The Mine is located north of Bishop, past Rovana, at the end of Pine Creek Road. Though few would know it now, the Mine used to be a major contributor to the Eastern Sierra economy, employing 300 during its peak production, said Mine Caretaker Tom Haenni., For the residents of Bishop, known better these days as a destination for rock climbers and hikers, the closure of the mine brings to an end a unique story of a mine known for both its natural, Once, four hundred miners pulled tungsten from these mountains, working in three shifts, the Pine Creek Mine churning away twenty-four hours a day. Workers rode trams 2.5 miles into the mountain, then boarded elevators and creaked two thousand feet up. Tungsten is hard to break and hard to melt., Few mines withstand the ability to reinvent themselves and only time will tell if The Pine Creek Mine will successfully become a hydroelectric producer, giving the town of Bishop, California another 100 years of rich history and economic support., Prospectors located mining claims along Pine Creek high up in the rugged Sierra Nevada west of Bishop in 1895, but the gold and silver content of the assayed rock proved too disappointing., A canyon filled with remarkable exposures of granitic and metamorphic rocks that serve as a microcosm of the geology of the entire Sierra Nevada. Such a canyon would be Pine Creek, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada a few miles northwest of the town of Bishop. It's a spectacular place to visit and appreciate geology..