Crockford-Pigeon Mountain WMA, GA Remains of Estelle Mining Co. |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2014) |
Estelle Iron Mines In the early 1900s, 225 folks were employed here, and the community of Estelle had 150 homes, along with schools, a church, commercial buildings, etc. Little remains now but foundations and ore loading bins from the mine works and 6 or 7 small gauge railroad tunnels through the mountain ridges, several of which are now collapsed. The Mining Company ceased operations in 1924. |
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Ore Loading Bin 1 |
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Piers leading to Ore Loading Bin |
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Ore Loading Bin 1 |
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Ore Bin |
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Rock-fern on concrete pier |
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Foundation for a track scale The scale here would have measured the weight of the rail car payloads. Thanks to John Stewart, from Hoover, AL, for the ID of this foundation! |
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Ore Loading Bin 2 |
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Ore Loading Bin 2 |
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Ore Loading Bin 2 and Chute |
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Row of Piers-Footings leading up the hill |
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Unknown structures |
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There are a series of narrow-gauge railroad tunnels that were cut through the area's ridges. I have visited six of them (counting multi-part collapsed tunnels as one tunnel). I think there are more, but I turned around since I had other sites to visit... Northeast Tunnel This is the longest tunnel, and the closest to the Estelle village and processing facilities. |
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View back from the interior toward the south opening. |
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Partial tunnel collapse - dome above, fallen debris below.. |
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Beyond the collapse area... |
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Coming from the west, this is Tunnel 2: |
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Second tunnel's west opening |
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Tunnel 2 Interior |
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Tunnel 3 from the west end: |
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Tunnel 3's west opening |
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Western entrance from inside |
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Tunnel 3 - I think the red bands are layers of iron ore. |
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Tunnel 4 from the west end: |
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Tunnel 5 from the west end: |
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Heading back towards The Pocket, I checked out Tunnel 1. This was originally a long tunnel but now has many collapsed sections: |
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Tunnel 1a (one of several sections) |