North East near the Interchange
The Valles Mines Railway Station and the Post Office at V
Road share the railroad right-of-way and a lot of history with Flint Rock Mound where Indian braves long
before the railway made their spearpoints, about a hundred yards north of the R.R. right-of-way (ROW).
A quarter mile farther south on the RR ROW a central trail comes off to the east that connects to
the ridge behind the General Store and continues for a mile to the trail over to the Rock Road.
If you just want to go a few hundred yards south of the Post Office, a trail begins which takes you east where you will find a road through Hick's Field, once the Company's Corn Field, where food for the oxen
was grown. At the north corner of the Corn Field you will find a ford across Finney Creek in the form of a flat, 25 ft. wide
rock shelf in the Finney Creek Bed. That road runs at the base of a large hill where the Hippie Pyramid once stood.
Valles Mines Creek is marked with
brown horsehead signs running across Valles Mines Creek. Should you cross there, it will give you access to Valles Mines School Road.
Formerly this route gave access to the Chat Pile & Concentrator by way of a bridge now long since demolished.
The Hillsboro-Farmington Road
The present Valles Mines Road originally served to connect Hillsboro and Farmington. You went through
Buster Crossing, over the mountain looking down on Tunnel Station, through Halifax Post Office, out the Post Office Road (now called Crow Lane)
to French Village, then on to Ste. Genevieve.
Once known as the "Hillsboro-Farmington Road", it is now "Y Highway". MoDOT cut "French Village Road"
during the construction of Hwy 67 near the AT & T Long Distance Radio Tower in 1954.
If you start at Buster crossing going south and...
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take the left fork, you will be taking the high road over the top of the MR & BT Tunnel.
What we have come to call The "Mud Road" starts at the foundations of the Upper Lake
Ore Washer. At its other end this haul road comes down from the Big Lode Mine, hopefully to be opened
Summer 2020 as a tourist attraction to compete with the Bonne Terre Mine Tours. However, turning
west to follow this road halfway up the mountain is hazardous as the road is washed out in many
places. Explore at your own peril (permit required). It would be far easier to park your horse trailer
behind the Green House at 14161 and starting at the Rock Road, go up to the top and come down from the
foot of the High Wall at the Frazier Quarry. You will have to cross a tiny creek which may be dry. Be careful,
this is rough ground and a challenge if your used to flat paddocks. Road renovation coming Summer 2020.
take the right fork, you will be taking the low road onto the railway's right-of-way and
THROUGH the Haunted Tunnel to Tunnel Station and its cemetery.
The Tiff Ponds
If you find one huge dam, you have reached The Tiff Ponds and the Dam at the Upper Lake. Riding across the top of the dam and across its spillway takes you to the road ending at the Garotte Mines.
Vinegar Hill Road
1) Near where Vinegar Hill Road today joins Valles Mines Road, an old road from the once-mighty Garottee Mine
used to go rom there parallel to VM Road, over the dam on the Upper Lake, to the ore washer there on the north (see concrete foundations).
2) Farther east on Vinegar Hill Road a branch road comes off going north which runs parallel to VM Road but along the ridgeline to
the east side above the Upper Lake, eventaully ending at Tunnel Station.
3) A north branch of Vinegar Hill Road, the historic Selma Road, known in the late-1700's
as THE haul road out of the Lead Belt, comes in from the south. The road to the Upper Lake, although now in
bad repair and overgrown except during leaf-off, originally served the Selma Road as well and crossing the dam
was easy before excavation of the south spillway interrupted the historic roadway. .