Hello and welcome to our channel. We travel the southwest U.S. to find cool places to explore. We have explored over 2000 mines and it is our main focus, but we also make videos of hiking/climbing, 'how to' instructional advice, and live music. The videos are organized into playlists, so please click the playlist tab on our homepage for easy navigation of our channel. We would love to have you as a subscriber, and love hearing from you, so please subscribe and leave a comment for us. Thanks, Tom and Julie WARNING: Entering abandoned mines is not safe. Mine names and locations may not be correct, and workings depicted may not actually exist the way they are presented. The videos on this channel are for entertainment purposes only.
Great mine explore! You guys must be in awesome shape/condition to be able to sucessfully climb out of those deep shafts AND navigate some pretty sketchy areas. Did you visit this mine in 2023 or 2024?
Hi Gary. Tom and I worked hard practicing our rope skills at home before ever trying to use ropes in a mine. It is much harder to use ropes when you're in a dark mine and in dangerous conditions than it is at home. Thanks for watching. Hope you have a good week, too.❤️
👍👍👍👍👍👍multiple thumbs up on this one guys my favorite mine I’ve seen y’all explore. Crazy, were those timbers put in yesterday ! So well preserved. It’s extraordinary not only the work it too to build those manways and install those stahls but just to get the timbers to that point in the mine, my god. This is one I’d love to hear an oral history from any miners descendants. Popcorn will be ready for the next installment.
It is amazing how well preserved the over 100 year old timbers are. These dry desert mines are like that. It does seem like a crazy amount of work to build some of these mine features. It would be fun to hear some first-hand accounts from the miners. Sadly, most are not alive anymore. See you on part three next Friday. Thanks for commenting!😊
Haha, no, neither of those are easy, Jeff. Good thing we were roped in, or it would have been more serious. An unprotected fall in those situations could be catastrophic. Could you imagine being twisted up at the bottom of a ladder with a broken bone or two after a fall? It scares me just to think about it. Thanks for the comment!😊
Hi Brandon. Just getting to some of these mines is a real workout ad is the exploring. I can only imagine how hard it was to do the actual mining work. Thanks for the comment!😊
Haha, no. Those are lightweight gaiters to keep rocks and dirt out of my shoes when I wear trail runners. The design is human skulls with fire 🔥 in the eye sockets. Here is a link to them. Thanks for asking. dirtygirlgaiters.com/skulls/dfl-white.html
Well, I've started on part 3. I'm on day 4 sick with Covid. This is the best day thus far. Temps running around 101.4-102 ish. Those 103-103.8 were brutal. I thought it was Thursday until I saw your video 😸🤔😁 Huge stopes again, and awesome mineralization! Cool colors.
Hi Rick. Sorry to hear that you have COVID. Those high temps really make every bone in your body hurt. Glad that you are getting better and we hope you make a full recovery. Thanks for the comment!🙏😊
I hope you are all well and Julie is still big C free! Loved the video like always. You tried to scare me with the dislodged pipe but I was up for the challenge hahaha. Take care both of you!!
Hi Erik. Julie just got another clean bill of health four years after being treated for breast cancer. Thanks for thinking of her 🙏. That pipe coming loose got my attention. I almost jumped off the ladder. Thanks for commenting!😊
Hello Tom and Julie on video 1 you showed a high water mark at one time this whole mine had a lot of water and looks dry now your going down down i lost count how many level's maybe way down you might find the mainout way .This looks like a carpenter 's nightmare or a miners .Still very interesting tagging along .How many levels ⛏️🤔 looking foward to the part 3 💰
Hi Case. I don't think that the whole mine was flooded, just the area where we first crawled in. The water must have fliwed in from outside versus the workings hitting ground water. I think in total, this mine has at least five levels. We have been to the main haulage before a couple of years ago. Glad that you are enjoying the explore. Thanks for c!😊
That wall in the middle of the stope was very unusual. I wonder what purpose it served. Maybe it was to control airflow, to keep dust down or something?
I think the big wall was to keep ore that was being dropped down the stope from taking out the manway ladders. That my guess anyway. Thanks for watching and commenting!😊
Hi Robert. Most of the intact boxes have been removed by artifact hunters. The boxes were also commonly got taken apart and used by the miners for many light duty timbering and wedging jobs. I've even seen them used for replacing broken ladder rungs. Not a good idea lol. Thanks for commenting!😊
Well, I almost had to change my shorts when that pipe dropped, I'm sure you did too!! That had to be the most load counts I've ever seen. We'll call this the "Honeycomb Mine", stuff dug out everywhere.
Hi Lesley. That pipe definitely got my attention. Your instinct is to jump out of the way, but I had to just hang tough and see what happened. This is a real maze of workings. Thanks for leaving us a comment!😊
Every time I see a mine in person or video I try to put myself in the miners place so many years ago and wonder what their situation was that put them there be it dreams, employment, money etc and how they endured low light, dust, risk etc. What did they do if seriously injured? help was a long journey ! And what was it like working the last day when they just walked away.
Hi Dave. Interesting musings about the miners. I'm guessing most were rugged guys trying to scratch out a daily wage for as long as they could tolerate it. I don't know what the procedure was if you got seriously injured, which I'm sure happened. If it wasn't too serious, they probably taped or splint you up, gave you a couple of belts of whiskey, and sent you to your bunk to rest for a couple of days. Thanks for the interesting comment!😊
Thank you, Tom and Julie wow what an explore. nice mineral colors. how deep were you? Guess I better get you a couple beers for that one lol stay safe. 🍻🍻⛏️⛏️🍺🍺 that ladder looked a little tricky that Julie was on
Hi David. You're welcome. Those are some beautiful minerals here. I think we were down about 250-300 feet from where we started. These old ladders are always a bit tricky. Thanks for commenting and for the beer!😊🍺🍺🍻
So, you had your work cut out exploring this large mine ay !!, Julie had the right idea on that ladder doing an "Irish Jig" to get down jumping from leg to leg, well done, also the rope work you had to go through to get around will keep you two fit ay !!, ok, thanks again for an interesting visit to this mine and looking forward to some more, take care ,stay safe and catch ya. Cheers
Hi Brian and Mary. Julie does some fancy footwork on this one 😄. This one definitely requires some rope work to get around. You're welcome, and thank you for watching and commenting!😊
Hi Mark. Those were some different load count markings. They usually put them on the side of a chute or something flat. Thanks for watching and commenting from Scotland. We appreciate it!😊
Y'all two are the best, the ladders and rope work was the best. Looking forward to episode 3. They really did a lot of stope and lumber work. Until next week be safe and bless you both.
Hi Jimmy. Hope you are doing well.🙏 Those ladders were a little sketchy, so the ropes were necessary. Thanks for the nice comment and for the blessing. We appreciate it!😊
Wow, you guys are very brave to go down in some of those places. The effort required to repell and climb back up must be excrutiating. I'm glad you are doing it and not me, however, I love being there with you on the video since you capture it all. I can hardly wait until you post Part 3.
Hi Glen. You are correct that doing these explores does take a lot of effort. You can't afford to make mistakes either. Glad that you enjoyed the explore. See you next Friday for part 3! Thanks for the comment!😊
Hello Tom Hello Julie What a mine. Absolute great but sometimes very scetchy.(schwierig) Thank you for your amazing amount of work you both did to realize the Video and the Fotos. Cant wait to see part 3 I wish you both a great weekend and a good save new Week Yours Frank Galetzka
that is some good looking material in that pillar ....you gotta sample some of these mines ...you could have some nice Gold from it ....coming back up is always the hardest part ...who needs a gym ...just be a Gold Miner or Gold Mine Explorer ...that was a fun explore .... good job you two ....be safe out there and keep'em coming
Hi Jeff. Those are some juicy looking pillars, aren't they. If we weren't out in the RV for eight months, I probably would do some sampling. I would have the whole rig filled up with rocks, and then where would Julie stay lol. No gym is necessary as you well know. Thanks for the comment. We appreciate it!😊
A most interesting location you're bringing us, a huge thanks for exploring it all. Definitely some unsafe structures and geology for you to maneuver down, up, and around. Looking forward to next week.
Hi Carl. It really is an interesting mine with the colors and workings going in all directions. It's a dangerous but fun one for us, too. Thanks for the comment!😊
Hi Tom & Julie, that vein was so colourful and wide, I think Tom said up to 10 ft wide wow. Scary how that pipe came loose, that could have been nasty. A very interesting mine though all told and so many stopes, scary to think that miners would have walked those thin walk ways many times a day. I don't think I would have lasted long in that mine with my 2 left feet lol. Thank you for sharing, much love to you both. xx 🥰
Hi Sue. That is a cool and colorful mineral vein. I was struck by some of those narrow walkways, too. I don't know how they got through some of those places without falling. Thanks for the nice comment as usual. We appreciate it!😊❤️
Hi Raiderman. Roping is definitely a good skill to have, although it's not easy. I'm sure with an extra set of batteries, you would make it back up Lol. Thanks for the comment!😊
