36 Miles of Abandonded gold mine! 

Awesome job bringing locations to match historical photos. Well done

Great Picture! To thank you!! Sir WOW!

Excellent!!! Love how you cross reference the original pictures to how it is now. Awesome music to go with, Really good job of these video's. Thanks for sharing with us!

An enjoyable trip, thanks for dragging us along. Sad to see the abandoned machinery.

Hey Ham , The miners from left to right are none other are Bill Meyers , a man known as Lundgren , Lon Simmons himself , and Fred Steene . Bill Meyers and Lon Simmons were partners at the Simmons mine and other workings at the west and lower end the Norway Basin . Slightly above , on the same side of Norway Basin was the Norway Mine owed by Fred Steene and Lundgren . This cabin was located further up the basin and was used by all in the picture while they worked their claims . Of course , Lon Simmons was one of the first miners in the upper Pine Valley / Norway Basin area . His partner Bill Meyers passed away after Simmons did and Meyers` widow reopened Simmons` mine w/ a man named Lovett , who was the former superintendent of Cornucopia Mines . Rather an odd partnership . They built a tram which brought ore downhill and it was trucked off to Robinette . The partnership was short lived though . The new upper tramhouse they built burned down four and a half months after operations had started . Not much was written about the Norway Mine . Only a few assay reports . Fred Steen was very active in Cornucopia as he was a member of the town counsel . Both he and his wife Augustine are buried at Pine Heaven cemetary , along w/ the infamous photographer , miner , and strawberry farmer Lawrence Panter . Without his pictures , much of the history Of Cornucopia and Pine Valley would have been lost forever . So how`s that from an old tinhorn from Seattle ? I did have a place in Sumpter for about six years , but had to sell it due to health . Love your videos .

Glad you made it!!

Thi has been a fine discovery, I love looking over google earth to find these mines, This video was great. I sit back on my haunches and search for what I can find. and I'm on the east coast. Thank You for these fine videos.

At 8:05 - A similar incident happened to me in the early 1970’s. Some college friends and myself where on a gold panning trip. We were working our way along Poorman Creek a tributary the South Fork of the Yuba River when we came upon a quite extensive abandon mining operation. After exploring the old buildings, we decided to check out the mine. It was a horizontal adit going into the side of the mountain with a small amount of water running out of it. Since I had a flashlight, a Ray-O-Vac Sportsman, that put out about as much light as one candle, I got to lead. One in our group have enough sense to insist we tie ourselves together with a rope we had. About 50 feet into the adit that flashlight was totally useless. I should have turned around then but I forged, or should I say stumbled, ahead. It was not much farther that I took a step and found myself over my head in the coldest water I have ever been in. I felt the rope tighten around my waist and then it pulling me up and out of the water filled vertical shaft. Luckily, I only lost that flashlight and my hat. After regaining our composer, we turned around and head for the pin point of light that was the entrance. It was a long, wet, cold walk back to camp. Needless to say I have not entered a mine or cave, except on a guided tour, to this day.

Happy Minding! Thank you! For Letting me join You! Will See Ya!! Happy Minei by!!

beautiful country out there,,thanks for taking us along

Great video, you know your mining and video making, Can appreciate the time it took and it shows... good job.

very INTRESTING old mine every extensive subbed will be checking out more of your videos......thanks for your posts

These are the some of best miner videos I have come across yet. The references to maps and pictures are great and music you choose is always fitting to the scenery. Great job. If you are going alone you need a partner because its dangerous to be in the woods alone. Peace

I like the video format music etc, The Video is all funky tho. Thanks for posting tho! Subscribed!

Awesome video!!

Great job documenting and preserving our history. Thank you.

Ham - Sorry for the repetitive comment, but I just have to say what a great video this is. The old photos are really cool! When I look at what those people went through to mine at that elevation, I have two feelings. The first is simple amazement at how tough they were. The more powerful feeling I get looking at those old photos is simple pride that I am an American. These are the people who built our country. They didn't whine, they didn't look to the government for a handout, they did what needed to be done. I try to remember that every day, and to emulate them. Thanks for a fantastic video.

Awesome site and pictures of History as well. Thank you.

Amazing!!

Wow! Great History

Man that's some beautiful Country there

Great job making this very interesting video HH. Thanks for the extraordinary effort of making it and sharing this vanishing piece of history. Great old historic pics added in to give a real feel for what it was like and the difficulty in the quest for precious metals. First time I’ve seen your work- definitely won’t be the last. Keep it up plz. But take a companion with you and stay safe!

A lot of History! Wow!

Wow! Way up there!!

That's a really impressive site and it's in a beautiful setting. Thank you for taking the time to document it for us...

Respect to the miners, engineers and the draft animals that worked that harsh beautiful landcape. Appreciate you including the sobering tale of dropping in to a flooded winze! You can never be 100% sure what lies beneath your feet in a dry adit let alone a wet one. Thank's for sharing your exploration.

Very Interesting!!

Love the video and now you are motivating me to go and explore this place some day soon Thank for sharing the video

Really appreciate the post-filming research you did and the addition of relevant historical photos. As many others have written: what a great job you did with this video.

The best documentary on western mining I’ve seen. Great photography and really good oral history that makes the film come alive and takes you back in American history. These miners and their families lived hard lives. It’s difficult to imagine how they dug the mines, transported all the heavy equipment at unbelievable heights and in some of the roughest terrain. Where did you find the old photos? Would really like to know the sources. It’s great that you put this effort in to preserve some of the fast disappearing past. Thanks very much for giving an old fella a fond remembrance of days gone by.

Excellent presentation. Thank you.

Wow! Look At the View

Wow! Nice

It's a shame that these mines are not in operation . Thanks for sharing this . I like how you included the old photos.

Wow made me nervous just watching you hanging over those cliffs. Another great video. Thanks

Thanks for your hard work.

Wow! Cooler Temperatures!

Prospector Dean here.....Thanks for posting!! Great research!

thanks for posting, really awesome video.

Thanks for sharing your adventure and the history in that area. I've been doing a lot of hiking in the greenhorn district to some of the mines in the scenic area that are inaccessible to motor vehicles.

I can't believe they built a mine on the cliffs up in the middle of nowhere. Great job. Now get the hell out of there.

I did some prospecting around there in the late 1980s and I came across an outcropping of blue quartz that had fine wire gold the size of your hair.

Wow! That's Right!!

LIKED YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY & angle of shots. great video! Pretty country. Note - some plywood uses blood to hold pieces of wood together in plywood.

thats cool just think how hard them guys worked back then and risked there lives and lost there lives respect right here

What a well put together vid watched all of it thanks for sharing :)

Hi, what you are doing with these films are just what I came on youtube for, wish I'd found you earlier. I'm tucked away on the Isle of Wight in the UK so this to me is absolutely going to be my favorite site from now on. Please do some more. Love you and what you do. Pete Cooper.

I had heard that it was a Canadian Company that bought that mine and that it was completely flooded out that they hit such a big river that it was said they don't make a pump big enough to pump it out.

That's Something!!

Ok! Nice!

Thanks for the video. Wish I could pull all the gold outta there.

It's refreshing to watch a well done, historically accurate video. Thank you sir for the guided tour. We lived in a small town about 50 miles south of Anchorage Alaska in the early 1950's and at the age of 13 I had a job cleaning the local bar, hotel and social gathering area called the "Little Dipper Inn" which was owned by an old hard rock miner named Joe Danish and his wife Alice. Joe's mine was called the "Crow Creek Mine" and although he no longer operated it, it was still intact and could have been put back in production at a moments notice. I believe he and Alice thought there was more money in the beverage industry than there was in mining. If I remember right Gold was running around $16.00 and ounce at the time. I remember climbing up to the mine and seeing a vein of Quartz over 2 feet thick running across the side of the mountain. It would be interesting to know what the yield per ton of ore was. Crow Creek also produced a substantial amount of Placer Gold. The Erickson mine was a placer mine there on Crow Creek, and Mr. Erickson would let us local kids borrow a Gold Pan so we could go Gold Panning, and let us keep our meager gold dust and the occasional small nugget we may have found. Those were some of the happiest times of my life, and it is pleasant to reminisce about those times

That's Nice

I really enjoyed that video too bad you couldn't gotten to the Queen's mine I really wanted to see that but I figured you wouldn't be out of yet to it it considering the looks of the terrain around there but really good video really cool information on the whereabouts of that mine in Oregon there thank you

I can't believe you only have 611 subscribers! You make some terrifically edited videos, and I love how you include the historical photos. I live in the Portland metro but have a fascination with old west history. Someday soon I plan on venturing to eastern Oregon to see some of this for myself. Regards, your 612th subscriber.

Agree with others this is a very interesting video and very well done.Us modern folk probably take most things for granted where these guys working these mines would have just done whatever needed to be done under extreme hardships and not much in the way of health and safety way back then.

Wow!!

Yeah....Tunnel!

Im in westrn mass and we dont have mines we have old turn of centery quarry ponds i love exploring and reserching doing history of the mine after and seing spots where pics are tacken

It's Something! How they Just left Stuff Behind!!

The multi layer metal parts and iron cans, are the remnants of electrical transformers. Someone obviously scavenged the copper coils long ago

Big! And Steep!

Great video thank you!

Yes! It Is

Wow! That is treacherously rough country. If you stop this video at 21:46 it looks like a Bob Ross painting. Excellent video.

Stepping into a flooded winze/stope is my biggest fears in mine explorations... seems a good fear after hearing your story... How much have you explored in S.W. Oregon ? I'm in the Gold hill district and very curious about this area Jackson/Josephine counties... anyone you know that is a realiable explorer down here ?

great video, thanks

there all parts of the ore train .except the thin laminated steel that's a transformer

18:24 I would guess that it was part of a small steam engine or locomotive. What a view of scenery... Wow.. SO much respect for the people who lived and worked up there. That must have been tough.

Hi great video

nice work cool vid hop to see mor

to imagine all this material was moved by hand

Have you been on the middle John Day river at Susanville Mine they took 150 train cars of gold ore that would be another great video, in the early 1990s someone found a 7 lb gold nugget up on the hill near there.

Nice video thanks for sharing it! Can you just imagine guys living and working up there around the turn of the 20th century..?? It's too bad we don't have movies of those old mines in operation. Back when men were men......and women were too!

Is that all your guitar work? I really enjoy it 👍👌 Let’s jam some time‼️

Wow. You are in Gods country for real

The Good Ol Days...

Gold mining was banned during WW2 as it didn't further the war effort and that is why gold mining at this mine shut down.

I suspect that piece of machinery you saw with the hex head nuts and bolts is the upside down remains of a two cylinder steam powered winding engine. The two cylinders with their respective square shaped attached steam chests are obvious on either side. There would have been a large drum in between the cylinders supported on a shaft with cranks at each end joined to the connecting rods from each cylinder. It would have been piped up to a separate boiler nearby. This machine could have been used in many places around a mine such as hoisting in a shaft, pulling ore skips up an incline or operating the aerial tramways. I hope that is helpful. That was a great video! by the way. Paul

Awesome stuff. I just did a video here as well!

Sounds like you went intothe Cougar-Independence mine and fell in a winse.

So Sad! Sir

Be Careful!! Sir

Very informative video. Thanks for sharing it. I think you may want to have another person with you when hiking in the mountains for safety reasons.

Some thing!!

It’s funny how you’ve gotten so used to those huge mountains, that you refer to those treacherous mountain sides as “hills”.. :)

I really appreciate the long journey you took, high in the mountains, towards the Queen of the West Mine. Another world. Queen of the West Mine in 1915 photo at www.bakeroregonhistory.info/exhibit3/e30400b.htm And the old Douglas Fir tree at 13:03! Heartbreaking. Trailhead at 13:55. At 29:03 the tragic avalanche of January 1923 that killed Mrs. Fisher, along with her children Garland 8, Jesse 2, Minnie Woodcock, Katherine Motley, and Loreno Irwin. Hard lives, with very little opportunity. We have nothing to complain about. A remote location, almost in Idaho, if you can imagine such a thing. Thank you for the video. It is magic.

I have been dry washing for about 2 yrs.and I only run about 10 buckets a day for about 6 months a year,and have gotten about 36 grams of gold.Which is ok for a hobby,but all my gold came from the over burden,the first 1 foot of dirt.In New Mexico and northern Arizona.

Get Rich! With Gold

Awesome history and scenery, thanx for the video. I have been to a lot of mines in this area, but every one I checked out in high school was too sketchy mostly due to water and just a casualty of time. Those miners were amazing, as are the people in Baker and the surrounding area. Have you ever checked out the shafts at Virtue Flats?

The laminated metal looks like a transformer and the casted base looks like the base of a steam engine and boiler.

This is the Baker OR site? If you really want to see a big tailings pile (or something made out of tailings) take a look at the Oroville dam in Northern CA. A train ran box cars of tailings 24/7 for 10 years to make that dam.

They had the main mine then all the other prospectors started punching a lot of other mines on both sides are riddled with mines.

Comment #102 View #33,252 Thumbs up #362 Very interesting

If you like to be amazed how mines can be in the most rugged and unaccessible places come to the San Juans of Southwest Colorado!

Probably!!

And the small buckets might be old boiler made into mucker shovel just guess

Ham - The War Act took effect October 8, 1942. It prohibited mining, except for strategic minerals. Hundreds of gold mines across the West shut down as a result. Did this mine shut down as a result of the War Act, or did it shut down before that, as a result of high costs and low gold prices?

With respect to the remains of a steam winding engine we spoke of, please look this site up on RU-vid as you will see a working specimen running on steam with Fred Dibnah, a wonderful, eccentric but now sadly passed British steam and industrial heritage enthusiast. see: "Dig with Dibnah Extra 02 The winding engine"

8 minutes in hoping you'll be taking a pan to the water. There must be some placer deposits.