Most of the time at Explorer we deal with “the big three” when it comes to ruins: the shaft house, the rock house (sometimes combined), and the engine house. Lately we have become accustomed to finding more and more ruins from buildings that supported those important structures: boilers, dry houses, machine shops, compressor buildings – and just recently – oil houses. This has complicated are nice and simplified thinking, but has made for a lot more photo opportunities. At Champion, most of these support structures are not ruins, but are intact and standing. A welcome change and an excellent opportunity to take a look at what all these mine sites we have might have looked like in their prime.

Standing next door to the oil house sits this metal-sheathed building. This is the old dry house for the No. 4, quite the departure from the more stately “B” change house. This almost looks as if it was built as an afterthought (oops, we forgot the change house!). This probably demonstrates the changing priorities of a mine as it aged. Assuming that the “B” shaft is older then the “E” shaft, money might have been tighter when this building was built and a less expensive solution was required.

Sitting on the other side of the oil house stands this platform. Its sits up against the slight hillside that the No. 4 is constructed against. Coming through here was once a rail spur that serviced the No. 4 and the oil house nearby. It looks like a loading dock, but it would be much too high for the rail-line next door.

Along the edge of this platform are a couple of these metal brackets. These would suggest this platform served to hold something (a water tank?) but I have no clue.

Across the street from the oil house is the No. 4 shop complex. All mines had such a complex somewhere on the premises, at Champion they decided to build them here at the No. 4. Pictured here is the Machine Shop, where machines and equipment were repaired. Clustered around it (some no longer standing) would be other repair and fabrication facilities such as the blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, and drill shop.

Sitting directly behind the dry house is this wooden structure. When I first visited the site over 5 years ago this building was relatively intact. As you can see in the second photo, that is no longer the case. I’m not so sure what the purpose of this building is, but my guess would be a warehouse or some sort of generic storage building. I do know it wasn’t original to the site as of 1909, according to the Sandborn Map. It also appears as if the bathroom was out back.

Moving on…