The Grandview Mine, also known as the Last Chance Mine, was operated by Pete Berry from 1892 until 1901 in what later became

Grand Canyon National Park Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often consider ...

. The Grandview Mine Historic District includes what remains of the mine workings and machinery as well as the ruins of a stone house and sleeping shanty. Physical evidence, including low stone walls and

construction debris Construction waste or debris is any kind of debris from the construction process. Different government agencies have clear definitions. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA defines construction and demolition materia ...

, suggests that several wood structures were also originally present on the site. Pete Berry established Last Chance Mine on

Horseshoe Mesa Horseshoe Mesa is a 5,246-foot-elevation mesa-summit located in the eastern Grand Canyon, in Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County of northern Arizona, Southwestern United States, US. It is located 1.5 mi south of the Colorado River and G ...

in 1892. He constructed the four-mile

Grandview Trail The Grandview Trail is a hiking trail located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, located in the U.S. state of Arizona.It was built in 1893 by miners and is noted for its cobblestone and cribbing sections. Description The trail ...

down to the copper mine, and in 1893 began hauling ore out by mule. Although the ore was over 70% pure copper and won a prize at the

Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the mine did not prove profitable, and in 1901 Berry and his partners sold it to the Canyon Copper Company, who operated it until 1907. The mine was then acquired by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

, who sold it to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

in 1940. The mineralization at the mine is secondary

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

minerals in a

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...

zone along a

monocline A monocline (or, rarely, a monoform) is a step-like fold in rock strata consisting of a zone of steeper dip within an otherwise horizontal or gently-dipping sequence. Formation Monoclines may be formed in several different ways (see diagram) * ...

flexure in the

Redwall Limestone The Redwall Limestone is a resistant cliff-forming unit of Mississippian age that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs in the Grand Canyon, ranging in height from to . Lithology Redwall Limestone consists predominantly of light-olive-gray to ...

, which is bleached, brecciated and marbleized below the overlying

Supai Group The Supai Group is a slope-forming section of red bed deposits found in the Colorado Plateau. The group was laid down during the Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian. Cliff-forming interbeds of sandstone are noticeable throughout the group. The Su ...

. Grandview is the type locality for grandviewite, a copper aluminium

silicate In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is al ...

.Grandview Mine data
at

Mindat.org Mindat.org is a non-commercial online database, claiming to be the largest mineral database and mineralogy, mineralogical reference website on the Internet. It is used by professional mineralogists, geologists, and amateur mineral collecting, mi ...

Grandview produced exceptionally fine

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

specimens of cyanotrichite,

brochantite Brochantite is a sulfate mineral, one of a number of cupric sulfates. Its chemical formula is Cu4SO4(OH)6. Formed in arid climates or in rapidly oxidizing copper sulfide deposits, it was named by Armand Lévy for his fellow Frenchman, geologist ...

, chalcoalumite, and many other copper and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

minerals. These specimens are now rare, as

mineral collecting Mineral collecting is the hobby of systematically collecting, identifying and displaying mineral specimens. Mineral collecting can also be a part of the profession of mineralogy and allied geologic specialties. Individual collectors often spe ...

is not permitted in the National Park. In 2009, the mines were gated to protect

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

roosts, support on-going bat research, preserve historic mine resources, and promote visitor safety. The gating project was done by Mine Gates, Inc., with support from

, Bat Conservational International, and

Freeport-McMoRan Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...

. Details of the mine site, as well as manufacturing and installation of each bat gate are documented on the MineGates site. Cyanotrichite-241922

References

External links

Gallery of mineral specimens from Grandview mine
by NPS {{National Register of Historic Places Bat roosts Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Geography of Coconino County, Arizona Grand Canyon Copper mines in Arizona History of Coconino County, Arizona Buildings and structures in Coconino County, Arizona 1892 establishments in Arizona Territory Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Coconino County, Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Grand Canyon National Park