Tinder Flats Gold Mine

The Tinder Flats Mine is located approximately 5 miles north of the town of Mineral on route 522. Its first production was in 1830 and the first development began in 1832 by Fred Rawlings, but mining was not well organized.  Their primary focus was coarse gold.  Gold was washed using the old log rocker or sluice box.

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The mine changes hands several times and was worked by the Miller Bros.-Fisher & Dobney in 1856 and later by Miller & Watkins in 1867.  In 1890 the property was bought by a Mr. Shields

who planned to process the gravel for gold and sell the tailings to the C & O Railroad to be used as ballast for thirty five cents per cubic yard.  Shield's outside speculations bankrupted him and all of his properties were tied up in litigation which stopped mining until the Court ordered a sale in 1908, when it was bought by Mr. Heath.   

 In 1909 the Tinder Flats Mine consisted of slightly more than three hundred acres with Contrary Creek running through the middle of the property.  The mine was adjoined on the west side by the Sulfur Mine and on the North and East by the Allah Cooper Gold Company.  The gold deposits on the property were described by Colonel Thomas R. Marshall, a local mining engineer, as containing bright, angular, free gold which was at that time worth $20.67 per troy ounce.  Free gold was found in four quartz veins running Southeast across the Tinder Flats property, the most prominent one being known as the "Walton Vein," its name was taken from the Walton Mine which was successfully worked before the Civil War. 

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The Tinder Flats Mine was worked at different times  for a period of

 almost 90 years 

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Pictured below is the Tinder Flats Mine as it appeared in 1905.