union (back) channel and have found exactly what we have been looking for”. A bunkhouse, washing sluices, concrete dam snow sheds and power were provided and a contract was let for 1000 ft of tunnel to reach the borehole. This was started but shortly thereafter McGowen died (12-12-31). He was the principle person and stock seller and the company did not have the funds necessary to continue development. Their agreement defaulted shortly thereafter. After that there were several companies interested and some entered into agreements (Bellevue Mining Co, adjoining the Taber, Chicksan Oil Co.) but no further work was done and all lost their options.

All recent work has been done in the front channel where little virgin ground remains. In 1999 some underground rehabilitation and sampling operations were carried out from a branch tunnel in the front channel near the old McMahon works, about 1000 feet in. This work consisted of some crosscuts to help define a couple of possible mineable zones. The main tunnel is open 1080 ft to the contact point between the lava dike and pipe clay that overlays the northern rim of the front channel. The tunnel is equipped with rail, vent line, compressed airline, and waterline. The mining operations were conducted using 12B muckers, slushers, ore cars, and trammer.

We have been fortunate to have inherited all the old papers, maps, mine reports and letters from the Taber’s. By researching other accounts in newspapers and mining journals, etc, I have compiled a very extensive documentation of the Taber Mine and of all the channel mines of the Slate Creek basin.

The resource can be added too by acquiring a lease to the timber property that adjoins the Taber to the West. The channel extends for another mile to the Thistle Shaft workings. This portion of the virgin channel on their property has no other easy access. Sunshine Mining Co (Idaho) had a lease in the 1980s with them and did extensive work on the Bellevue tunnel portion of the property. Records of this work and 82 boreholes are available. There is also a short piece of channel, 660 feet, on private property upstream of the Taber.