The Most Dangerous Mine in Oregon! 

I love the countryside, the adventure, and the music! Thank you!

Heading to Sumpter this Spring. Live about three hours North of that. I'll now avoid that mine, thanks for shedding light on the dangers. Probably just saved my life. Awesome video, very informative.

Ham, you have done a great service with this video. Few others, when filming mine exploration videos, send a message like you have done. Great job, sir.

Nice work, never realized the ground could collapse beneath me around a mine. I’m super glad to have seen this. Thx

I’m from Sumpter and that mine had been closed before the 70’s because I’ve been in that thing a thousand times when I was a kid.

very very nice job you do putting these together ! please keep them coming !

I inspected the Columbia when I worked for Pacific Suma in the mid 80's. It has Bad Air in many places and is subject to collapse as the rock is highly fractured. Do not enter without a Mine Gas Detector, an 02 sensor is not enough as Hydrogen Sulfide is another Hazard there.

Wow scary to see all the open earth, Thank you for bringing us along, Fine job.

I spent three days and trapped in a damn mine. That was a feeling I'll never forget.

Awesome! I did a mine video at Cornucopia recently. People love mining videos. I have been wanting to do more.

Thank you for the video... I enjoy watching mine exploration. Please be careful!

Nice video with safety kept in mind. I remember working on my uncle's ranch between Prairie City and John Day that there's an old mine pn the trail we used to drive the cattle from summer pasture to the home pasture. It had a small pond about 100 feet below the opening that was a bright blue. At the time I didn't understand why my uncle insisted on staying quite a way from the pind, but now suspect that the pond was seriously contaminated by cyanide. The adit opening looked to be fairly well timbered, but it's been nearly 50 years since I last saw it - anyways younger observations aren't nearly as accurate as adult ones.

I just ran across this and thought a stick of dynamite would collapse the fragile top in enough that less danger of someone getting hurt, but more than likely it will take several to do the job right, it's amazing how they chased the gold to the top and turned around and went back in, must of pulled a lot out that mountain, I can only imagine what it would look like under ground, I bet they dug so much out and timbered that it's probably a shell from hell, my compliments sir

That was fantastic!!! Love the music too!! I don't blame you for not venturing into some of those holes. Willing to bet there is still a considerable amount of gold there. Likely were just going for the high grade visible gold. Does anyone still have a claim to this? Wow!! Watch your step! Just came across your video's now, looking forward to seeing more!! Thanks for sharing this.

Great video. I haven't been to that mine in close to 15 years...and I never explored the area above it. Given the collapsing stopes, I probably never will. The history is fascinating. There is a collapsed float plant back in the hills not too far from the F.S. campground where the John Day (IIRC) River goes under the highway between Granite and the backside of Anthony Lakes. There's a pic of the float plant in the book "Gold Mines of Oregon" that I purchased down at the dredge in Sumpter years ago. The construction was of bricks and many, many of the bricks had "Spokane" molded into them. That was a fun area to camp/explore in.

Hey, Thanks. I appreciate you efforts.

Geez that place is a death trap, great vid

You can see hundreds of feet of caved tunnels in that last drone shot. .....awesome footage

Thank you for the upload!!

Ham - @ 30:32 - Zinc Shavings . . . used after the Cyanide process . Actually , during the process - Cyanide has a greater attraction for Zinc than it does for Gold & Silver , so Zinc is added to the "pregnant" solution whereby the dissolved Gold & Siver are dropped out of solution ( MacArthur-Forrest process ) and recovered on large Filter Screens where it is scraped off , dried , and sent to the Smelter for further separation of the precious metals . The "barren" solution is then pumped to the "Barren Pond" where more Cyanide is added . The "recharged" Cyanide solution is then pumped back to the Leaching system to continue the process . < Doc - Miner / Leach Plant Operator , for over 50 years > .

You got a like and a sub for the music.... The State,(here too), and the hobby!

The area with all the bricks was likely a smelter-furnace, either for the assayer, for making doré bars or both. Unless there was a close-by source for bricks they weren't usually used for building construction not associated with furnaces. Often the point of doré bars was due to refineries were a long way to transport the milled ore and it cut the transport costs to the refineries way back.

Reminds me of lightning ridge where they just have all of the abandoned mine shafts laying around

I know exactly how you felt walking around on that ground. I experienced very similar ground on the Silver Queen mine and mt. in the Mojave area in California. Very dangerous even to the wildlife given how many coyote remains and skeletons of smaller animals I saw in deep pits. Good advice and video

There is an old mine very similar to this one in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The name of it is Grand Junction. The entire mountain is quartz and the got under it and sank a shaft around 980 feet. All that remains now is a gigantic hole on the strike but like you see here there are so many deep holes and sunken stopes that it is dangerous to be walking around up there. The main haulage addit had bat bars on it but you can gain access to the workings by dropping down the massive open stope. I'd never go in there. Maybe Canadian Frank or someone as nuts as him would. Not me though! Stay out stay alive. Watch your step 😊

I have a great grandfather that is buried in that mine shaft.

I'd hate to be walking through this area in thick snow and start free falling. Awesome video.

We all try to save money now in days I still watched it all just like your video's keep up the good videos just be safe and never go in any unsafe mine have someone with you I am sure you do be safe out there

It looks like a giant mole hill. I just found your channel today and I am glad I did. Very nice video. I look forward to more. Please keep them coming. BTW, My Cousin, runs a logging company out of Yamhill. Are you anywhere around there. Best Regards, Ody Slim BTW, the drone shots really helped show how bad is was

In B.C canada you can placer mine tailings! It's a small loop hole in hard rock mining! So person that was digging with the excavator was seeing if it was worth placer mining!

It goes pretty far past that point and there’s a room you can go into on the right

Scary stuff but very interesting

Great place and well documented you have another subscriber thankyou

My most dangerous adit is the Blue Canyon coal works. It help get an entire crew bucket- poured into one dug grave. The mine owner put their names on a poured concrete slab that was also poured in. All crushed by one falling ceiling collapse. Pumped water was used to flush out the reclaimed tunnel stink. Exploding coal gas took its toll of lives too.

Another nice video :)

"Stope till you see daylight".

roots are the only thing holding the hillside together

Nice find. So glad you made it out safely.

Wow! That place was nuts! I can't believe those guys would chance it for ore! It's not like they were getting the main bulk of what came out of the mines

That is the worst mine I've ever seen, and I've been to a lot of mines. I've been in mines full of hydrogen sulfide that scared me less than that mess of open stopes.

Great job on the video. Lots of thoughtful information and insights. ?? What is your background?

vERY INTERESTING! thanks! =]

very exciting

I went about 40 yards into this mine. Then...nope! That’s far enough

If there was gold there then there still is. Old tailing piles usually still have gold in them, since modern mining technics are better than the old ones. Old sleuths were mostly made of wood, while new ones are made of steel or aluminum. This mine looks more modern than most of the ones around here that were closed at the start of the civil war. When the civil war started most mines were closed, they quit mining gold and started mining lead for bullets.

I’ve been to this mine several times but never went in. Entrance blocked with welded rails

Do you feel uncomfortable up there? I hear the mines in Sumpter were haunted and alot of weird stuff happened up their.

I loved the video. I wonder if you have ever been in the E&E or Co nti nental down below here. I consider the Golconda a very dangwerous mine because the shaft was over 1/4 mi. deep. It was probably the richest around there since it was a chimeny and the miners had to bar the gold off the walls likes plates of steel.

Are you going to do any videos of the mines right in Bourne like the E & E or Tabor Fraction. I tried to get into the Gulconda but no show. It was mostly a 1,300 ft. deep shaft from the top of the hill but was incredibly rich.

Makes me wonder how many of those old miners lived long enough to spend any of the money they got out of there! Risky business, indeed.

The people that remove all this material and then leave it in a way that is depleted dangerous and unsightly, deathtrap for wildlife, maybe I don't know much about the workings of mining, but if this is public land, what a big loss to all of us, this should be a government cleanup site, or someone should be responsible for this, this is just a shame that this is allowed to be, other than that thanks for sharing your video and bringing this to everyone's attention good job.

Thank you

Been here several times but was always not open

Thumbs up on music alone

I would agree with it being one of the worst and no it should be off limits. To unstable

richt sound chanel is not working wel video is great manny greatings from Holland sorry for my english

You must work for the state. No mine is safe, that comes with the job.

I know this is a old video but I’ve been inside that mine before they blocked it my family has some more info if you want

Metal detector would be fun to try .But be safe .😊😊

There are vids on youtube of 23,000 oz per ton ore, just look.

Steve: *Hold my pickaxe*

aren't there rattlers in that tunnel?

Thanks for braving it out and going back in there. You could probably go back in there many times and be relatively safe because you are leery and aware, but the wrong people back in there would be a disaster. Some teens on dirt bikes? Mmmm

At 19:38 you're a lot closer than I would have been.

Looks like they should have just done a open pit mine, right now the area needs a good earthquake to collapse all of it and make it a little safer! No explore is worth a life!

All that that you say is collapsed to me looks like killing piles that are hundred or so feet up doesn’t look like collapses this looks like where they dumped the tailings after bringing in the specially where the rails are

Camera constantly swaying and moving makes it hard to watch. This would be much better with stabilized video

Is this area marked. So many open stopes. This should be closed off or they should be filled or some signs at least. Especially some signs in Deer would be nice. Oh ya killer video.

Why does everyone call it waste rock?....They're called tailings....

the one who was purposely doing it, leaving part of it dangerous for those who saw it, did not come in. I think there is a lot of gold, so I think it would come back for another reason they did not return that dangerous area. gold to the bottom

Looks like bigfoot territory to me lol

So, can you find gold in these old mines? And if so, how would an amateur go about it? (Obviously not this mine as it is dangerous)

Was that a rattle snake at 24:34?

Not a good place to ride your 4-wheeler cross country, eh?

Death trap mine not for me

Think your mike has a broken wire

7:40 poison rocks !! one drop will likely kill you

another silent video