Silver King Mine Trip  by Chuck Kominski
     The 15th Annual Mineral Symposium field trip this year was a special historical trip to the Silver King Mine, located just a few miles northeast from the copper mining town of Superior.
     Twenty-two symposium attendees met at the rest area in Superior at 11:00 am. The weather was warm and sunny as the field trippers caravanned out to the mine.
     The road out to the mine is aptly named Silver King Mine road and is a fairly well maintained dirt road approximately 5 miles long from US 60 to the mine.
     At the mine  we met up with the mine caretaker, a colorful man named Hawk (George). Hawk gave a talk about the area, the mine, the dangers to avoid (including open shafts and snakes), and showed everyone examples of the minerals that we would be collecting.
    Jack San Felice, the mine owner, came out to the mine after our arrival and gave a very detailed talk on the history of the Silver King mine, the town of Silver King, as well as some of the more interesting characters that played a role in the development of the property.  Jack shared photos and ore samples of the mine from its inception up to present time. 
     From there we moved out to the various tailing dumps around the property. The minerals found were stromeyerite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, galena, chlorargyrite, bornite, native silver, chalcopyrite, azurite, malachite, quartz, and barite. In fact there

Foundation members and Symposium attendees dig on the dumps at the Silver King Mine.

are 34 listed minerals for the Silver King mine even including vanadinite and wulfenite according to mindat.org (although none was found) .
     As the day wore on we loaded flats and buckets with examples of various mineral samples from the Silver King and one by one headed home.
     As usual, Bill Yedowitz was the last Foundation member to put down his hammer, leaving the site as the sun went down.

Dr. Ray  Grant found some rock with silver wire, which he shared with the rest of us who were not as lucky or talented.

Old Glory flies at the Silver King head frame.

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