Johnson Mine

Cookhouse at Johnson Mine.

In 1868, Thomas and Charlotte Dearden sailed from England to the New World with their two infant children, Sarah, who was sixteen months old, and Joseph Hyrum, a newborn of two months. They traveled with others of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to gather in the mountains of Utah. 

After six weeks at sea, they landed safely in New York City. From there they took a train to Chicago and then Laramie, Wyoming, which at that time was the terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad. During their final leg they traveled in a mule train of fifty wagons. The trek came with hardship as they lost their sweet daughter, Sarah, burying her along the trail. Eight days later on August 19, 1868, they arrived at their destination of Salt Lake City. 

Thomas and Charlotte spent their first few years on the Wasatch Front where Thomas operated a couple of sawmills and worked for the railroad. There Charlotte gave birth to two more babies. 

Thomas Dearden.

In 1872, Brigham Young called them to settle Fillmore. The Deardens faithfully responded and made the 150-mile journey south with their young family. Here they put down roots. They built a comfortable home and Thomas operated another sawmill. 

Eight children were born to them in Fillmore, bringing the count to twelve. It was here that Joseph Hyrum, the eldest son, grew to adulthood and married Margaret Russell. During this time Thomas found a job running freight to miners and ranchers in Nevada. This job would eventually take him in a different direction. 

On January 5, 1889, Charlotte passed away at the young age of 39. Her health had been declining for years. This was a big blow for Thomas. He stayed loyal to Charlotte and never remarried. She was buried in the Fillmore Cemetery. 

As stated earlier, Thomas freighted goods to the miners and ranchers in eastern Nevada. He would load up his wagon with salt, grain, fresh fruits and other goods. It was during one of these hauls that he conceived the idea of opening a store in Baker, Nevada. A friend loaned him 500 dollars and he made the 130-mile move and opened up “Rancher's Store,” the first retail establishment in Snake Valley. Years later he would also buy a store in nearby Garrison, a tiny town just across the border into Utah.

Rancher's Store in Baker, Nevada. Thomas Dearden in beard next to his granddaughter, Daisy. (about 1906)

Thomas Dearden by this time was becoming old. Those who knew him noted his “long, white, shining beard and walking so straight and proud with his grandchildren on his arms. There was always that twinkle in his eyes and a smile for everyone—jovial and pleasant to be around.” 

In 1908 Thomas Dearden and Alfred “Timberline” Johnson filed a mining claim at the head of Snake Creek Canyon in the South Snake Range. Nowadays much of the South Snake Range is included in Great Basin National Park, which is best known as home of the Lehman Caves and Wheeler Peak, the second highest peak in Nevada. The town of Baker, which is still tiny, is the closest settlement to the park.

So, who was Alfred Johnson? That's a good question. I found very little on him. He was born in Trässberg, Sweden in 1870. As far as I can tell, he had no wife, no kids, and came to America with no family. But I could be wrong. Despite the lack of information on him, he managed to leave his name on the landscape. Johnson Mine, Johnson Lake and Johnson Peak are all named after him. 

Thomas and Alfred were joined in the venture by Thomas's son, Joseph Hyrum Dearden. Details of their time at the mine are scarce. In Joseph's simple biography there is only one reference to his venture on the mountain: “Joseph and Margaret spent several summers up Snake Creek with 'Johnson.' They had some mining claims up there so they lived in one of Johnson's cabins and the three of them mined and fished.” 

Joseph Hyrum Dearden and wife, Margaret.

What were they mining? 

Tungsten. Considered a rare metal, tungsten has proved to be valuable over the years. It has the highest melting point of all known elements—6,192 ºF. Because of this it is used to make filaments in incandescent light bulbs and halogen lamps. Carbon tungsten, which is a super hard alloy, is used in cutting-tools such as knives, drills and circular saws. 

Tungsten is almost as dense as gold, weighing nearly 20 grams per cubic centimeter. Because of this it has been used to create counterfeit gold bars, with gold on the outside and tungsten in the middle.

During the time of the Johnson Mine, the price of tungsten was on its way up. Around 1910 this increased demand was related to the incandescent light bulb, as well as new technologies coming from the production of alloy steel. Demand continued to increase during World War I. 

The source of tungsten at the Johnson Mine was a quartz vein on a high ridge above Snake Creek. Ore was mined on the ridge, then placed in barrels where it was transported on an areal tramway, down a forty-degree slope to the tramway terminal. From there is was loaded onto pack mules and hauled to the mill, which was less than a mile away. 

The thing that makes the Johnson Mine special is the fact that it's still there. The old rocky road has now diminished to a trail, which in a sense has helped preserve the mine. If someone has to hike several miles uphill, they are less likely to pilfer any artifacts. 

Hiking trail to Johnson Mine that was once an old road.

The mine today retains a semblance of its former state. The cabins and mill are still there, along with several artifacts and the long stretched-out cable from the tramway. But as expected after 100 years, roofs have caved in and wood is drying out. Debris is scattered all about. Yet it remains a fascinating place to walk through and to imagine what it used to be like. 

To get to the mine one can either begin at the Baker or Snake Creek trail-heads. The two trails eventually merge and climb at least a couple thousand feet. Passing through a coniferous forest strewn with granite boulders, the first structure the hiker will encounter is the mill. 

Ruins of the mill at Johnson Mine.

Aspen trees growing inside the mill.

The remains of the mill building sit at 10,200 feet in elevation. The building was made of logs, the upper section with two stories and the lower with one. A sign near the structure explains the process:

“Rocks from the mines above Johnson Lake were brought to the large log mill building by mule or wagons. Ore was dumped in the upper side of the mill and funneled to the ore crushers in the building below. Heavy pounding piston-like stamps or tumbling ball mill cylinders powered by water and drive belts pulverized the ore. Through processes of sifting, washing, and leaching, tungsten mineral was collected for further refining at smelting facilities in Nevada and at Frisco, Utah.” 

The mill has long been abandoned. The corrugated roof no longer sits atop the building and sapling aspens now grow where men once worked. Stove parts, machine parts and other old debris are scattered about. 

Nearby is another structure that has been identified as a stable for pack mules. This square enclosure is nearly six-feet high, with roof beams over half the structure. Nearby is a metal trough. 

Remains of a stable for pack mules.

If one walks up the trail another half mile, he will arrive at four cabins built to support the workers of the mine. The largest was probably a cookhouse, serving as dining room and kitchen. This cabin has a rodent-proof pantry and other cooking artifacts. Fancy dishware has been found here, suggesting a woman on the premises⸺most likely Margaret Dearden. 

Attached to the cabin is another room, this one serving as a bunkhouse for visitors. I can imagine a group of men sitting around a wooden table after a long days work, visiting and discussing the issues of the day and a welcoming heat radiating from the wood-burning stove. Aroma from a bowl of stew or a loaf of bread would fill the air. Mrs. Dearden, dressed in her apron, would serve the hungry men a plate of food. 

Interior view of the cookhouse.

The cookhouse had a kitchen, as well as a dormitory for visitors.

I would imagine that Margaret kept things tidy while the men worked, for that's how Joseph expected it. Working in a mine would make a man dirty with dust, smoke and muck. Joseph's daughter, Daisy, said her father liked things to be clean and neat, and he was clean in his appearance. She would see a group of men walking down the street and could pick out her father by looking at their boots. The other men's boots would be spattered with mud up to the knee and her father's would be spotless. He also liked a clean yard and neat woodpile. 

There are three other cabins nearby, all of them smaller in size than the cookhouse. They are simple in structure and probably served as dormitories for the regular workers. One may have been used as a shed or storehouse. None of these cabins have a roof. I'm sure that over the years the heavy snows have caved them in. It is interesting to note that some of the corrugated roofing metal that has been found nearby has the inscription: “Jefferson Metal Co., Milford, UT.” 

Cabin at Johnson Mine.

Inside a cabin, probably used to sleep in.

This cabin was small enough that it was probably used as a storehouse.

They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. This saying holds true at the Johnson Mine. Some “trash” is heaped in piles, while other discarded material is strewn in random places. 

Several years ago an archeological team came and inventoried what remained of the mine, including trash deposits. Their list of trash included cast iron stove parts, milk cans, lard cans, meat cans, oil cans, coffee cans, tobacco cans, earthen ware, glass, canvas, a hose, water pipe, leather scraps, mining equipment and machine parts. They also found mason jars, drinking glasses and liquor bottles. More than 500 milk cans and 500 food cans were counted, including cans that once held meat, sardines, lard, tuna, baking powder, coffee, and tobacco. 

One of the fascinating items we found was a leather shoe sitting on a stump. This, along with all the other items found at the mine, offers clues as to what the day to day operations may have looked like. We don't have a lot of other insight from histories or journals, so gleaning what we can from “trash” may give us our best understanding. 

Trash pile.

Old leather shoe.

Another couple hundred yards up the mountain lies Johnson Lake at an elevation of 10,800 feet. The lake is fed by a spring and supposedly there is a man-made dam that increased the capacity. They say that a stream is supposed to run out of the lake, but when we were there, there was no water running out. 

Just up the mountain from the lake there is a lot of old machinery and parts strewn around. A cable, which at one time supported an aerial tramway, is stretched up the mountain slope to a mining portal.  At the bottom end of the tramway there used to be a terminal building, which is now destroyed. We could not find the portal when we were there.  My guess is that it has been reclaimed. The cable is still hanging. 

View of Johnson Lake. The cabins are tucked in the trees at the upper right end of the lake.

A tramway ran down the mountain along this cable.

Piece of mining machinery.

My experience with being there included a lot of head-scratching, wondering what all the artifacts were used for. I have never mined in my life and have a difficult time piecing together a scene of what it may have looked like. One thing I do know for sure is that the conditions up there were brutal. Even during the summer, this place is susceptible to freezing temperatures, high winds, hail storms and even snow. During the winter I'm sure it was inaccessible. 

The time period in which the mine operated is a little fuzzy at times. The following was reported from the Department of Interior: 

“Tungsten deposits in upper Snake Creek were exploited in1916. The Uvada Tungsten Company was established in 1918 and reportedly had a 20-stamp mill operating at the head of Snake Creek which Unrau suggests was the Johnson Mine and the mill near Johnson Lake. This mine worked sporadically on a small scale for many years. The Engineering and Mining Journal [in] 1920 describes a 1,200 foot tunnel driven on the property of Dearden and Johnson near the head of Snake Creek. The article states that ore was milled in a two-ton gravity concentration plant in the canyon below Johnson Lake. In 1935 [Joseph Hyrum] Dearden of Baker shipped a small quantity of scheelite from the east side of the Snake Mountains. Sometime after this a major snow slide at Johnson Lake reportedly caused severe damage to the mining operation.” 

Stumps from trees that were cut down over 100 years ago and used to build the cabins.

Detail of cabin.

How did it all end for the players in our story? 

Alfred Johnson lived longer than any of them. He died at the age of 91. Nowhere could I find any indications of family or spouse. 

Joseph Hyrum Dearden lived to the age of 75 and died in 1943. He outlived his wife Margaret by 14 years and married another woman after her death. Both Johnson and the Deardens are buried in the Garrison Cemetery. 

Thomas Dearden was the first to pass away. He died in 1911 and likely never lived to see the mine come to fruition. Although he died in Garrison, he requested that his body be returned to Fillmore. There he was buried next to his eternal love, Charlotte. ♠

Grave of Thomas and Charlotte Dearden in Fillmore, Utah.

Detail of headstone.