Brief: A Trip to Rochester Canyon

Looking west down Rochester Canyon.

It was a partly cloudy day that progressively became overcast, and after a so-far-unreported trip up Limerick Canyon to Rolands Canyon and the lower part of the Champion Mine, MOH and I sped up Rochester Canyon to take a look at the old town site of Lower Rochester, main Rochester now being buried beneath the waste dumps of the active Coeur Rochester Mine. I didn't know whether I'd be finding anything familiar from one of my first Nevada field trips taken back in 1976 or 1977.

We were disappointed to find that the area had succumbed to one of several summer fires, a fire that had destroyed most of the wooden structures of Lower Rochester, other than those near the old Looney Mine. I took few pictures, mostly of tailings from one of the old mills.

The entire canyon was remarkably unfamiliar to me, and I suspect that the area I remember from long ago was either the main site of Rochester, or an upper site called Rochester Heights (location not presently known to me).

Pictures of Lower Rochester from before the fire can be found here.