Thank you all so so much for all the support! I hope if you aren't already, you'll subscribe because there are TONS more explorations and renovations coming up in the next weeks. The American Hotel is underway, new mines to find, and all sorts of other adventures! If you're curious about other levels of the Union Mine, here are the 200 Level: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eGgMfDTcum8.html 700 Level: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6c7MiqYdTEw.html THANK YOU!
Oh my goodness, that was some video!! I was scared, but I think other ones have been scarier or maybe I'm getting used to it. Loved it anyway, such history you visited. Thank-you as always! (stay safe)
Brent, by putting that plaque in the mine, you made us, the You tube family, a part of Cerro Gordo history. Thank you for that. It's a humbling thought; becoming a part of history. ✌🏻💙🐱
The "Chattering" that was happening when the cable and car were free was mostly likely caused by the "memory" of the cable releasing. Since nobody had run the cable out that far in likely decades, it had never had a chance to adjust from its spooled condition, to bearing tension... Cable, depending on type and quality will gain or lose several inches per 100ft depending on diameter, load, temperature of the cable. Although this may seem like a small change over time, you can imagine that only part of your spool of cable for the lift has been used and "trained" to bear a load. And the other part has remained rigid/static for a long time. The differential in the structure of the cable as part of it relaxes and the other "stiffer" part of it finally gains tension could easily cause some very odd behavior. I would recommend sending a test load of several hundred pounds down the shaft at least 2x a year so you can inspect and manage the cable if you intend to use it into the future. I'd hate to see you and your neighbors end up as new ghosts. ;) I'm a contractor/engineer by trade and I specialize in historic structures. So I'd love to pay a visit sometime and offer whatever help I can on the trickier aspects of archaic buildings and machinery. Also love me some wilderness.
I was intrigued by the graffiti "DDH UCLA 1927" at the 900 level. I did a search to see if this person was in yearbook for the class of 1927 at UCLA, but they were not. However, UCLA did for a long time have a mining course! The earliest mention of it was in the curriculum for 1921; I also found a course "Pre-mining" listed in 1935. It was a fun search, and I have not totally given up. I am a UCLA retiree and still have connections in the libraries there, so I may dig deeper to see if I can uncover this "mystery miner".
94 years from now, some explorers are gonna come across that cave and end up going down there, then find his youtube plaque. mans just made history and we got to witness it
Or the cave collapses or becomes unusable for whatever reason and the plaque is lost for the rest of time, never to be seen by anyone or anything again
Hi Brent, I am an Engineer with experience troubleshooting process equipment in factories. After following your pump issues, I have a couple of suggestions: 1) please consider installing 1x or more Check Valves downstream of your pump to relieve some of the load on it from the 700ft water column. The fact this pump has been relatively recently replaced & is drinking oil suggests it may be working too hard 2) please consider installing a monitoring system for the sump level. A very simple low cost solution for this could be using timelapse cameras aimed at the the sump. After seeing the state of the supply to the sump, I wonder whether you are pumping more water from the sump than is being replenished by that supply, so over a week or so you are possibly draining the sump near dry, then "losing prime" as there is nothing left to pump, and then by the time you get down there to check it, it is mostly replenished. If you had timestamped timelapse images of the sump level, it would be interesting to identify the moment that the pump fails to provide a flow to within an hour or so, and compare that to the image of the sump level at time of failure.
@@dwightvoeks9970 What kind of alarm? Having a wailer near the pump is pointless. Wireless doesn't work. If you want an alarm you need 600 feet of wire and then you have to deal with the electrical resistance of passing 1.5v to activate a beeper up that much wire. What kind of alarm? The timelapse monitoring system that OP suggested is not meant for real-time monitoring, but to investigate after the fact.
Can I presume that those old fellas (with age old wisdom) at first were like, "your on your own any farther down than the water pump". Brent: One Million people might view this video", Old fellas: "Ah Hell, Whynot!!"...I could be wrong.
Wow shit that's high thinking about it that way, I went to the viewing glass bottom platform on the Blackpool Tower in the UK and that is only 518ft high, walking out onto the glass bottom made me feel dizzy looking down it looked so high, I'm just imagining nearly twice that height I think I'd pass out 😂😂😂
Holy crap I was riding with you guys the whole time what a awesome video. I'm 75 and used to do that fun stuff and it's so cool to be able to sit in my living room and enjoy being with you guys on that elevator wow what a a ticket ride. Thanks for that. May God be with you and always be safe
@Ghost Town Living - I was a miner (mechanic) in a German coal mine. There were 2 shafts here and 3 others several miles away. In the coal shaft (4265 ft / 1300m deep) the coal was pulled up in large vessels. The workers and material were driven in the transport shaft (2800 ft / 854m deep). The deeper you went down, the higher the temperature got. The highest annual production was 3,135,415 tons of coal in 1979. The highest workforce was in 1958 with 5,234 employees. The mine was closed in 2005. Coal mining in Germany has began in the 17th century. The last coal mine closed in 2018. All because of money and cheap coal from abroad.
I stopped at the 12 minute mark to say this: with the water source being farther back and having to trickle in I believe that after a few days/week(s) of pumping the water level is dropping in the pool there cause the drip can not keep up with the pump so the pump starts sucking air looses its “prime” and then runs dry on oil due to not enough water! So you need to instal a water level sensing switch of some kind so it’ll turn off the pump before it sucks air and turns it back on when there is sufficient water to pump again
As the pump was recently maintained already this theory would fail to stand as the water would still be at a significantly lower level after the pump taking that much water out. I think he said the pump worked fine for a couple of weeks so I think the problem is not the water level. Much rather I think adding a pump at the top also would significantly reduce the strain on the pump and using a larger diamater trasport tube to bring the water to the top would also be good. If they are still using the original pipe to run the water up (or one that is like 10 years old) it could mean a lot of mineral deposits that cause a turbulent flow in the pipe. All this could make the pump run hot with a lot of internal pressure and use up a lot of oil
I want to thank you for making this channel. I am the great granddaughter of a goldminer in Cripple Creek, CO. I have him to thank for my massive rockhounding fever. He was the boss of the Crescent Mine which is still being mined today but in a most different way. I am vicariously living through you to understand more about what his life must have been like and share in your excitement as you find cool stuff, rocks and history. As a young girl I was given a burlap sack of ore from my grandma and have been carrying it with me my whole life. Thanks for reading this. I will be watching your adventures. Be safe and take care.
“Does your mother know what you’re doin’ down here?” 😆 Another way of saying “Keep your hands away from the dynamite box Brent.” Brent: “But jeans!!!!!”
You may not realize this but your an inspiration to people. And not because people want to live isolated in a ghost town, but because the genuine loyalty you have for what you do….that’s an inspiration 💫
People today: Why would anyone back then leave their denim jeans in a mine? People in the future: Why would anyone back then leave their RU-vid Golden Plaque in a mine?
The feeling you get when you make it back to the top and step off the cage onto safe ground is one that can't be explained. I spent 4 years working in a 1200 foot deep lead and copper mine and I always had that feeling of safety when I hit the top. Thanks for your content, it's very intriguing!!
I mean I work underground at 4950 ft. But I totally get what you mean. our shaft goes to 4150 ft and theres not a day go by at work that I pray the ropes don't let go while we are traveling up or down in the cage. our cage runs at 1000 ft a minute so having those ropes let go would probably be the end . On another note. considering I work 4950 ft underground.. 900' ft just seems to be not really that much until i think that these miners dug that by hand , or with very little mechanical assistance, its just unfathomable considering the labour that goes into mining now a days even with all the automated/semi automated equipment. Our mine is still 60 years behind everyone else and we are still using a lot of machinery that most mines haven't used in years, but still. I have experience on a jack leg and stoper drill and now I drive drift with a jumbo drill but to think that this mining would still be before any of those pieces tools existed..... mind blowing...just seeing those drifts with no bolts in the walls or back blows my mind.!
Well, ……That was a lot of FUN! Thank You! I’m a 62 yr old, 100% disabled guy. Watching this, and feeling the enthusiasm, along with the safety stays, really allowed me to feel like I was right there with you fellows. And with a lot of safety concerns met and dealt with as you moved along. That meant I didn’t get aggravated about safety things that wouold have bothered me making it not as much fun. I felt 42 years younger again. Free of pain and brokenness. FREE!
To me, that graffiti signals that the miners, even though it was their everyday experience, were in one way thinking about the future of Cerro Gordo just like Brent is doing today. They knew that the place they worked in might be a place people would visit decades later and they knew they could leave a lasting mark down there to remember their presence.
It is fun to think like that but having spent a lifetime in industry I think the truth is closer to "DAMN I am bored the freeking mine owner is putting on another dog and pony show to get some investor to drop a load of cash." or they were just waiting for the explosives to go off and thought a pair of ducks on the wall would pass the time.
Did I just crank my neck to see down the side of the shaft while knowing perfectly well this is filmed and I'm not gonna see more? Yes, I did. More than once.
At 900 level. Dave was hilarious hahaha! "Hey, don't be poking on dog turds and !@#$ down here, alright alright let me get around the corner so when it does explode...lol". "Your Mom and Dad still alive right? Does yoourr Mother knows what you're doing down here!" He's got some good sense of humor and was excited like a kid in Christmas morning because he got down that far to explore. Definitely subscribing to your channel lol! Stay safe and God bless.
Hey GTL, I just wanted to tell you that you are living my childhood dreams! My father and grandfather have been showing me old mines since I was a boy. Since then, I became obsessed with mining and have been a coal/moly/gold miner for 11 years. Recently, I have transferred to being a mining technology specialist. I still take care of the underground mines and am 1 of 6 reps in the nation, on the white iron side. Thank you for helping me discover the insides on the old mines I would die to traverse! I would love to be a part of this!
"Ok I've set foot on every level of this mine" Starts gushing about another level and gets excited about the prospect of exploring it. Gotta love this guy.
The thing I keep thinking about is 100 years from now. Someone might manage to find this again and find the playbutton. It's such a cool idea. Not only are you exploring history you're also making it
Never thought I'd see what appears to be a Neptune pump below ground in a mining cave. Neptune's are great pumps that will pump just about anything even against very high pressure. Yea they HAVE to have oil. They won't work without it. You should build a reservoir to hang above it that would atleast buy you some time and have less trips down
I can’t figure out how in the world they built all those shafts! And the hoist going down! I mean, it’s hard for you guys in 2021 and yet look at all they did! Blows my mind away. I’m so glad you left the RU-vid award down there. I agree with you, it’s exactly where it belongs.
I think It's so difficult now because Brent has to hire people who are bound by modern day safety regulations. They didn't know as much, about as much a hundred years ago
So happy to have gone down to the 9 with you. How amazing. It boggles my mind about what it took for those men back in the 17-1800's. How courageous they were and hard work they performed in the depths of the earth. I always wonder about the air under there. I know at the coal mines I worked, I had to always check the huge fans on intake and output area's. Very interesting for sure. Again thanks for the tour. Congratulations on your 1 Million plack. Way to go ⚒️ people.
Brent, when pumping water from 100's of feet below the surface you need a pump that can handle the head pressure of the depth and the pressure loss of the piping used from bottom to top. A pump that has to push water that far up usually requires multiple pump impeller stages to achieve the pump flow needed to overcome the piping pressure drop loss and the static head pressure of the water in the vertical pipe. You also need a couple of good check valves to keep your vertical pipe full so it does not lose its prime.
This. Honestly seems like too much work to do it right. I'd just do multiple lift pumps, sure you'd have more points of failure, but it would require a much cheaper and simpler pump.
The realest person on all of RU-vid! Been watching since the beginning and continue to look forward to all your videos each week. Can’t wait to make the trip out there one day to lend a helping hand.
And what better security than 900 feet down a 150 year old mineshaft, that requires a team of highly trained specialists to operate the lift engine that can be heard for miles around (so the locals always know when the lift is in operation, and some know when it is not supposed to be in operation), that was placed most publicly on social media, branded RU-vid, so not only can this "gold" ever be fenced, but at least 1 million subscribers might recognize and snitch if this stuff was hot? Cerro Gordo Mine. As a small bonus, it is physically protected by a potentially 100-year-old dynamite pile in near proximity. It is a mystery to me though, of whether those 100-year-old dynamite sticks would, in fact, be dangerous to pick up by hand? My hypothesis is that the nitro glycerin, over the last 100-years, degraded, through a combination of natural degradation, amplified by the relatively high-humidity, even purified by mineralization, to a state of being completely inert, thereby making the dynamite no more dangerous to pick up than the next rock. But the idea of dynamite guarding your publicly secure loot pile and artists tag that is deeper in the mine than the last CEO who thought the 900 level entrance was far enough for the "owner", only the help goes beyond this point. I see two adventures from this point. The blue pill, Hollywood summer blockbuster version of this adventure brings us a heist of epic proportions where a gang of rival RU-vidrs penetrates the security of Cerro Gordo Mine, complete with daring stunts, orchestrated soundtrack, and cave dwelling monsters that run in gangs. The Golden RU-vid button has been stolen by the best (and worst) high adventure cat-burglars that come from, and retreat to, El Salvador (because, yes, Bitcoin). Will the Golden RU-vid button be recovered in 104 minutes or less, but no less than 90 minutes? The red pill version is brought to us by Brent. Brent is proving, as the new CEO, he is willing to go deeper in the mine than he is willing to carry RU-vid's loot pile. Brent is also proving that he is earnest about searching out as much of the mine as can safely be done with no loss of life. So far, his safety record is 100%, no loss of life. Also, Brent is willing to shlep your stuff, deep into his mine, to be recovered by our future selves, or descendants. Certainly, it must be recovered at a future point for some sufficiently more profitable endeavor, or your stuff will rot like wet timbers and be reabsorbed by the earth in a way that is like a horror show in super-slow-motion. Brent does not provide this service for free. He absolutely deserves to charge a storage fee. And a 36 minute vlog style, produced, edited, proofed, and distributed proof-of-work video, that ought to be an NFT, minted on Hedera Hashgraph, and legal proof of the location of the item. The NFT specifies rightful ownership of the item. Imagine who else could sponsor a plaque be placed in the secure environs of the Cerro Gordo Mine. Which is more secure, the NFT, or the RU-vid miner and his mine?
I love what RU-vidr's do with their play buttons: melt them down and change them into other things, send them back for a laugh, bury them in mines. It makes the achievement that much cooler when people utilize an achievement as a way to further what they do or who they are. Love this!
Respect to those who built the lift shaft all the way down there…. it still look strong and sturdy after all these years. That’s the main adventure root from past to future.
i love everything about this channel, you're casually exploring an old mineshaft and finding museum pieces for fun. looking forward to watching a bunch of your old videos while i wait for new ones theres something in me that feels satisfaction watching you take down modern tools and grabbing a chunk of ore, and bringing new machinery in to explore, its really cool how you've brought us with you into a time capsule.
Wow imagine someone unaware, 50 years from now, finds the plaque, sees the name on it and searches it on their chip then finds all these great videos. Not only entertaining, but you are doing well in preserving history and have opened up a lot of minds doing so :) Love from Australia
To all the people that help brent out i just want to say a huge thank you as so many want to help all over the world,but in reality we are all to far away so to see people willing to put themselves out there i just want you all to know it does not go unseen. A big THANK YOU
I love how adventurous you are, I wish I could do the same without getting so panicked, heck, I get panicked if I get lost driving somewhere! God be with you and never loose that explorer in yourself! Love what you are doing!
I would have taken an up dated photo in the exact location as the one in your Gen Store. Kind of of a then and now to show everyone what's changed. Also put the YT award next to the sign on the wall. Only because if the tunnel caves the plack will still be seen in the future. That's just my 2 cents... I get how excited you were and I really enjoyed the video. When will you start taking reservations for the Hotel? Were excited to see it finished. Your doing an amazing job! Thank you for all your videos.
I think this might be my favourite video through all these years of Ghost Town Living. I revisit it now and then - there's something about going all the way down to the very bottom that really makes it extra interesting. Would love to see you go back down someday, Brent, and explore some more, perhaps even see if the entrance to the 1100 is still accessible.
Many times it is difficult to envision what a person will look like in their old age. With you, however, I find it very easy. You are the real deal man, and you already look like the younger version of an old prospector! What an adventure!
Imagine telling the old timers back then that the town would be funded by people watching videos on a screen they woulda called you crazy and laughed 😂 🤣
One thing that is amazing is, we can just sit in the comfort of our homes and experience the exploration without the danger or the cost. Anyone around the world can see this. Well done.
Man when the RU-vid algorithm recommended me this channel when Brent made his trip to snowy Cerro Gordo in his 2wd Truck, I wouldn't thought that we will get to that point so fast. Congratulations man! Totally gonna visit once I'll get to the US again!
I used to read a lot of Louis Lamour as a kid. He wrote several books that feature Cerro Gordo. I've always wanted to visit. Maybe I'll get a chance to come out and volunteer sometime. Love the content man. Keep it up. 👍
@@gathererofmagic5350 Yup! His books were the first time I heard of the town. He wrote about quite a few mining towns. The cool thing about him is he traveled to most of the places he wrote about. He even had some mining experience of his own. He was an avid historian, and his library was over 30 thousand volumes at the time of his death.
The graffiti on the walls is so interesting, these signs of humanity and personality across the walls everywhere..! Amazing you guys made it down and congrats on 1 million!!! Can't wait to see the journey continue :)
Watching this channel has become a family thing. I got my dad hooked on it and we discuss each episode. We're big fans of history and what is so great is that you go into detail with research and facts that makes it feel so more amazing. This episode was fantastic. Every time you go underground, I hold my breath for dear life and watch in amazement at the stuff you uncover. Congratulations on 1 million Brent!
TV productions don't even come close to this. No fancy music or overdubs, just one guy (mostly) and a mission (for whatever reson). Having good bros with you is essential. Bros are a valuable resource.
And to think that all the tailings that were displaced by the digging and dynamite had to be brought up to the surface and distributed, at least most of it. Imagine all the labor involved. Mind boggling. By far my favorite Y T channel. In the 1990's I and the wife rode 2 up on my dirtbike, up the Cerro Gordo road and visited the town. There was an elderly couple who were caretakers. We hope to book an overnight in the new American Hotel someday.
To bad you didn’t read the comments in hear , you could be geting a lot more help . Pumping water that far up is not gonna work your always gona have problems . Ide come down and get that piping right but , I cannot afford it however if you can post a video of your hole piping system I can see what’s going on and give you some ideas . First off I can tell you that you need some check valves installed from your water supply to the pump and more after the pump going up the shaft , second you need to put your tanks and what ever is suppling your water down hill a ways from we’re your pipe is coming up out the mine . Gravity will help with a siphon affect and take a little work off your pump . Good luck and hope You read my comment
I've been a building engineer all my life, and totally agree with you about the improvements he needs to his system. 700 feet is a lot of head pressure to overcome. The checks valves are an easy fix. He might be better off with an air driven water pump, but that would involve more work and expense. Good job guys. Stay safe!!
The real reason you received this honor is... you. Your educational, entertaining presentations rate #1 with your followers. Do, please, continue sharing your amazing adventures with us. Cheers, Dick from Vancouver.
Amazing adventure of exploration! Wow. I’ve never before seen anything like this. Thanks for sharing your curiosity with us and for giving us a look at the history of mining. It really makes you appreciate the adversity and difficulty the original miners must have faced, and the ingenuity necessary to achieve such an amazing feat of engineering that led to the creation of the maze of mines you have revealed for us. Bravo and congratulations to you all.👏👍👏👍
i have a feeling if osha was watching this channel, brent would be evicted and that entire property would be bulldozed within a week or two. that entire place is a death trap, the "improvements" brent is doing are actually making issues more dangerous by the day. i honestly find it very hard to believe he ever secured an occupancy permit, little lone a building permit. brent desperately needs a good lawyer, a good general contractor, and a security expert on hand for anything he does here or he will end up being sued into the ground or in prison for gross negligence that will eventually lead to someone's death. if it wasn't for the fact that i live in illinois, and it would cost a small fortune to do so, i'd be very tempted to go out there to cover the building and security aspects in exchange for a couple acres on the land that i could homestead on. honestly wouldn't be a bad deal... there is plenty of land out there, and i wouldn't want to be in town, I'd rather be at one of the far corners if possible so i could escape the insanity when i wanted to lol.
I’m just glad you’re taking the time to document everything. I feel like most RU-vid channels just post shorts from TikTok. I feel like there’s fewer and fewer channels are making content worthy of watching.
you can actually buy extra play buttons from youtube. it would be cool to get another one so you have one in the mine and one in the museum for people to look at
Sold on July 13, 2018 for $1.4 million, you were the guy! Just looked up how to buy a ghost town and Cerro Gordos was listed on there. So cool man, what a great life project.
you're living in the coolest museum ive ever seen, i wonder how difficult would it be to 3d map the mine shafts so you can get a perspective on where you've managed to explore
Oh wow you left the plaque down there, thats pretty cool! I imagine 200 years from now when we and our children are all long gone somone with enough courage will venture down & find that plaque.
If you want a pump that will not fail at priming or pumping look up the peristaltic pump by randolph austin. It works awesome and is very rugged, simple, and reliable. The pump you’re using requires net positive suction head, in other words input pressure, such as from a tank at a higher level or from a booster pump. With that pump you’re using you’re gonna continue having problems unless it can be under the water level.
You need to document all the different graffiti in the mines and make an album of them. If you had some people that would be willing to help, you could clean all the rocks from each level to make it safer to do more exploring. You could contact a mining school and see if an instructor and some students would like to come there to stabilize any area that would need it.