Arbon Valley Mines

While riding my dirt bike on the Onion a few years ago, I stumbled across a trail that made switch backs up the mountain, and led to quite a few old, abandoned mines. Most of them were caved in at the entrance, except for one that was still open enough to crawl down into.

Once inside, I was blown away by how big of an operation must have gone on there. There were still tracks for a cart to carry out excavated dirt, and you could still see the places where the miner had drilled holes into the walls. After going straight into the mountain for about 100 feet, the mine split into three different tunnels, one going straight, while the other two veer of to the left and right. The tunnels to the right and straight were caved in, so I went left. After walking down the mine a little longer, I found a huge rusty tank of some kind that had pipes coming out of it heading further into the mine. I could also see that behind the tank, was another dark tunnel, going back further into the mountain.

After deciding to stay on the path that I was on, I followed the pipes from the tank and the tracks to a pile of old boards, going out across a huge gaping hole. I later realized that what I was looking at was what was left of an elevator and an elevator shaft. Since I could not see the bottom from shining my light down, I decided to try to throw a rock down the hole and count the seconds until I could hear it hit the bottom. After the rock left my hand, it fell into the pitch black darkness for about 4 seconds, and then hit what I thought was the bottom. About three seconds later, I heard it hit the actual bottom of the hole.

Once back outside, I took a quick look around the area and discovered an old collapsed cabin, and the pile where the miner or miners dumped the excess dirt and rock. After being in the mine, I began to come up with some questions that I would like to know the answers to.

• Who owned the mine, and what was being mined out of the mountain?
• Was the mine ran by a small group of people or was it a much bigger operation?
• How long ago were the mines in use?

These are just a few of my questions and I would like to know more about the mines. If anybody knows any more about them or knows about other interesting mines around Arbon, please comment on this article about it. I would really like to learn more about the history of the mines and Arbon Valley, so if anyone has any information about them, comment on this article or send me an email at, arbon_ite@hotmail.com .

ARBON SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

August 15th, 2017

The Arbon School Board met on August 15th at 7:00 p.m. School board members, Jake Evans, Jason Williams and Jessica Ward were present. Teachers, Robin Claunch & Debbie Curry and Business Manager, Christie Evans were present.

The motion was moved by Jake and seconded by Jessica to approve the agenda. The motion was moved by Jake and seconded by Jessica to approve the minutes.  The bills were reviewed.  The motion was moved by Jason and seconded by Jake to approve them.  The total M & O expenses for August was $20,766.96.  The school received $6,886.82 from the State Department, $9,244.49 from property taxes, $1,111.21 from Fitch Transportation for fuel true-up 2016-2017 school year. The school also received $204.19 from interest on investments. The school M & O balance is $180,779.17. The Plant Facility received $44.75 from interest the Plant Facility balance is $56,773.60. The motion was moved by Jason and seconded by Jake to approve the financial statement.

The teachers and business manager were unable attend the IC Roadshow in Rigby. The plan is to watch the archives on Wednesday August 30th. The school board and teachers discussed the standard procedure for visitors coming to school while class is in session. Top priority is the safety of the students. Students are not allowed to let visitors in.

The county L-2 form was reviewed and approved.  The bus routes for the 2017-2018 school year were approved.  Cameras for the school bus has been approved to be installed. The Strategic Plan was reviewed and approved.

Rocky Mountain Electric will be out to install the security cameras for the school.

The next meeting will be held on September 12th, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. The motion was moved by Jessica and seconded by Jason to adjourn the meeting.  The meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.