The image on the left shows the approach along the St. Francois River looking from the granite dam next to the silver mine back toward the parking lot. Most of the rock outcropping in this area is the Silver Mines granite, but the dam access also displays a wonderful outcrop of a diabase basalt dike. The texture of the diabase here is similar to that we saw on the northern face of the previous stop. In the photograph on the right, Kip Chambers takes a close look at the dike in order to compare the textures with the previous dikes we have seen and ponders their relationship. This is a fairly popular recreational area.
People enjoy swimming near the dam and fishing back down by the picnic area near the parking lot.
Also a few kilometers up stream is the Millstream Gardens River Access, where olympic kayak and canoe trials have occasionally taken place. The Silver Mines district gets its name from the exploitation of the minerals deposited by the late stage volcanism in this area. Most of the mineralization is what is called pneumatolytic , or pyrometasomatic . This type of deposit largely develops as partial or complete halos about a source intrusion or occurs in structural breaks filling in pore-spaces or as replacement minerals. The minerals found are largely sulfides.