Amazing how these adits are all lined with stone arches, this mine must have been extremely productive to justify the expense. The life of a miner in this old mine is unimaginably hard by current standards. Imagine walking a mile or two from home then another mile underground, eight hours of manual labour followed by another walk back home!
The stone arching was because of tge scarsity of wood, it was actually the cheaper option. Yes when there was bad airflow, they would often come in in the morning and the fumes from the last explosion hadn't cleared so they'd be working side by side without being able to see each other.
Oh what a shame it didn't go, a nice little level though, the little shaft at the entrance is for pulling stale air out, just the middle one to get in next but would need some digging out and a good way off California, great video as always Ste
Thanks Keith yes, a shame as you know what is just beyond the collapse. To the target you speak of, next week's video shows another route we will be attempting in the future, plus we found an open shaft today believed to be part of that mine
At 8:44 what is the chimney thing that they find. I found one of these when i was inside a culvert about 10m away from the entrace. Any answers greatly appreciated
Found out later, it's an air shaft. Main portal would be closed then a burning basket raised up the shaft to draw air from in the mine, then a pipe would suck air into the mine, replenishing it .
