Several years ago, my daughter was working for the National Forest Service in the West and was assigned the task of documenting mines and recording GPS coordiants. Original mine claim records were the source documents. I think she wrote a paper on this work that was circulated through the Forest Service managment. She found mining camps complete with canned food, clothing, tools (even womens high heeled shoes), as if miners had been there yesterday. From the remoteness, difficult access, and undisturbed appearance, some of these camps have not been visited for a hundred years. The Forset Service knows where a lot of this stuff is located. A serious historian might find them helpful.