Mine With A Few Surprises: Part 1 - Lotsa Haulage

I don’t believe “lotsa haulage” is an exaggeration in describing what exploring this abandoned mine uncovered… The waste rock pile outside was suggestive of a medium-sized abandoned mine (at best) and so I was once again caught underestimating an abandoned mine. It’s not really like one getting caught with their pants down because it is a pleasant surprise, but, like getting caught with one’s pants down, it can also get you in trouble. In both situations, being properly equipped and being adaptable is key.
In case you were unable to tell from the rock inside of the mine, this was primarily a silver mine. However, as is often the case with silver mines, a fair amount of lead was profitably extracted as well.

The reports I have seen suggest that this mine was largely played out by the early 1900s. Obviously, the mine has been surveyed since that time, but I am not aware of any actual mining activity in the past century. And, in fact, one of the reports I read from the early 1900s describes the owners desperately trying to unload the mine on a sucker willing to pay them for it. With modern technology, the remaining ore that was unprofitable back then could well be quite profitable now. However, with the rules and regulations in place now, it is only the very large projects that mining companies are interested in. They have to be certain of large profits in order to justify the costs of navigating the permitting process. Long gone are the days when an old prospector on a mule could wander off into the desert and just start digging wherever looked like a good spot!

The earliest reports I saw on this silver mine dated back to the early 1880s. In an upcoming video, you’ll see that I find artifacts to corroborate that date. So, this is definitely an older mine.

Considering that everything we saw in the way of underground infrastructure dates to the 1800s, I’d say that this is another example of how the dry, desert conditions preserve things incredibly well underground. Now, that said, things aren’t in such great shape on the level I discover in the next video. The theme of that one will be “lotsa danger” in all likelihood… However, I’ll save that discussion for that particular video.

As I mentioned in the closing text in this video, this was, most obviously, a haulage adit and those can sometimes be fairly featureless. However, be patient with this mine as, now that I’ve scouted out the haulage adit, we’ll start getting into the good stuff on all of the drifts and levels branching off from the main haulage adit as I make my way back.

*****

All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically.

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

As well as a small gear update here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6

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

Thanks for watching!

*****

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. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.

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

#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring

Видео Mine With A Few Surprises: Part 1 - Lotsa Haulage канала TVR Exploring