Hi Thanks for the vids. You are a game man going into a mine that is possible got gas. I'm in Australia and I have a gas detector (Peel), Detects 4 gases' and low oxygen. Some gases' are odourless and very dangerous. Anyway you got out safe and showed us some great sites. Not sure if you can get that detector over there. Dennis
Over the years I have realized that as people traveled west in search of gold they took the names of places with them. Probably out of loneliness. Or perhaps just a lack of creativity.
Thanks! We are in California. I understand the confusion due to the name. It is quite a common mixup. Some silly person decided to name one of our mountain ranges "El Paso Mountins".
Great stuff here. I’m hoping to make it out there in the spring if I can find a co-pilot. Hate doing solo runs too dangerous. Bring a black light in these mines if ya wanna see mineral magic 👍👍🍺🍺
The last tunnel was fairly long. It seems as if they must have had some good ore to justify such an effort to make a tunnel as long as they did? Great video, thank you for posting.
From what I have seen sometimes there is a vein spotted up top and they blast a haulage adit through the mountain hoping to get underneath because it is far easier to drop ore into carts and roll them out vs pulling the ore up through a vertical shaft. That seemed to be the case there. At least to me. Either there was a collapse at the end of that adit and there were some stopes that were unacceptable or that was back fill and the vein didn't produce like they had hoped. Both are rather common sadly.
Bro where the Red stuff was mixed in with the Grey that's a Gold vien 💪😎🇺🇸⛏️🦅🍺💯it became a placer deposit millions of yrs ago from the Ocean today it's higher elevation but the placer materials contain the gold if you were to crush a bunch of that material you would get rich Today it's probably a double load deposit
Can I ask something? It seems like the holes on the tops of the hills are almost always vertical shafts. Why don’t you start down with some of the lower adits?
Always enjoy your videos. You go into some sketchy places but very interesting. I too have always wondered why it was such Coarsegold in the foothills of the El Paso’s but the Hard rock mines don’t seem to have done much quite a few copper mines in the area and that’s the bottom base metal I guess the good stuff you wrote it off the top eons ago. Check out the RU-vid Forgotten Mining history he posted some video of some of the mines went to.
I've often wondered about the fact there isn't a large mine because of the nuggets that have been found to. I think the source veins for them are long gone. 😢😢
We appreciate you taking us along on your adventures, however not a wise move to enter into any mine without having an oxygen or gas meter for your safety. Happy hunting....
I explored this area back in Dec. 1989. I think you're showing Gerbracht Camp (not sure) as the cabin. The first mine has a live snake at 16 minutes point, that's a cool shot. Later your last adit , the very long one, I'm pretty sure is the Copper Chief Mine which was operated in 1940-1950 era. My 12/1989 notes say " explored 750-foot adit trending west, two 30-foot drifts near end, 12 X 12 timbering noted." The workings in this video match my 1989 description, but where are the 12X 12 timbers? Keep the videos coming, Rick in Oregon.
Thank you for the info! The mine sounds correct. I will look into it a bit. As for the first cabin someone chimed in as it being Walsh Cabin. I am still unsure about the second unless you are referring to the "Rock Palace". As for the snake, you must have been skipping through and missed me falling on my butt when I noticed it. 😛
Prior to me entering the mine above the rock palace I noted a smaller adit to the left. As best I can tell that is a tungsten mine called J.D. Voss. I have not been able to find much more than that. Feel free to share a link to whatever data you have.
@@Oidium45 You can find a wealth of information in California Division of Mines and Geology, County Report 1, Mines and mineral resources of Kern County California. Copper Chief Mine is described on page 86. I have the paper copy with the county map. If it's still available in paper, cool. If not maybe it's on PDF? You need to contact CDMG in Sacramento to obtain copies of CR1. Good luck in your prospecting and mine explorations.
Next time you're feeling a adventurous look up the Nadeau mine. Its located west of inyokern on the Eastern face of the sierras. Easy to get to in a 4wd. They left ALL their equipment there. Lots of it. Was a hard rock gold mine. Nice place to camp. Unbelievable what these miners left behind.
Thanks for the info! I went up near there one day for some light exploring with my son. I believe we were on 9 mile canyon rd. I was surprised how many small adits there were in the hills. Could certainly house some cool stuff up there for future exploration :)
I'm pretty sure that's the same place. Indian Wells Canyon road is also referred to as Nine Mile Canyon. Causes some confusion because the road from 395 to Kennedy Meadows is also called Nine Mile Canyon Rd. The amount of heavy equipment left at Nadeau Mine is crazy. I guess they could not figure out how to take it back down the hill. There's the old miners cabin there. Nice camping spot.
There are certainly more areas to explore up there. Every time I open google maps I spot something new and of course laying boots on the ground you end up finding a ton of places that did not stand out on the maps.
I don't know where you live but when I was out there I took the 395 home to the 15 in hesperia (main st /phelan rd) then left to pick up the 15 south then you can pick up the 210 ,10 ,60 freeways same way back left on garlock rd better way then the 5 to the 14/58 then on the 14 again then the right on redrock /randsburg rd up to you you have a map for there if so where did you get it from please
I am coming from the other side of the hill so the 14 to Redrock is the quickest option. As far as a map I just spent a lengthy period of time examining areas through google maps and flagged areas of interest.
@@Oidium45 if you feel like it group outing next weekend go to gpaa.net your a member of gpaa right (benson canyon) maybe I'll see you there pat says the gold has been flowing down for thousands of years people om quads have road all over the place (GOLD EVERY WHERE) and greedy gringos every where (you don't have to be a gringo)
I can give you a hint. If you follow Iron canyon up to where you are right in the middle of EP11 and Mesquite Canyon you should spot it pretty easily on a map.
Yeap. Well it's 80 miles to the east. There is was big salt lake. We're accaully it was a sea. Want to buy 10 acres on the old shore? I'll sell it for $20,000.
Want gold mines near El Paso, Texas? There is gold near it. Just most don't know about it. Several mines you can not go to. People even say there is no gold in Texas. But there is. Several gold mines are in the Guetalupia mountains. Before the Forest department closed them down to make the park that El Capitan, the tallest mountain in Texas is located. There is a lot of gold in Far southwest Texas. But it 500 to 2000 feet down.
What in God’s green acre would drive men to bore like moles into this Godforsaken Hellscape? And was all this labor worth it? Be nice to know a bit more history. One see’s quartz and gold comes to mind, but you reference silver a lot. Where did the process the ore and how did they transport it? Open scene of “There Will Be Blood” written all over this.