"The mine first got going back in the 1880s, but it didn’t actually start producing ore—things like lead, silver, zinc, copper, gold, tungsten, and maybe even molybdenum—until around 1915 during World War I. Most of the real production happened later, during World War II. Everything shut down in 1951.
A couple of years later, in 1953, Silver Star Development Company bought the mine at an Okanogan County Sheriff’s sale. No ore has been produced since then. There *was* some exploration, de-watering, and sampling in the mid‑1980s when Eastern Lights Ltd. from Vancouver had an option to mine, but nothing came of it. The tailings sit on land owned by both Silver Star Development and the Bureau of Land Management.
When the mine was operating, the processed waste—called tailings—was dumped in the area between the county road and the Similkameen River. Originally the pile wasn’t that big, but over time, flooding and wind spread it out to about 14 acres.
These tailings are considered hazardous because they contain heavy metals and are extremely acidic. That contamination has damaged plant growth both on the upland areas and along the riverbank. Along with other mine waste in the region, these tailings have also affected the overall chemistry of the Similkameen River.
I posted some old pictures of the buildings and other structures that were removed during the cleanup in the early 2000's.  I found the photos on the BLM website where they documented the Super Fund cleanup process.
It is very sad for me to see that in the cleanup they tore down and removed all the buildings and equipment.  They essentially erased history."
OSM snapshot date: 2026-03-10T00:09:11Z
POI name: Kabba Texas Mine
POI types: landuse-quarry
 #organicmaps ios 2026.03.11-12-ios