Chrome Mining in the Siskiyou Mountains

Stories from the heart of the Siskiyou Mountains, Cave Junction, Oregon

Chrome is a metal used by many of us on a daily basis and is found in the stainless steel of our pots and pans, the moving parts of our car’s engine, and is often used to give a silvery, mirror-like shine to bumpers and wheel rims. At one time, the Siskiyou Mountains were the nation's leading producer of this metal.

Chrome was first mined in northern California's Del Norte County in the early 1860s by the Tyson Mining Company of Baltimore, who shipped the ore by boat around the southern tip of South America to smelters in Maryland. About 2,000 tons of ore were shipped annually over this route for almost thirty years.

During World War One, chrome ore became important because of its use in hardening steel for armor piercing bombs. Prospectors combed the region for the ore but mining stopped abruptly when the war ended and demand dwindled. However, the strategic importance of the ore in Josephine County was not forgotten and improving access to this region was one of the reasons for constructing Highway 199.

Chrome mining in Josephine County remained relatively inactive until 1940, when the threat of World War Two raised the demand for chrome. In 1942, a depot for purchasing chrome from local miners was established in Grants Pass but was closed soon after the end of World War Two. Most chrome mining in Illinois Valley ceased when Federal subsidies for mining the ore were cut off in the late 1950s.

Chrome was mined from outcrops of serpentine rock, such as is found along most of the western side of Illinois Valley. These rocks formed in the upper mantle of the earth and then were physically uplifted to where we find them today. The chrome is found in rounded, pod-like deposits that may be 10-30 feet in diameter. Buldozers were used to dig the pods out leaving behind a small pit to mark where the pod had once been. The pods were then broken into chunks that could be loaded into a truck and hauled to the nearest ore depot.

The most unusual chrome mine in Illinois Valley was located near the town of Takilma where a man found a large quantity of chrome ore in a meadow, probably the decomposed remains of a pod. Using an old time walking plow pulled by his horse he was able to dig up enough ore to net about three hundred dollars a day.

In the late 1950’s chrome separation plant was set up and operated next to Esterly Lake near the south end of Rockydale Road. Ore was crushed and then separated from unwanted rock and soil by a “shake table” before being bagged and shipped to the California and Oregon Coast (C&OC) railroad depot at Waters Creek.

There are may abandoned chrome mines around Josephine County to remind us of our chrome mining heritage. Some of this history includes geographic features named for chrome but, ironically, the mineral for which they were name has long ago been removed.

A large pod of chrome ore from a mine near the Wild and Scenic Illinois River. Redwood Highway 199, Cave Junction, southwest Oregon Siskiyou Mountains

A 46 ton boulder of high-grade chrome ore worth approximately $5,000 was found in 1956 at the Lucky Hunch Mine, located along the Illinois River about 10 miles down river from Selma. At the time, it was believed that this was the largest pod of chrome ore taken out in one piece in Oregon history.

Students look at rocks from a typical chrome mine excavation in the Siskiyou Mountains. Redwood Highway 199, Cave Junction, southwest Oregon Siskiyou Mountains

A typical chrome mine in the Siskiyou Mountains is usually little more than an excavation on the side of a mountain. Tunnels and other hard rock mining equipment are rare or nonexistent. In this region, chrome is usually in rounded "pods" of various sizes. A bulldozer was usually used to excavate away the dirt from around the pod, which was then broken into smaller pieces, loaded on a truck and hauled to the place where the metal was purchased from the miners.

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