Special Visit To The Incredible 16 to 1 Mine: Part 4 - Tramming Into The 800 Level

In this video, we have driven down to the bottom of the canyon and are starting out at the lower workshop at the 800 level to continue exploring the 16 to 1 Mine and its gold-filled workings… I show you the lower workshop of the mine, we see a great map and then we load up and tram into the 800 level of the mine to the 49 Winze.

I have learned from the comments that other areas have different names for the “trammer.” So, for those of you that don’t know what a trammer is, it’s the electric locomotive (powered by batteries) that pulls or pushes the mine train.

Also, in case it wasn't clear at the 49 Winze, that ladder and those stairs we walked up to see the skip are the route that the hoist operator used to take each day to get up to the hoist. Of course, you saw that that route is now caved, but, as I noted in the video, we took an alternate route up to the hoist the next day. It is VERY impressive, as is the equipment around it. We'll talk more about how everything worked in the video where we get up there and you'll see the other side of that caved section.

Continuing the history of this mine that I started with the first video in this series…

“During 1918 the Tighter was sold to the Alleghany Mining Company, a company headed by Fred Searls Jr., for $300,000. According to one report, under Searls the mine produced $600,000 in four years. According to A.D. Foote, ‘When Fred Searls had charge of the Tightner, with A.F. Duggleby as superintendent, it produced a good profit, but nothing spectacular.’ During 1924 the Alleghany Mining Company sold its interest in the Tightner Mine to the Original Sixteen to One Mine Inc. and the operations were combined (In December 1941, Duggleby, an Australian, was general manager of the Benguet and Delatoe gold mines in the Philippines. He was imprisoned by the Japanese and was executed. His body was dumped into a common grave.).

During 1919 the Original Sixteen to One added to its holdings by acquiring the Twenty-One Mine through litigation.

The mine operated on a continuous basis with virtually the same management for many years. It was this continuity and good management, along with some luck in finding high-grade pockets, that was the key to success. The acquisition of the Tightner Mine also made for a much more efficient operation. The mine was the primary reason for the existence of the town of Alleghany. Almost every employable male worked in the mine. Even father and son teams were not uncommon on the same shift.

Many large pockets have been mined in the Sixteen to One Mine, however, the largest pocket was from a small zone below the 800-foot level between the Sixteen to One and the Tightner shafts and is credited with 83,200 ounces of gold. Of this total some 30,000 ounces was mined from a ‘pipe’ about 1.5 feet in diameter and 40 feet long. The remaining ounces came from a larger volume of still very rich vein.”

The above is taken from the excellent “Gold Mines of the Alleghany-Forest Mining District” by Raymond W. Wittkopp and Wayne C. Babros.

In the next video, we’ll be headed deep underground, including to a recently dewatered section of the mine… And there is some great stuff down there!

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As I mentioned in this video, I posted another video of the Sixteen to One several years ago that covered the workshop and a small part of the underground workings. The video from that first visit is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkU5ChS4dk

Our guide on this tour, Duane, has a YouTube channel of his own in which he has posted videos he has taken in mines where he has worked. It can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxw6cK0-lOubg0XJa3ctSYQ

For more information on the Sixteen to One Mine or even to buy physical gold or stock shares from the company, one can visit their website at: http://www.origsix.com/

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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so adjust those settings to ramp up the quality! It really makes a difference.

You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD

You can click here for the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

Thanks for watching!

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever.

So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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Видео Special Visit To The Incredible 16 to 1 Mine: Part 4 - Tramming Into The 800 Level канала TVR Exploring