Empire Mountain, an 11,555-foot peak in Sequoia National Park’s Mineral King country, stands out for both its commanding position and unusual geology. Along with granite, it contains older metamorphic rocks whose mineral-bearing zones helped attract prospectors in the 1860s. After James Crabtree’s party found a promising silver vein in White Chief Canyon in 1872, a rush spread through Mineral King, producing more than 100 claims by the mid-1870s. Tom Fowler later invested in the Empire Mine, building a tramway, stamp mill, and road, but low-grade ore, difficult terrain, high costs, and an 1880 avalanche ended mining by the 1880s. Ruins of that short-lived boom still dot the mountain.