Last Chance Mine — Attraction in Four Corners States

Step back in time ... and away from your electronic device. Last Chance for us history-people-story addicts is a rare magical place. Born out of one man- Jack's - vision, passion and gusto for life, Last Chance informs while also reminds you to appreciate what has gone on before. Two tour choices are currently available: 15 min or 45mins (with two more specialized tours onboarding in the near future. The Amethyst tour is one that I am pretty excited bout experiencing soon). The 45 min tour is the best bang for the buck. If you are fortunate enough to have Bobby, formerly from TX, as your guide you are most blessed. Bobby's slightly dramatic presentation with a delightful TX twang engaged even the 8 year old know it all boy that was part of our group of 10 Tour goers. The young boy's outburst comments never once phased Bobby. Bravo! Bobby answered and guided in such a way as to smooth over any awkward moments. Leashed well behaved dogs are welcome on tour. After tour- or if you are not interested in tour- you are welcome to go "mine" the over 90 years of tails. Armed w a bucket, bottle of water and pick you may go dig through all the scraps leftover from years of silver mining. When you learn that Amethyst is considered scrap by a silver miner your mind might start seeing the mine tails as a real treasure hunt. And as only $2 a pound to haul off it certainly seems to be your own personal treasure haul opportunity indeed. Don't miss the on-site museum and the Jewelry shop, many pieces made by Jack himself. Jack being the visionary behind the Last Chance mine. Jack purchased the mine from the founding family of 1891. This is one place I love to share yet am slightly hesitant as it is that special and do not want the magic to be tarnished as special places often are by too many poor mannered people intruding. But for those of you that tread lightly and thoughtfully on this earth- Last Chance is it's own...

We arrived with a small group and were so excited to tour the mine and see the museum! What a cool and beautiful location! My low rating comes from our experience with someone who worked there..they were very pushy and rude. A slightly older gentleman who met us as we were pulling in. He wanted us to switch parking spots, no big deal! So as we pulled out to re-position, he demanded to guide us into the spot…which was a very simple spot to pull into. We tried to let him know it was ok and we didn’t need a guide, but he rudely stated that we “didn’t wanna go there.” It was very strange. So we got out of the car after him guiding us into the new parking spot and started looking around. We wanted to check out the museum…but this same man demanded that we go listen to the history lesson that was happening. We politely said “no thank you” and that we just wanted to check out the museum first, but he got very pushy. We felt like he wouldn’t let us look around unless we had taken the history lesson! It was bizarre! My husband wasn’t having it at this point, plus we didn’t even really know who this guy was since he didn’t have a name tag and didn’t introduce himself. He was just sort of hovering over us the entire time telling us what to do. So anyway, my husband took our toddler down into the museum and our friends decided none of this was worthit and went back to the car. I followed my husband after trying to explain to the guy “we have a toddler who is in a fussy mood and we don’t want him interrupting the history lesson, I hope you understand”…to which he didn’t even reply. It was so bizarre! I felt so awkward and just wanted to leave! So I went down to the museum to get my husband…the museum was so cooooool! Kinda scary and rickety, but super cool. We left quickly after that and decided not to go back. It’s such a shame we had this experience cause we’d heard great things about this spot and the rest...

The mine itself is very cool. But upon arriving there a bunch of people just sitting on the side of the parking lot and if you’re coming in at 5mph or more, be ready for some belligerence. Frankly, I told my wife I wanted to leave right then and there because of how dumb the curators are but we stayed.

The best way of describing this tour is “this dude bought the mine and here is what he did because he’s so great and blah blah blah.” Man, you bought a mine and forgot it’s history. I really don’t care about what you did to it. I want to know what happened from the 1800s to when you bought; that’s interesting. Your stupid ridiculous story is not interesting.

I recommend stopping to see it but if anyone acts a fool when you’re parking, leave. You won’t miss much except for a ego trip for the owner.

Update: see the owners response below. Case in point, they can’t take feedback because they’re ego won’t allow it. Thank you for proving my point. But that’s the attitude you get, so be prepared. The guys who can’t even take a negative a non-5 start review.

They also talk about being safe but let’s be honest here, 5mph into a parking lot is not unsafe and screaming at people that don’t stop at the random people standing by the road because we’re somehow supposed to be telepathic and know their role is quite hilarious, especially when they are all sitting there chatting like they don’t even work there. You know what works well too? Signs. I know, novel idea. You should try it. You talk of being safe and yet can’t invest in a sign for all these unsafe people you claim to use as an excuse. Yeah, that’s smart. You don’t have to be a business owner to have common sense.

And wait, so some local guides that need money from local tourism is asking people to not look at negative reviews? Who would have thought...... the incompetent self-gratification around this mine is...