I shot the early parts of this video just hours after we broke through the large caved section I showed in the first video in this series (we put so many timber supports into that section that we now call it the “timber cathedral”). So, this is a first look at what we’re dealing with deeper inside of the mine…
This is a big deal for us because it took months of work and preparation to reach, and then to get through, the area of the big caved section, which is about 380 feet into the adit. Then, in hours, we went from 380 feet to adding thousands of feet of accessible workings. A significant breakthrough!
The second half of this video and a decent part of the next video will show you the areas of the mine that we have opened up. I know that with this series in particular, some viewers will be more interested in the work we’re doing rather than in what the inside of another abandoned mine looks like. I would like to assure those impatient viewers that future videos will focus almost exclusively on the work we are doing, but I need to show a tour of the mine so that the layout of the mine can be understood. Also, isn’t the whole point of opening up a mine to see what is inside?
The videos haven’t caught up to events yet, but as you’ll see in the upcoming videos, much of the past month has been spent on consolidating the rapid gains we made on that (literal) groundbreaking day. This time of consolidating gains is necessary to get things ready for the next big push - getting the upper levels opened up and plenty of other goals that you’ll see in coming videos. To be more specific, this involves getting the tracks rehabbed so that they can support the weight of trammers and larger ore cars, running in compressed air lines to power the pneumatic drills and other equipment, running in vent pipe that allows us to blow air into the mine and also to suck air out when needed, bringing on new crew members, etc. There is some good stuff coming up.
MSHA visited again shortly after the footage in this video was shot and, again, we received a thumbs up from them. We are in the “exploration” rather than “production” stage in the life of a mine and so the rules and requirements reflect that. In other words, they recognize that we just opened up a mine that has been abandoned for decades and that it takes time to get all of the utilities in, to get all of the timber sets in, to get a refuge chamber built, etc.
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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
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. 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!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
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28 сен 2024
