Scout’s Cove is located in the Opal Mountains. It was a mining site for opals in the early 20th century, financed by the Tiffany Jewelry Company from New York. There is evidence that ancient Native Americans also mined opal from this area. The miners carved a nice shelter in the tufa dome near the mine, which is now used by campers. You can still find bits of opal around, but be careful, as the open pit mine appears to be very deep!
Please click the images below:
Its been 25 years since been out to scouts cove, we built a wood A frame and brought it out, set it up over the mine shaft and went down, the shaft was approximately 92 feet in depth, had one side shaft( that’s where an extremely large owl lived) it only went in about 6 feet, the main shaft was about 16 to 18 feet in diameter and angled about 45 degrees at the top. We would come out to this area every year, and toss a couple rocks down the mine shaft, there was something metallic down there and that got curiosity up to investigate what it was, to our dismay there only a rusty old piece of metal(think it was a car fender or something like that) and lots of bones from what ever that owl had eaten. I’ve looked up the area on google maps many times and the shaft is not visable, I believe the BLM must have filled it in so no one would could fall in or drive into that shaft, someone could drive into that and no one would ever know.
Hi Victor,
Thanks for sharing! Really great to learn more about the history of this site. When I’ve been out there I haven’t seen the shaft, so my guess is that you’re right and that it’s been filled in for safety reason.
Thanks for checking out my site!
Paul