Lucky S Mine

The Lucky S mine is actually quite close to my house as the crow flies…but we aren’t crows.  My wife’s Vanagon does not fly; it crawls, bumps, jounces and bounces over logging roads, Forest Service roads and four-wheeler roads (if you can call them that with a straight face) so that the ten miles to Lucky S mine is an hour’s ride (“ride” is rather more civilized a description than I had in mind, but this is a happy blog, dammit). We used the Beardsley grade road

  

to get there which, if you stay on it long enough, will intersect the correct Forest Service road with a sign and everything to get you there.  I strongly recommend this route; the other way really does require skinny 4WD conveyances.

Do not trust this sign, however:

We first came across the mine itself, which is a little ways from the town proper:

 

There is a bog between the town and the mine proper. Do not attempt to follow the south road, as there is a large mudhole in the road even in summer.  I mean, my wife can drive through it in her Vanagon, but I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.

In the town, there is a store and hotel, although it’s challenging to tell one from the other.

No pioneer ghost town would be complete without a relaxation center.  This one is particularly relaxed: