We’re definitely stepping out of the ordinary with this mine explore… How many have you have seen - or even heard of - a full underground mill before? Even though I saw it with my own eyes, it is still difficult to imagine that mill operating there. The underground mill is a big focus of this first video, but the next video should not disappoint either. Topping this mine will be a tall order (but, don’t worry, I’m always looking to top prior abandoned mines).
I would love to know who had the idea for the underground mill because that is a hell of a bold engineering project, no? Mills are a complex setup even on the surface in ideal conditions. Imagine constructing a mill underground in the complete darkness, having to literally blast out every inch of space you need from the surrounding rock, freezing water pouring down on you all of the time… And imagine hauling all of that equipment into place in those conditions! These miners didn’t use a crane like mills on the surface do in order to get everything where it needs to be. Things like jaw crushers, for example, are not light either.
At the request of the owner, I am playing it discreet with the location. However, I will say that it is outside of our normal areas of exploring and that it is high up in some serious mountains. Really high up… One needs a 4WD to reach the mine and the road would definitely make some people uncomfortable. What I’m getting at is that it would have been no easy task getting the miners and their equipment - especially the milling equipment - into this mine.
This was primarily a silver mine, with lead as a secondary. I’m not used to seeing galena outside of the desert mines of California and Nevada, but there is a lot of it in this mine!
Outside of the mine there are the remains of a tram station to lower workings and a bunkhouse that is slowly succumbing to the elements. It would have been tough spending winters at this mine, but the miners would have had plenty of company from other miners working the mines in the area.
As I mentioned in the video, the mill was shut down in the 1940s and large parts of the mine have been abandoned for even longer, but the owner and others were mining sections of the mine as recently as a decade ago. And, no, they were not “rogue miners”, but were mining legally with MSHA inspectors coming around regularly to check on them.
Mines of the West was with me on this trip and those of you that know him, know that he kills it with the abandoned mine photography. So, I look forward to seeing his work on the underground mill. And thank you to Gabe for making the necessary introductions for us to visit this extraordinary mine!
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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically.
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
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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14 окт 2024
