An Abandoned Mine Search for an Underground Swimming Hole (Plus a Study in False Floors!) 

Thanks for your comment, David! We figured we were at the right spot where we tossed the large rock down that steeply incline shaft. We heard the water splash, and it sounded quite deep. Repelling down those ropes just wasn’t something we were too comfortable doing at that point in the day.

@@AbandonedMines11 yeah a lot of people have stopped right there. Last time I went that first ladder had been removed so I went to another part of the mine to relocate a good ladder to use right there. The rope used to repel is about 2in thick metal rope. So pretty sturdy

Next time you're going down to your suicidal swimming hole can you bring a gopro for us? :P

david wind Hey, man! You guys just had two big earthquakes up there right outside of Ridgecrest. Hope you got through those okay. Do you think the swimming hole and this entire mine got destroyed? From what I can remember, this mine is only about eight or 10 miles from the epicenter of those earthquakes, right? I hope you weren’t in there on the Fourth of July swimming when the quakes hit! Give me an update and let me know if you know anything about the status of the mine and the swimming hole. Thanks!

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places damn this is sad to see that you never received a response

LOL I know, right? What you don’t see in the video is the sheer number of takes it took to get Paul throwing that rock into the shaft correctly. Every time he would throw a small rock, it would hit the ceiling of the shaft and get its trajectory cut short. We filmed about six different takes. Finally, at the end, he simply threw that boulder into the shaft instead. Much easier that way!

@@AbandonedMines11 *"Every time he would throw a small rock, it would hit the back of the decline" :)

Paul Niblock Bitch, please! LMFAO

😆

@@AbandonedMines11 much easier for who? The grim reaper lol 😂

Ey your here

Hay your still alive!

Justin Y. I thought you only commented on videos with a high statistic of views

no... just no...

BEGONE

Great comment, Jeffrey! I agree 100-percent.

Actually...depending on the rocks there...some may make it clean-ish kinda, but yeah...I'd better not :)

Jeffrey Hogan, let natural selection take its course

Besides that, the water would be so cold that you wouldn’t be able to be in it very long before you start to freeze...

Even worse if your leg starts to cramp while you are swimming there

He was still busy devouring the last human who stepped into the waterhole.

“They have a cave troll.”

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

You aren’t worth risking my life to descend those rickety ladders to film it. You’ll have to make do with Paul’s splash. Or go there yourself.

@@AbandonedMines11 interesting way to put it, but understandable. I, for one, do not want you to take any unnecessary risks just to film a flooded pit.

Send down some local kids with cameras :p

Well, it never says it would be shown. Just that it's a search lol

Who the heck would go through all that trouble to go swimming in dirty mine water?

We ascertained beforehand that nobody was down there by yelling, "Hello! Anybody down there?" Never got a response.

@@AbandonedMines11 plot twist: they were already dead!

@@AbandonedMines11 he was joking!

@@billydarley6925 😄😄 I love this plot twist

@@AbandonedMines11 Silly, that's how all the monsters find out where you are in the mine. Rookie spooky mine explorer mistake!

Maybe it’s the fountain of life. Lol

@@callmenorman631 soooo...basically you die falling to (in) the fountain of life...hmm...logical! :))

Unit 38 me

Chicken

@@homefront3162 ....you've swam in there before?

I know. Not sure what was up with that.

I replayed that section you noted. I agree! Perfect timing and delivery! Standing there looking down into that steeply inclined pit with the ladders and old rope was somewhat sobering. I don't mind going into these abandoned mines and climbing up and down inclined shafts. However, I won't climb down such a sketchy looking system of ropes and ladders. Climbing down is probably pretty easy; it's the climbing back up that can be problematic. Thanks for your comment!

those knots alone are sketchy a f

Sounds like a monty python bit

And, I wouldn't want to see it, thank you!!

Glad you enjoyed the video! Thank you for watching and commenting.

Yes, it is. So you explore abandoned mines? Who have you been going out with, if anybody?

Certainly does!

I don't think anyone has drowned in this mine while swimming in it. I didn't say exactly where we were, but I did say that I have been in this mine three times in the past. Astute viewers should be able to figure out (maybe) exactly what mine this is and where it's located. Once they do that, they will realize that there is a tragedy connected with the mine from about ten years ago. That tragedy occurred on an upper level and not in the flooded levels. Quite an interesting mine! Thanks, Jami, for your comment. Good to hear from you again!

@@AbandonedMines11 Inyokern ?

I saw your other comment that was a reply to someone else's comment. You've made the connection!

@@AbandonedMines11 :D Wasn't hard. Especially when you've been watching for years ;)

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places What type of tragedy occurred?

Thanks for your comment and suggestion about using a drone. Others have recommended the same thing in the past. I would be afraid, though, that the drone would get hung up on some timbers or crash into the side of the tunnel wall or something like that. I don’t know how capable they are in an enclosed space. Weren’t they meant to be flown outside up in the sky? Anyway, it is something for me to think about and consider. Maybe they haven’t yet invented a type of drone that would be good for small, cramped, enclosed like that in an abandoned mine.

@@AbandonedMines11 Drone tech has gotten really good, as well as a lot smaller in recent years. I'm not sure of the manufacturer, but my brother has a very small one (about 12 inches in diameter from rotor to rotor) that he's been using for a year or so to get some cool pre-event shots for weddings and receptions indoors. He got his from a dealer in Milwaukee, but I know the same thing or something close can be picked up on Amazon for a hundred bucks or less these days depending on how "feature rich" you need it to be. I'll talk to him and see if he's got any recommendations and report back here. Whatever you choose to do sir, rock most awesomely on!

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places Your fears are warranted, nearly every drone uses both optical sensors and gps to stabilize itself jn flight, and gps doesn’t work underground, and the optical sensors would be useless in the dark, as well ad the cameras, none of them currently shoot decent night/low light video.

That’s quite a story, Rob! Thank you for sharing it. That is the exact same kind of thing that can happen in an abandoned mine.

Why was the shaft flooded?

I know in abandoned mines the vertical shafts and the lower levels will sometimes flood with water because the pumps are no longer operating like they were when the mine was active. The height of the water table definitely plays a factor in all of this.

I meant the hotel under construction elevator shaft.

7 DusK the hotel was under construction but i think they ran out of cash so it was only like 2/3 storeys high. There were no roof/walls and the elevator shaft was open to the outdoors. There were little gaps in the wood covering the shaft that rain must of been able to get past and collect and stagnate in the shaft. I guess its lucky in a way that it was filled with water cuz if not i might of fell really far instead and wouldnt of been able to swim back out

Certainly glad to have you following along vicariously from the safety and comfort of your home! Thanks, too, for watching and commenting. I appreciate your support and interest in my videos.

Thanks, Andrew! I really wasn’t gone to begin with. Just semi-retired. I’ve still been putting out videos over the last 18 months or so but just not with the frequency I once did. Perhaps this is a case of where “less is more.“ LOL Anyway, glad you are enjoying my videos, and thank you for your support and for commenting!

LOL

Right on, Jason! Thanks, man, for the comment and view!

@@AbandonedMines11 absolutely....keep it up😎

Thanks for your comment!

Glad you enjoyed the tour in! Thank you for watching and commenting.

Thanks for your support! Glad you are enjoying the videos even though I have greatly reduced my overall output since May 2017 when I semi-retired. More videos coming soon!

Yes, I agree! Thanks for your comment!

Coming soon!

@@AbandonedMines11 Frank. I wanna ask you this. Do you think you have ever caught a brief glimpse of an undergrounf Faery?

This was my third or fourth time in this mine, so it was somewhat familiar.During my first visit, i didn't even go in this mine. Came back to it with other people. This time around, I wasn't about to climb down those old ladders to access the flooded levels, though. As I mentioned in another reply, some things just aren't worth going the extra mile -- especially in an abandoned tungsten mine that's flooded at the lowest levels! I was hoping to see the flooded area, but didn't realize the access was going to be that sketchy.

Yep, false floors are definitely something to watch out for when exploring abandoned mines. This mine seemed to have an abundance of them.

I’m just curious where all of the water goes. The local resident that I corresponded with a few years ago said that a natural spring is what is flooding the lowest level. There doesn’t seem to be any exit point for the water, so I wonder where it goes? Or does the mine just keep imperceptibly filling up with more and more water? Because the water comes from a spring, I would think it would be pretty clean. But, on second thought, it might not be chemicals from the mind operations above as well as debris and dead animals that have fallen into it and sank to the bottom. At any rate, I don’t think I would go swimming in such an underground pool. The water is probably ice-cold, too.

Good to hear from you, Sean! I was talking with Paul about you recently and was wondering what had happened to you. Are you still in Southern California? Let me know!

@@AbandonedMines11 I'm in Washington State but movinfg to Prescott soon. Still have my email?

Prescott, AZ? Lots of abandoned mines out that way. Is your email address still at gmail.com using your first two initials followed by your full last name and 1987?

@@AbandonedMines11 Sure is!

They sure were!

So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you!

Thanks for your comment, Mike!

I appreciate you stopping by and commenting! Thanks a lot. I’ve been enjoying the videos on your channel, too. Keep up the good work on there!

Great comment and question! No, I really don’t get nervous exploring and documenting abandoned mines. Instead, I find myself in a constant state of heightened caution while exploring. That’s where being careful comes into play. Thanks for your comment and question. Loved it!

This was the first multi-level mine in quite some time, that’s for sure. Sounds like you enjoyed the video. Thank you for watching and commenting!

Others have copied me? Who? I don't see anything that compares to my channel in terms of the number of videos, views, and subscribers. LOL In fact, I am the late-comer to the party. I only started exploring and documenting abandoned mines in 2010 or so. Those others have been doing it for a lot longer than me or almost as twice as long! I'm not here to compete, though. In fact, I announced my semi-retirement from exploring abandoned mines in May of 2017. SInce then I've kept my word and drastically cut back on the number of uploads I do in a given year. Moved on to new interests. Anyway, I appreciate viewers like yourself who are enjoying my videos and getting something out of them. That's what it's all about. I'll still continue to upload every now and then like I've been doing, so stay tuned for that. Thanks again for taking the time to watch this vid and to comment. I appreciate your support, man!

Frank, I do enjoy your videos. Thanks for making them!

Cool! Some other viewers (not many, though) have commented in the past about the crunching sounds of the rocks being walked upon and other sounds in my videos as being ASMR-like. You are not alone! LOL Glad to have you along for all the underground (and above-ground) adventures. Thanks so much for subscribing, Miss Andi!

Sounds like some difficult, uncomfortable work you did. Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment!

thank you fellas for all the effort of bringing these videos to all of us . I mined gold in quartz veins , using techniques just like those you've explored . stopes, slushers, tramming, drifting, raises, jacklegs stopers, timbering and on . it works and its efficient and effective in that kind of structure. that's why they did it that way in those mines . it was bloody hard work and could often be dangerous, requiring good smarts and a can do ethic . I loved doing that work and would still be at it , but it takes its toll on the body . we all regularly lifted 90 + lb objects . drills alone are that without hoses or drill steel on them , and very often 200-250lb lifts of irregular shaped, greasy or wet things. swinging 16lb hammers, breaking big muck on a grizzly sometimes for days on end hardens you up like you wouldn't believe .gets in your blood, and I'm sure some who read this longwinded reply know exactly what I mean. I miss it .

Great comment, Jake! That IS extremely lucky that you ran into that historian guy when you were there. I have heard of that particular mine but never bothered going out to it. From what I was able to gather, there is no underground access there. Instead, that mine is a series of deep trenches and things like that.

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places Yes, no undergoes access but you can see the trench they mined out of in the rock face. Still really cool non the less. My family does a lot of dirt bike riding/off-roading which is why we were out there in the first place.

Fortunately there are multiple access points for this abandoned mine. So that helped the air situation a little bit. However, when one gets down on the lower levels, the fresh air becomes more scarce, I’m sure. That’s why I always carry an oxygen meter.

Any earthquake damage in there?

Always. Thanks for watching!

Glad you found the footage to be interesting! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to watch and comment.

I always have an oxygen meter. Thanks for your comment! Glad to hear you're getting something out of my videos and are being entertained. Love hearing that!

Thanks for your comment! I made a bunch of trips to this mine over the course of four or five years. This was the mine where Linda Lou Rose fell to her death which we explored and documented in previous videos. I later learned that the locals go swimming in this mine down on one of the lower levels. Paul and I set out to find the swimming hole. As you saw in this video, we saw where the ladders go down to the flooded area but we did not descend them. We threw a rock in there and heard what sounded like a pretty deep splash. I can’t believe people would climb all the way down that inclined shaft three levels and then descend those rickety ladders just go swimming in an abandoned mine.

I would nor ever want to swim in an abandoned mine. Someday I will be able to come yer way and go explore with ya. Maybe share some crub recipes with ya. Be safe on your adventures.

Hey, Thomas! Glad you enjoyed the video! Maybe one of these days I’ll be brave enough to descend those dangerous ladders and take a dip. Probably not, though. LOL

I don’t think he would travel the distance to reach this particular mine site. I’m not competitive - my channel remains the biggest with the most views, the most subscribers, and the most videos. 😂

I appreciate your comment! Thanks, James!

I am fed up with exploring and documenting abandoned mines. That's why, since May 2017, I've seriously reduced the number of uploads from 45 a year to less than ten a year. I also said that I would continue to post an occasional mine exploration video once in a long while. And that's what I've done! I'm also uploading videos of unusual places as well, so stand by for more of those. Thanks for your comment! Glad you are enjoying my videos! Thank you!

I really like the new format especially the out of the way local attractions that would not appear on the usual tourist guides.

Thanks, John! I’m going to try to get more “unusual places“ featured on this channel. There will still be the occasional abandoned mine video as well - they are my bread and butter, so to speak. LOL

@@AbandonedMines11 if you upload more videos, I'd love to subscribe! I enjoyed watching a few videos. Look forward to finish watching the others and your new ones! 😁

hnuzbu Mines of moria

Thanks for your comment, Mark! That was a great anecdote you told.

Must be near the Fayette county line lol

Totally agree! The mine is very interesting, though. I didn’t say much about exactly where we were (this was my fourth trip there), but astute viewers should be able to figure that out and come to realize the tragic history of this particular mine from back in 2010.

@@AbandonedMines11 ill look into it, but i'd assume someone went down to go swimming and took a tumble

@@folfielukather8083 you would think so, but no, thats actually where i dispose of the bodies. its amazing how many can be hidden there. that water hole is like a bottomless pit.

@@billydarley6925 what are you talking about ?

@@rafal777jojoboy5 wtf is that guy a pshyco😂😂

Same here, Stan! I was under the impression that the swimming area was a lot easier to access than it turned out to be. Those tied-off ropes and hoses used to descend down to the flooded levels looked so sketchy! The only thing I've done in abandoned mines where there has been a lot of water is drink it where it came spouting out of the wall or ceiling. And that was some of the best-tasting, cleanest water I've ever had!

I was in Idaho last summer for the solar eclipse. Checked out a small mine that was near my campsite for that event. Never made it back there, though. If I’m ever headed up that way, I’ll drop you a line and you can let me know what mines you might think would be worth checking out. It’ll have to wait until the spring or summer, though - I’m not a big fan of snow and cold temperatures! LOL

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places I agree with you on the snow. It sucks

I don’t think it’s an urban legend. The correspondence I had with some of the locals who go in there seems to be legit. Others confirmed it. Also, at the two access points there were ropes tied off to the timbers. So I’m sure somebody has gone swimming in there if not once at least a couple of times. However, the overall frequency of people who go in there to swim is probably pretty low. At any rate, I wasn’t about to climb down there and check it all out. Knowing my luck, all those platforms and ladders would collapse and I would go tumbling down into the pool with no way out. Paul’s arms aren’t long enough to reach that far. LOL I agree, too, that Paul’s rock could’ve been a little smaller.

david wind How often do you go swimming in that mine? Couple times a month? Just curious. Seems like a lot of hard work and effort just to go swimming. Also, how cold is the water down there? I would assume that it’s probably ice cold.

@@AbandonedMines11 the water is cold. But I'm sketical about swimming in it. I've never actually jumped in. But I take everyone I meet there cus most ppl have never seen a mineshaft and I have had a few people I've taken just dive in. No sickness and no complains other then the hike back up being wet.

Was that one the Andrew (or Andrews) Mine? Is it still active?

@@AbandonedMines11 I'm not really sure about the name of the Mind but it's one in between Dry Gulch and bear Flats Trail just north of Coldwater Canyon Creek and south of Baldy in one of the forks the little gulches in between about halfway up there Flats you can look over the side and see it they still have some dump trucks parked there in a water truck park there but it's been at least a couple years since I've gone down that route so I cannot tell you if it's active to this day but it was the last time I was up there

Of course we did.

One of the locals who swims here said the water comes from an underground spring. However, I don't know if that helps because as far as I can tell, there is nowhere for the water to drain out. So I'm not sure how frequently the water gets circulated. Hopefully one of those people will see this video and let us know more details. I wasn't about to climb down those rickety ladders to actually see the water. Before finding the ladders, I was under the assumption that the flooded area was a lot easier to access than it turned out to be. Some things just aren't worth going the extra mile -- especially in an abandoned tungsten mine! Great hearing from you again! Thanks for your comment and question.

That was a good idea! Going to this mine was an afterthought, though, as we were driving home from someplace else. Hadn't planned on going in here at all. Was spur-of-the-moment.

Excellent observations!

In previous visits to this mine, I showed other dead animals like rabbits, birds, and things like that. There was even a rabbit skin nailed to one of the timbers. I think maybe people are bringing these animals down into this mine for some kind of weird black magic rituals or stuff like that. Who knows? Creepy when you think about it....

So you are another astute viewer who has made the connection with this video and some of my older ones. Yes, there always seems to be a lot of dead animals down in this strange mine. In my earlier explorations, I attributed it to some kind of satanic worship or something like that. Not sure.... Seems very odd, though. I think the weirdest animal remains that I found in an abandoned mine was that large sheep or something at the very far end of the tunnel in the Silver Corner Mine video. Also, those really smelly animal remains in the Lucky Pardner Mine video from several years ago. Thanks for your comment! Nice hearing from you.

Paul carried me across. 😂 j/k

Yes, this mine has a certain strange vibe to it that is unlike most other mines. There’s a lot of history in this place going back 10 years or so when there was an fatal accident here. It was nothing connected with the swimming hole, though.

I believe that was Paul talking out loud to himself. He was just up around the corner in the tunnel. At least I hope that was him! Maybe he will chime in here and let us know once he sees this comment.

Thanks man - I've been making a list of videos with EVPs or potential EVPs in them so I'm always listening to them to see what I might catch - It is a lot more common than people would think - Your channel does seem to get a lot because of the sorts of places you go into and the haunts you've encountered - Thanks for the reply and I'll watch to see what Paul says.

Thanks for all of your recent comments! I appreciate it. The abandoned mine in this video is only about 15 miles from the epicenter of those two large earthquakes that occurred in southern California on July 4th and 5th. Strong shaking was reported in the area of this mine, so I'm curious as to whether the mine took any damage. Probably not. I may pop back up there one of these days and check it out. I hope no one was swimming down in there when the quakes hit!

Thanks for your comment! And thanks for stopping by, too, and checking out some of the videos here. I really appreciate it.

Sounds interesting! Being that it was underground, that makes it even more interesting. I never got into “urban exploration“ when it comes to exploring old buildings and structures. Once in a while at abandoned mine sites we will come across the mill building or cabins and things like that, but I’m just really not that interested in them. I prefer to check out the underground mine tunnels.

It certainly is! Thanks for your comment. Glad you enjoyed the video.

Thank you, Doug!

Will have to check that flashlight out! Thanks for the tip.

Exploring Abandoned Mines and Unusual Places. Its no tn12 flashlight but its military-rugged and water/dirt proof. The original design is from wwII, and the final iteration of the flashligh i believe came along in vietnam. The one at Tsc is aluminum instead of steel. A defining feature on it if you're looking for one is the guard for the switch on the side of the light.

Thanks for the comment!