Ida (Ida Copper Mine)

Ida is a small unincorporated community in Page County, Virginia, near Stanley, at the foot of the Blue Ridge. It's named for the Ida Copper Mine, worked by the Virginia Consolidated Copper Company from 1902 to 1904 — a small operation with one shaft sunk to about 308 feet, producing ore with malachite and azurite in quartz veinlets. Here's the important part: the historic Elkton-area copper mining ground, which includes the Ida mine along with nearby Stoney Man and Hightop copper mines, is now described as part of the Shenandoah Wilderness — the federally designated wilderness area inside Shenandoah National Park. If that's accurate for this exact mine site, collecting is not legal there under National Park Service rules, full stop. We could not pin down the precise park boundary against this coordinate, so treat this as a closed historic site pending confirmation, not a place to dig.

Ida is an unincorporated community in Page County, Virginia, near Stanley (coordinates roughly 38°35′20″N, 78°25′26″W per USGS). The mine itself sits in Blue Ridge terrain that may fall within Shenandoah National Park's boundary — we found no public trailhead or approved access route, and given the safety and legal concerns below, we're not providing directions to the mine workings.

Not recommended, and likely not legal. The mine's single shaft reached roughly 308 feet with drifts on three levels — over a century old, unmaintained, and hazardous. If the site is within Shenandoah National Park (which the available sources suggest), National Park Service rules prohibit removing rocks or minerals regardless of the mine's condition.

This is the single most important thing to know about Ida, Virginia: the historic Elkton-area copper mining district, including the Ida mine, is described in mining-history sources as now falling within the Shenandoah Wilderness inside Shenandoah National Park. We could not independently verify the exact park boundary against this coordinate, so land status is UNVERIFIED in the strict sense — but the weight of what we found points toward NPS land, where collecting is not permitted. Confirm directly with Shenandoah National Park before treating this as anything other than closed. The old shaft and workings are also a physical hazard independent of the legal question — do not enter.