While heading eastward towards that gleaming concrete tower in the distance were were first confronted with what we thought was just a pile of debris left at the center of what was a large poor rock pile. Turns out that pile of debris was in fact a ruin, more specifically a foundation to some type of steam equipment. Whatever it once belonged to, it appeared as if it was previously buried by the surrounding rock pile and uncovered when the pile was removed.

During the rock pile removal a large portion of the old ruin was damaged. Not only were the outer walls completely gone, but a large section of the machine foundation itself had been torn up. It looked as if whoever removed the rock pile accidently tore part of the ruin out before realizing it wasn’t just another pile of poor rock. It was then left alone, and the rock around it hauled off instead.

The foundation – at least what was left of it – looked to belong to a hoist at first. It was roughly “H” shaped and featured a center “slot” set between two low “mandibles”. A closer look said something different, however.

The slot in question was far to narrow to be for a cable drum. Most likely it held a large flywheel, a flywheel belonging to a different type of machine.

Bordering the flywheel slot was one of the concrete topped mandibles, this one featuring what looks to be a machine mount complete with crank slot.

Across the way a simply concrete capped mandible, this one without the machine mount details.

Not sure what this foundation was for I took a gander at all the Sanborn maps from the period – none of them showcased any type of structure here. This means the building was either a newer addition or a much older structure that was abandoned and buried under a rock pile. It wouldn’t be the first time an old building was literally buried by progress, and that would explain its exclusion from the Sanborn maps. Whatever it was I know that it wasn’t a hoist foundation. Most likely it was an old compressor house, replaced by newer and better models later in the mine’s life.

With not much else left to see we continued on towards that second stack.