Champion Spark Plug Mine - White Mountains, CA

Sagebrush Reconnoiterer

The Historian
Joined
Oct 21, 2024
Messages
208
Location
North Central Nevada
For those who love dispersed camping, history and a hike, I present eastern California's Champion Sparkplug Mine. The mine operated high in the White Mountains below 14,242' high White Mountain early in the 20th century to World War Two. Transporting ores from the mine was by mule power over narrow trails, trucked to be transported by a narrow gauge railroad that once ran by below. A mine camp is situated on a shady, narrow shelf far below the main mine; its buildings are still in fine shape and kept up to adopt-a-cabin standards.

A good primer to introduce the history of the mine and camp can be found in the October, 1992 issue of THE ALBUM quarterly, page 36.



I wrote a photo essay for THE ALBUM in February 1993, page 45.



On my website, I had a page on how to get to the Sparkplug Mine and what you can find there. I attach a .pdf of that webpage to this post. It is the file labeled "sparkplug4x4.pdf."


Mr. and Mrs. Ski3pins have two stories of their visits here as well.

The Spark Plug Mine – May 2013: The Spark Plug Mine – May 2013

Back to the Spark Plug Mine - May 2014 Part One: Back to the Spark Plug Mine - May 2014 Part One

Within his photos of the mine museum exhibits he has a photo of an article I wrote and published in the June 18, 1995 issue of the Bishop, CA Inyo Register about the dedication of the site by ASM International.

Back to the Spark Plug Mine - June 2014 Part Two: Back to the Spark Plug Mine - June 2014 Part Two


I don't know if it is still distributed, but I produced a guide to the site for the Inyo National Forest around 1995 and it was distributed at the ranger station in Bishop for some time. It is attached to this page. It is the file called "sparkplugmine.pdf."

There's a lot of neat stuff found in and around this tiny location clinging precariously to the steep slopes of the mountain.
 

Attachments

  • sparkplug4x4.pdf
    565.8 KB · Views: 34
  • sparkplugmine.pdf
    229.2 KB · Views: 30
Spark-Plug-May2014-108-copy.webp
 

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