Lucky Lad Mine OHV Trail

The Lucky Lad Mine is within the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area, but can be reached by the Artillery Dome road on an all-terrain vehicle. The mine is approximately 28 miles from Landmark, Idaho. Two properties in the Pistol Creek Ridge area (the Lucky Lad Mine and the Cougar Mine) produced ore between 1935 and 1941. The mine straddles the border of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, but the workings that produced ore are within the wilderness. The mine is on a ridge top at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. Ben H. Seaward and H. H. Seaward2 staked the “Lucky Boy,” the first claim at the Lucky Lad Mine, on August 30, 1933. Four other claims were staked ten days later. During the fall of 1933 or the winter of 1933-34, George O. A. Kellogg and E. H. Dewey joined the Seawards in their mining venture, and additional claims were staked in each of the next four years. All but one of these claims had some variation of the “Lucky Boy” name. The Lucky Lad Mining Company was organized in 1935, and George O. A. Kellogg was the president, manager, and statutory agent of the new company. In 1935, the mine shipped a few cars of lead ore, rich in gold and silver, to a smelter in Utah. According to Anonymous (n.d.), this ore was first packed out by mule train to the end of the road before it was shipped onward by more modern means. Kellogg brought in a small bulldozer, which extended the road to the mine in the summer of 1936. Despite this new road (or perhaps because of it), the U.S. Bureau of Mines reported only very small production from the mine in 1936. The Lucky Lad made large shipments of lead ore rich in gold and silver in 1937 and 1938; in 1938, the mine was the only producer in the district and shipped 348 tons of ore to a smelter in Utah. For the next three years, the mine remained the only producer in the district, although the 1941 output was very small. A very worthwhile trip to see a few mines on the route or a short detour ride.