The Last Chance Mine was discovered in 1885, June 10, by John Carey and E. P. Howard, who describe the mine in their mining location notice as an extension of the "tiger Mine."

A steep and narrow road to the Last Chance was carved out of sheer cliffs by hand labor and blasting before the turn of the century.

When the road was finished it was used to bring in lumber to build mine buildings that were designed around a narrow out-cropping so that winter snows, ranging up to twenty feet deep, could slide off re-enforced roofs on either side.

According to local historian W. W. Lloyd (1866-1957), who hauled ore down this road, the first ore was hauled May 27, 1901.

A fire in 1910 burned part of the first mine buildings when Rance Ladd was superintendent and manager of the Last Chance. Buildings were replaced. A Head House was added for a tramway to the Baker Mill in 1914. This gave the mine an opportunity to become a top producer.

The Last Chance mine was worked through the Lawrence Tunnel, with a portal elevation of 6,910 feet. The Lawrence Tunnel was slightly west and 4,100 feet north of the Clark Tunnel.

The "Lawrence" tunnel was named after one of the wealthy mine financiers making up the ownership of the Cornucopia Mines Company of New York. The Baker Mines Company leased the Last Chance from this Cornucopia Mines Company in 1913 and 1914 and worked the Last Chance Mine through the Clark Tunnel.

Among first miners at the Last Chance were Ladd, Dennis Whalen, Elmer (Bones) Blankenship, and James Edward (Ed) Robinette, who later founded the railroad town, Robinette, on the Snake River.

The Ladd family lived in the top building at the mine and they were homeless when fire leveled the mine building in 1920.

When the mine changed hands in 1923 the Ladd family left the area.

The Last Chance closed in 1926, then was re-opened in 1933. When re-opened, the mine sent ore to both the Baker and Union Mills until the Union Mill was shut down in December of 1936.

Machinery from the Baker Mill was moved to the portal of the Coulter Tunnel in 1936 and development was carried to connect the Last Chance underground in tunnels and raises.