Exploring Corkscrew Of Abandoned Mine Portals Through Mountain
It was not our intention at the start, but we spent our entire day exploring the gold mine that hollowed out this mountain, wrapping our way down and around it… The lyrics for “She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain” came to mind on many an occasion! You see, it may not have been clear in the video, but we started at the top of the mountain, as that was our initial target based on old mine maps, and then made the fateful decision to “have a quick look” to see what might be down below. Aside from the error in leaving our climbing gear behind, we failed to realize that we were committing ourselves to an entire day of corkscrewing down and around the mountain as one appealing adit or bit of historical mining infrastructure after another presented itself on the horizon.
What we had here was obvious older workings (the first adit we visited that punched into the huge stope) from the 1800s that may have been worked into the 1920s or 1930s. However, these workings would have been difficult and expensive to access. The lower - and much more accessible workings - were obviously worked up until recently. Ease of access is a big factor with many mines! There are many rich gold deposits in our world that are simply too remote or inaccessible to be profitably mined.
The difficulty in accessing some of the workings at this mine provided us with an interesting look into many generations of mining from the 1800s to today. Many things in small-scale, underground mining have stayed very much the same, while others have only changed slightly (you’ll notice the larger adits and drifts in the more modern mines, for example).
Looking at the large operations of Newmont, BHP, Anglo American, etc. though, mining has changed considerably from a century ago. Think of a modern, open pit mining operation and compare that to some of the shoestring prospecting operations I have featured on this channel. It’s like comparing tossing a rock into the air with a rocket launching a crew of astronauts to Mars.
Underground miners in general are an endangered species and with the larger companies like Rio Tinto increasingly automating underground mining and bringing in robots for as much of the work as possible, that is probably the future until the pendulum swings and human labor again becomes the cheapest input.
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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
Пікірлер: 52
Don't be so quick to dismiss the drums of strawberry puree. The miners might have been making daiquiris and having a FABULOUS time!
@kaboom4679
3 ай бұрын
Don't know about that but they sure had a start on a good pot of chili with that snake .
@MikeOrkid
3 ай бұрын
The mental images are incredible.
I sense a return trip with the climbing gear!!! That Void was seriously impressive! And scary to hear it slowly collapsing while you stood there! Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦
One of TVR Exploring’s top 5 videos for me! Just wow! Also , anyone watching this will notice that when our videographer gets into the softer ground, the echo of his voice stops. Good echo=good ground(usually) No echo=bad ground(almost always).
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Thank you. Glad you liked it! Yes, it is wild how abruptly the sound will change when walking through some mines...
American Tobaco Company. They were part of the Tobaco Trust. RJ Reynolds, Liget & Meyers and Lorillard until 1911. So its post 1911.
@anntomecklebarger3599
3 ай бұрын
I think I've seen signs for that tobacco brand with a steam boat paddle wheeler on it.
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Thank you for the details... Those names are essentially Altria and British American Tobacco today (in the United States anyway). It would be interesting to know where that brand ended up within those nicotine giants.
That door handle reminding of my father's gold mining absolutely 💯 sure he cut all them doors handles that way he taught me to cut them that way barrels reminding me of the fall shelter he made as well many states !
Greetings from Washington!
Great ending. RockOn loved this episode.
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Cool. Thank you.
A very surprising explore again thnx loved watching it.
Finding that enormous chasm was a great surprise and what a fantastic panorama at the end with the old mine track jutting out and the mountains in the distance.
Thanks!
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Bryan, thank you very, very much. We look forward to your return! Hopefully, your crew is able to avoid bridges in the meantime.
It would be an interesting project to 3d map that mountain and see where the faults were compared to the mines. THere must have been a common fault line through the mountain, maybe even more than one. Have you ever taken ore from chutes in a mine like this to assay it and see what was going on? I don't think I have ever heard anyone call a rattling rattle snake cute before, thats a new one..he was pretty cool though.
great video !
Another of my favorite things 🧐
Holy shit, that chasm going into the depths is like something out of lord of the rings lol.
The random doomsday seed vault was unexpected.
At and beyond (5:11) where the "back" collapsed, all the walls look pretty unstable.(Sandstone you say?) WOW! you ran across a rattler! At 11:54, looks like a trommel, but you're saying compressor shop. Some pretty crumbly rock type along all the adepts and down in that 1st. winze. Lots earthquakes in this or near this part of CA? plus tthese are pretty old mines. What year do you guess? A very interesting "explore". Thank you for filming it.
Good afternoon from Southeast South Dakota
TVR Exploring- where you find how wood can hold back rock!
Good stuff. They were doing well enough there do some significant infrastructure investment. I always wonder why they left these places...fascinates me.
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Well, labor (and life) was a lot cheaper in the U.S. in the past and so they could profitably create wonders underground. Many mines were unable to reopen again after World War II as a result of wage and price pressures pushing far beyond the fixed price of gold.
great echo at the beginning but boy most of that looks dire..
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Ha, yeah, it was a bit sporty with all of that rock spontaneously crumbling down...
"have a quick look". You NEVER have just a "quick" look. 🙂
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
For some reason, that is a lesson that we need to constantly relearn.
@RussellNelson
3 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploringOr, in other words, "Bring the rope".
Hi Justin & crew, wow that bottom adit turned out to be quite a decent explore, is it me or were those ore chutes smaller than normal ???. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx ❤
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Thank you, Sue. Yes, the ore chutes were definitely smaller than normal and one of them was tiny. It seemed odd because some of the stopes were fairly large. Every site - especially the older ones - carries its own unique features and "personality" if you will.
@SueGirling68
3 ай бұрын
@@TVRExploring yes I did notice that really small one, what on earth were they putting down there, gravel lol ?? I bet they got blocked quite a lot too, it must have taken ages to feed all the ore down them, it doesn't make sense to me as it would have been so time consuming. xx
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Yes, that was odd, wasn't it? As you mentioned, I can indeed imagine that it would certainly cause a great number of problems. @@SueGirling68
Do you think the big cavern was dug or natural?
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
It was carved out by the miners.
You couldn't pay me enough money to open an unidentified barrel stuffed purposely in a mine like that.
@AIM54A
3 ай бұрын
I was waiting for jimmy hoffa to be found.
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Oh, the mystery barrels only explode some of the time when you open them. LOL.
Jeremy has a screw or two loose or perhaps missing.
@johnnyserene3662
3 ай бұрын
He does seem to go where nobody else will!
Plug cut tobacco, sounds like chewing tabacco
@krockpotbroccoli65
3 ай бұрын
The can had a stylized "Smoke" before the brand name. Probably pipe tobacco. Plug cut pipe tobacco is still a thing to this day.
The doomsday preppers are funny......... Leaving all their "precious" seeds in mine that has public access?????? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! Not much on thinking things ALL THE WAY through are they?
Wish I could see more in your video. If only you had a decent flashlight. Hmmm.
@Springfield-eo8jl
3 ай бұрын
If you hit the "Thanks" button that shows a heart with a dollar sign inside, you can donate to this amazing channel! If you desire them to utilize particular gear, feel free to donate the amount equal to the cost and add a note!
Coast? Come on man. Stream light . No wonder you can't see colors.
@Springfield-eo8jl
3 ай бұрын
Since you posted twice I thought I would respond twice! If you hit the "Thanks" button that shows a heart with a dollar sign inside, you can donate to this amazing channel! If you desire them to utilize particular gear, feel free to donate the amount equal to the cost and add a note!
@TVRExploring
3 ай бұрын
Ha, you're shilling awfully hard for Streamlight. Are you getting a commission from them? I use a variety of lights for the mine exploring - Fenix, O Light Marauder, Nitecore and, yes, Coast. I have a Streamlight on a rifle and one for use around the house. So, I'm not unfamiliar with their products. I use the combination that works best for me for convenience, weight and a variety of other factors for the mines. The Coast flashlight you see in this video was, unfortunately, lost in another mine, but I'm happy to report that I have another, newer Coast model to replace it. Hopefully, it will annoy you to the same degree.
Pleasantly dissapointing.... UNSUBCRIBED 🖐