The Winkeye Mine peaked our interest after watching a YouTube and reading a blog post by Justin Ames aka The Velvet Rocket. One of Justin’s earlier explorations before using secret names for mines and including some awesome historical references and research. What is now a small, low overhead adit and a rotting bunk house was once a fairly sizable somewhat modern operation. Apparently the latest owners packed up the equipment and left town in a hurry. Once owned by Dewey and Elaine Pettigrew with partners and they faced years of multiple lawsuits.
…they faced years of multiple lawsuits.
Near Howland Flat the Winkeye is right off Port Wine Ridge Road and easy to access if coming in from La Porte. We however took the hard way in from Poker Flat. Poker Flat has a great campground with multiple fire rings and picnic tables. The road up to the Winkeye Mine from Poker Flat is a 1500’+ steep climb. It was as if the road was paved with bowling balls most of the 2 mile jaunt. Definitely requires a high clearance 4×4. One member of our crew made it in a stock JKU with 33’s but could here the boulders scraping his undercarriage for much of the climb.
…apparently ripped from its hinges …
The old road to the mine from the bunk house was readily apparent and we could have drove down if we had removed a couple logs but we decide to walk down. The adit had a locked but flimsy wire mush gate that someone had apparently ripped from its hinges to gain entry. The tunnel was flooded and less the 4′ high requiring we hunch over so we decided against entering and exploring.
A long way from home for a small tunnel and bunk house but the area in total was worth the trip. Kudos to Justin for his non-secret post enabling us to ride his coat tails to a couple days of adventure.
