Trying To Stay One Step Ahead Of The Mine Closure Teams

The “guess who’s back?” is a reference to not just Mr. McBride, but also to this visit to some old friends in the form of some of the very first mines we ever explored. And, of course, to the Forest Service that is back causing mischief in this area… I wish they would just leave what is left here alone, but there are a lot of things I wish for that are not going to happen.

Ha, as I alluded to in our adventure of getting the Jeep unstuck when I mentioned that we were out of water - this was a long day… As with any exploring trip, there were other problems as well. We severed a brake line on a sharp rock, but, fortunately, Mr. McBride had installed independent brakes. So, losing one line meant that we lost only the back brakes rather than the front and back brakes. This made the severed brake line an annoyance rather than catastrophic. Issues with the engine overheating when we were grinding up some of those mountainsides… Getting stuck, of course! The absolutely out of control mosquitoes… All of that is to say that the cold beer at a local saloon after the day of exploring was very welcome!

Since we visited multiple mines on this day, I am simply linking to the prior videos of these mines. If anyone is interested in what I know of the history of a particular mine, it will be in the descriptions below the original videos. Otherwise, I would not have the space to share the history of each mine here.

The exception is the very first mine we visited, which the Forest Service had closed up. I know nothing of the history of that mine. The Forest Service linked it to the Union-Keystone Mine, but I can emphatically state that it had nothing to do with the Union-Keystone. The Union-Keystone was an underground placer gold mine and was working in an entirely different manner and area than this small lode prospect that the Forest Service recently destroyed.

The Union-Keystone Mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnNnjsqFpgw

The Faro-Quartz Mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJlRPkU3UE

The Roberts Mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6A5M06bJdA

The Black Diamond Mine (It’s amazing that I need to say this, but this is NOT the same mine as the famous one in the Bay Area)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBX-hSHCG88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDSCwI03O5M

Among the mines seen in this video, it is my understanding that the Faro Quartz is slated to be destroyed next. However, all of the mines are on their radar and will be destroyed sooner rather than later.

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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

Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.

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. 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!

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Видео Trying To Stay One Step Ahead Of The Mine Closure Teams канала TVR Exploring