Big Casino

Photo - Early Mining Portal

Located in 1908, the property consisted of the Big Casino, Little Casino, Ouray, Jack of Clubs, and Lookout Fraction claims at the head of Lydden Creek on the west side of Bear River adjacent to the Red Cliff mine.

In 1910, when the trenching was done on the property, access was fairly easy because of the railroad, bridges, and good trails.

It is now difficult to approach the general area without the use of a helicopter.

Mineralization consisting of fissure veins and stringers trending northwest was located in mixed green and red volcanic conglomerates and tuffaceous sandstones of the Hazelton assemblage.

The property lies within the wide zone cut by the Portland Canal dyke swarm, which trends northwesterly across Bear River Ridge.

In three trenches between elevation 2,700 and 2,900 feet, quartz-barite-jasper-calcite stringers with minor pyrite, sphalerite, and scant galena and chalcopyrite were observed.

Discontinuous mineralized zones up to 4 feet wide represent fissure veins and stockworks developed in country rock screens partly deformed between a multitude of large granite and granodiorite dykes of the swarm.

Like the Independent and Red Cliff deposits, the erratic nature of the mineralization did not lead to the development of continuous, mineable zones.

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