Old Timey Nevada Silver Mining

I have to say, I really love these early Nevada mines… Given Nevada’s geology and history, a good number of these early mines involved the mining of silver. So, by default, I’ve become quite familiar with galena and other silver ores.

I was unable to find any information regarding the beginnings of this mine. However, I did locate correspondence from the 1920s regarding the mine and it had already been abandoned by then. So, this is an old one, to be sure.

Subsequent to our visit, I actually found what are probably the best maps I have ever seen for an abandoned mine. They were wonderfully detailed and so I can tell you exactly what was down that winze where we were forced to turn back. Well, at least what was down that winze in the 1920s…

That large winze has (had?) four drift levels running off of it. It is difficult to tell if we made it to the first or the second level as there were several stopes tied into the winze that were subsequently filled. So, was that filled in section I passed a caved drift or a backfilled stope? Regardless, of which level we reached, the map showed that that area was very heavily stoped down to the lowest level. The drawing on the map suggests that the other stopes were possibly filled as well. The map also blocks out a large section below the fourth level as an area to be excavated farther down. However, this does not appear to have ever come to fruition.

Around the second level, the map indicates the presence of a 15 H.P. Fairbanks-Morse hoist. I don’t know if that was removed or, again, if we didn’t make it down to the second level.

Two of the drifts connected to the other winze that we saw for air. Seeing this on the map, I put “had” with a question mark on the comment above about the drift levels for a very specific reason. The maps I saw were from the 1920s and indicated some of the drifts may have caved. A much bigger clue for me though is that there was no air flow at all. If those drifts had been intact, there should have been air screaming up the winze.

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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

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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 Old Timey Nevada Silver Mining канала TVR Exploring