Entry No. 53 — the Las Vegas file — filed under: mine
Ore Car Mine
Located along the trail to the Anniversary Narrows, the Ore Car Mine is a historic 1920s borax mining site that once served as an adit for the nearby Anniversary Mine. Today, the area is a designated rockhounding claim owned by the Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society, littered with colorful agates, travertine, and jasper. Visitors can still see the remnants of the old ore car track trail and two short tunnels carved directly into the canyon walls.
The story
Back in the 1920s, miners carved two short adits directly into these dry desert canyon walls to extract borax for the nearby Anniversary Mine operation. To move the heavy haul out through the rough desert washes, workers laid down a light rail system where small iron ore cars could roll back and forth along the ledge. The commercial mining eventually dried up and left the equipment behind, but the industrial scars remained locked in the rock.
What keeps this corner of the desert off Anniversary Mine Road on the radar isn't just the abandoned rail footprint—it's the ground itself. The Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society maintains a designated rockhounding claim here, turning a hundred-year-old industrial ruin into a legal surface-hunting ground for local rockhounds. Rather than barren desert dirt, the wash floor is littered with raw banded agates, travertine, and jasper lying exposed right in the sun.
What it's like
You'll navigate down Anniversary Mine Road into a rugged wash leading toward Anniversary Narrows. The site reveals itself through the faint, leveled ledge cut into the canyon face where the old ore car track once ran, flanked by the dark, square portals of two timberless 1920s tunnels. Keep your feet on the wash floor and off the adit threshold—those old borax shafts are unmaintained, structurally rotten, and strictly off-limits. The real payoff is at your feet anyway: scan the loose gravel along the wash floor, where you can pick up hand-sized agates without ever swinging a hammer.
The move: Hike along the scenic wash to search for colorful agates on the surface and photograph the historic ore car tunnels from a safe distance.
📍 Before you go The surrounding trails and rockhounding areas are open to the public on BLM land, but the abandoned mine tunnels and adits are structurally unsafe and should not be entered.
- 📍 Overton
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Unnamed Road, Overton, NV 89040, USA
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current access before you go.
Pair it with
- Old Pope Mine — Swap Nevada's borax wash for another dead-end extraction site by exploring this defunct prospecting claim tucked across Lake Mead in the Black Mountains.
- Frenchman Mine — Compare a genuine 1920s industrial borax operation with a notorious 1907 fraudulent mining scheme sitting right on the edge of Sunrise Manor.
- Crystal Alley Emporium — Trade raw surface agates pulled straight from the dirt for polished minerals and occult supplies at this long-running strip-mall sanctuary in Henderson.
Good to know
Can I go inside the mine shafts?
No. The 1920s adits and tunnels carved into the canyon wall are structurally unsafe, unmaintained, and prone to caving in. You can safely view and photograph the portal entrances from the wash.
What kind of rocks can I find here?
The site is famous among local collectors for surface-level colorful agates, chalcedony, travertine, and jasper scattered across the canyon floor and surrounding washes.
Is the area open to the public?
The surrounding land sits on public BLM land, though the rockhounding claim itself is managed by the Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society. Access conditions in desert washes change after floods, so double-check current road status before driving out.
What kind of vehicle do I need to get there?
Reaching Anniversary Mine Road and the wash trail typically requires a vehicle with decent ground clearance to handle unpaved desert tracks, loose gravel, and rutted washes.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: birdandhike.com · liveandlethike.com · showcaves.com · Reddit
last checked: 2026-07-20