The Valencia Mineshaft

Located in the mountains of Grafton County New Hampshire, the Valencia Mica Mine was in operation for just 12 years before a tunnel collapse forced its closure. Fortunately, the collapse happened at noontime while men were at lunch, so although many of their tools were lost in the rubble, none of their lives were. This was in 1892, and the mine didn't reopen until 60 years later when another company decided to give it a go. Today what remains of the site include some old railway tracks, a large but flooded cavern, one tunnel, and a pair of very un-excitable porcupines.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

This hike was one of the more enjoyable we've made while hunting these old mineshafts. Often these expeditions consist of several hours of bushwhacking with periodic breaks to yank out thorns, but here the terrain consisted of mostly an old logging road, and round trip came to just under two miles. Partly why it was so short was due to the sharp eye of my hiking partner John, who spotted the hint of a trail in the opposite direction I was leading us. And although we'd started this search not knowing what, if anything, would be left of the operations, we realized today was going to be a good day when we first came across these old mining rails.

Mining Rails

Just beyond these rails were the first signs of the mineshaft itself; this small opening. An even smaller passage continued to the other side where sunlight poked through, but although I could have fit I decided it was too early in the day to go getting myself all muddy. If I wasn't able to see what was on the other side by climbing over the hill, though, I planned on coming back here to crawl through. I'm okay with driving home filthy, but I'm not okay with driving home wondering whether or not I missed anything.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

It wasn't until after we'd thoroughly explored the area that the mine's collapse was evident to me. We found 3 separate openings that when you connected the dots ran in a straight line, and I could envision that the entire thing was once one long tunnel. Sections of that tunnel remained, and by crawling down the collapsed areas you could explore them. The largest of these areas looked promising from up top, but once I'd lowered myself down I found it was completely flooded. I made a show of poking around with a stick to see how deep the water was, but we've all smelled stagnant shaft-water before, and we all knew I had no intention of going in it. At least not on purpose.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Dead ended here, we backtracked to the beginning of the site and over the hill, and that's where all the action turned out to be. Spotting a crevice, I scrambled down and was excited to find the kind of mineshaft we're always hoping to find on these explorations, one that goes farther into the earth than the eye can see.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Maybe it was due to the collapse, or maybe it was the haphazard way it was dug, but parts of this mineshaft resembled a natural formation rather than something man-made.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

But telltale signs gave it away, such as the horizontal support beam you can see off in the distance.

Support Beam In Distance

We continued into the tunnel until, about mid-way through as we came up over a bend, I looked down and suddenly found myself eye to eye with a porcupine. He stood not even five feet away from me. After regaining my composure (did I yelp like a coward? Only John knows for sure, and he's been sworn to secrecy) we followed him to the end where we found his buddy, then the two of them calmly checked us out and even held still for a couple of pictures. If I were armed with a thousand needles I'd probably take much of life in stride myself. We eventually backtracked out of the tunnel to leave the animals in peace.

Photo Credit: John Egolf

Someday I won't have any new mineshafts to search out in New Hampshire. There's going to come a time when the very next one I bushwhack up the side of a mountain after will be my last. But that's not going to happen for quite a long while. Many more of these underground treasures exist than I ever would have thought possible growing up here in the Granite State, my list of suspect locations is still long, and I have only so much time in my schedule that I can go out searching for them. All of this makes for a very good problem to have, kind of like having too many TV shows you want to bingewatch but not enough hours in the day. I don't know where my search will take me next, but until that very last one is crossed off my list, you can bet that I'll be out there looking.

Photo Credit: John Egolf