Having finished our reconnaissance of the Desert Queen Mine, obtaining a sufficient quantity of photos for our purposes, Murbachi and I set out for our second destination of the day. We were heading to the Eagle Cliff Mine, one of my favorite destinations in the park.

As with many of the mines in J Tree, few details are known about its origin, ownership and production over the years. The scant records so far discovered reveal that on May 27, 1895, a lead ledge that became known as the Eagle Cliff mine was located by Robert Muir. My hat's off to him. Back in the 1890s, it would have taken a true explorer to discover this claim. For the year ending December 31, 1897, some $200 worth of labor had been performed in the area, with two shafts being sunk into the rock; one to the depth of 75 feet, the other to 40 feet.

Bill Keys reportedly held possession of the mine for many years, at which time it was known as the Black Eagle. His son, Willis Keys, relates that his father kept up the assessment work from about 1916 onwards and during the 1920s and early 1930s, small amounts of ore were extracted from the mines which was processed at the Wall Street Mill. The main problem was getting the ore to the mill, as the location was extremely difficult to get to. In fact, the ore was packed out on a burro. Follow along and you'll see why.

There are at two routes that I know of that hikers can take to reach the Eagle Cliff. I've taken the route from Split Rock Boulder and the route from the Pine City backcountry board (the route taken for this report). I definitely recommend the route from the Pine City parking area over the trail from Split Rock Boulder. There's more interesting stuff to see, and it's not as strenuous.