That looks exactly like what my grandfather and his brother used to do. Their claim never really made much in profit, covered expenses and a little to play with. They repurposed a lot of stuff, grandpa built a bunch of stuff from scratch also. That jaw crusher looks like it may have been taken from a retired gravel crushing operation, thats where gramps came from. The stamp mill they had was a wore out machine grampa traded for then rebuilt. Grampa was a blackdmith and welder, ive got a ton of memories of stoking the forge or dragging leads and setting up stuff for welding on that old iron.
Cool. Just throwing this out there: I've been watching "Central Washington University"'s uploads of Nick's geology lectures. It's a very "watchable" and entertaining bit of geological storytelling on their YT channel. It's focused on Washington State's geology but he touches on several aspects of Northern California and Oregon too. It's non-monetized and uploaded just for the open source love for the subject. (Not that I have anything against individuals that monetize to support grassroots type content ;-) I've also been watching "911Mining & Prospecting." He doesn't do much to educate the viewer about the geology/mineralogy but his uploads are quick and contain lots of easy to research terminology. It's easy to watch his uploads and intuitively understand what a prospector really sees and the important signs they are looking for within the rocks on the surface. It's interesting to piece together the signs he mentions and the abandoned mines TVR is exploring. 911's real hook is that he shows the samples he sends off for analysis and then actually posts the assayed results at the end of most uploads. I've looked up current market prices and compared them to the projected per-ton yield percentages from his posted assay results. It really shows what this stuff is worth and how the numbers work out. Plus watching from the perspective of an institutionally educated prospector is just interesting. There's absolutely no emotional hype on his channel, just the raw assessment of the facts, and it is left entirely up to the viewer to self educate themselves in order to understand. ...anyways...I have absolutely no affiliation with either channel. I just thought I'd mention it for those that like the geology side in addition to the exploration. IMO there are a lot of fluff channels about mining/prospecting type content. Few do clean, unemotional, intuitively clear content well, like here with the exploration. Also finding academically centered content about geology that is created for the average layperson is rare. I just thought I'd mention these as they really stand out IMO. As always, thanks for the upload. -Jake
Thanks for sharing those two resources. I'm familiar with 911 and he posts some great stuff... I didn't know about the Central Washington University channel though and will check that out.
Keep in mind that during the great depression of the 1930's there was an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people trying to make money mining in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. A vast majority never made enough to keep going. But, hope springs eternal.
Yes, that's 100% correct. The area saw a huge surge in mining activity during that period (which was assisted by the government repricing the value of an ounce of gold up to $35 an ounce).
I hate to repeat myself but the picture quality of your camera, how you use your lighting and your perfect dialogue is so impressive. That's why I love your videos. Keep up the great work.
my father worked in the coal mining industry when i was a kid and on my first visit into one of the shafts it was already pretty modern (1995) i love to see all these different and old mines over there in the usa since it's something i have never put a foot into. ty for exploring them for us
Excellent video as always man! Could those massive cuts have been done with hydraulics for placer Gold? Where did all the material go? They could have filled a small canyon with all the material they removed. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Thank you very much. Hydraulic mining has a different look than those cuts did and so I think those were chasing lode deposits... There was an area near the entrance where the dirt apparently removed from those massive cuts had been spread around.
I think that I am seeing recent mining activity there: pull tab cans, plywood outhouse, not so old cut limbs, recent growth trees, strong colors on the "Little Red Wagon" and other equipment, not sure if I saw welding seams on stamp mill and your statement about equipment may have been salvaged from elsewhere.
Now, THAT'S dedication! If not for those cuts & the creekbed, access to this abandoned mine would've been limited, at best. Much obliged to u for a glimpse into CA's interior that I'd otherwise never see.
Haha, this wasn't a particularly fun one to get to... It's very ripe for a forest fire though and so I'm sure it will be extremely open and accessible at some point in the future.
I guess it's a large jaw for high-grade gold - I've worked in a mill that ran 1000tph of dolomite through a 42"x48" Hewitt Robins jaw, but we also ran 70-ton haul trucks underground there... At 3:37 - that screen cloth would have been used to pull oversize. If I were to guess, it would have been located after the stamp mill in the circuit - oversize would then be rerun through the mill, and undersize sent to the sluice. Since there wasn't a vibratory screen unit, I'd figure they just dumped ore onto the screen cloth (angled downwards at maybe twenty degrees) and relied on gravity. Also implies that the gold was free-milling. A pretty nice operation, IF the gold grade is there to cover costs. At 11:19, that was most likely a waste track. Lately, I've been poking around obscure mines in hope of finding a good vein to drill and have my cuttings assayed, but will do some historic sites this weekend. I'm planning on reconnoitering access to one of the largest interconnected mine complexes in New Mexico tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes, it's got at least 10 levels, at least 9 of which I know to be dry, connecting four distinct mines. This one might be worth your time to come see!
Ha, yeah, for the little gold mines in the area, that jaw crusher was a beast... Thank you for detailing the workings of the milling process. I was wondering how all of that fit together. That site in New Mexico sounds incredible! Yes, please let me know how that goes!
Were those cuts purely to move around or was there an actual quartz seam that they dug and followed underground? Maybe there was gold taken from those cuts as well.
It's difficult to say for sure. Perhaps both? The first site we visited was definitely a large adit. Perhaps a later crew came along and excavated it out since it was caved in that bad ground? I didn't drop into the other cuts to see if they were just surface work or had also contained adits. It was a weird mine...
good filming and thanks for talking us through what we are looking at but just goes to show what gold mining can be done on a small budget but done well ?
Trash pits and very old outhouses are my favourite places to find out about the history of a site and the people that once lived there. I will admit to digging quite a few of both in my time. Often times, you come across some very odd or bizarre objects in old trash dumps and especially old privies/outhouses. Someone I know once dug up a human skull in one old outhouse that dated to the 1860's. He left it there and reburied it. That was back in the 1960's however. One has to wonder how that got to where it did and why. Another person I was acquainted with, dug an old outhouse in one of the old ghost towns near where I am from in Montana and found a whole collection of Chinese jade, silver and gold artefacts that must have been hidden in the old outhouse by the original owners in the 19th century and then forgotten about! That was in the old 'Chinatown' part of that particular ghost town. One of my best finds from an old 19th century trash dump was an original and whole 'Yen Hok" or Opium pipe, that both Chinese and Caucasian miners and other folks would use to smoke opium out of back in the day. It cleaned up beautifully and I still have it on display within my collection. That was by far, one of my best finds. One certainly couldn't blame the miners and other people who smoked opium back then, as mining is and was very hard and demanding work. I am sure they felt just fine after a few puffs on their Yen Hok's. Thanks as always for sharing and I will try to not write a dang book next time I comment!
That's one of the advantages of these little mines hidden away in the forest as opposed to the easily visible mines in open places like Nevada. There can still be stuff to see on the outside, you know?
Looked like it was a pretty good size operation in it's day, especially for having homemade equipment. That rusty rotten quartz sure looks good. I'd bet it wouldn't be too difficult to come up with some color just using a little sluice in the creek. It was a bit disappointing when he said there was a lot to explore in that adit, then there wasn't. I'm guessing from the lack of poison oak this site is fairly high in elevation.
This was in your backyard and I'd be shocked if you haven't been through this area, but, yes, apparently just high enough to avoid a sea of poison oak! I agree that they wouldn't have had the stamp mill and other equipment for just a little Mickey Mouse operation. So, it makes me wonder how far back that first adit ran, you know? It was obvious that the second adit was enormous in its day.
guys if you ever want to come to my gold mines in the uk in wales there not as good as the us but i think you would have a good time looking around what i have and even secret hidden welsh gold mines would make a good you tube film ?
The Cal Forest service sounds like the same carry on we have here in Australia .We know that fires are a natural part of forest life here, but in places such as the blue mountains in NSW they refer to the rubbish on the ground as "fuel load ". Our trees use fire to germinate new trees and have evolved over the millennia to re grow after fires. That's how Florida found that Australian gum trees planted in the everglades would spread further if they tried burning them out. So,when ever a big fire breaks out here ,the first to get the blame are forest management ,because they deserve it.
I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse that we're not alone in having to put up with terrible forest management. We had a huge fire rip through our property several years ago and I was astonished to see several eucalyptus trees sprouting from the ashes. I have no idea how they got there as there are no eucalyptus trees for miles around. So, yes, they are VERY adapted to the fire cycle.
That was some really bad ground there, I bet they were constantly fighting with collapses whilst it was working, possibly one of the reasons it closed. Nice to see the old equipment still in situ, that is a rare thing over here.
Yes, that crumbly slate is no fun at all... It is as bad as the underground placer mines we encounter. Indeed, it is always nice to come across equipment. That is one of the advantages these spots hidden in the forest have over the easily visible spots in the deserts of places like Nevada.
Thank you G.C.E and TVR . Who went in to check the pass between the levels in the Out house ? You guys are tough , and yes about some of what you said about F.S . Overgrown is right . It was nice that you guys went in the brush to show us this Mine with the Unique self built Equipment .
Haha, well, someone's got to do it, right? Yes, one of the advantages of these mines hidden away in the forest is that there is usually a lot more equipment preserved on the site as opposed to the easily visible mines in places like Nevada.
Yes It was very thick ! We had to run away from a Storm in the Superstition Wilderness once , while looking for a Mine . I was a Javelina Hunt / Back pack Overnite trip . We had no photos and did not find the Opening when the Storm Came and forced us back . We were finding more and more Debris from the Mining venture before things became life threatening . Flash floods and we had to leave the truck on the other side of the Swollen creek . I love your videos because you guys are so tough and can deal with rough conditions . Decades later I found out a man named Miller worked it last in the 1970s . I wish I had film from that trip ! Stay Safe .
I own a 3 Battery Stamp Mill made in 1865 but as far as DIY Stamp Mills go that one looks pretty cool and I bet it worked good. One Sketchy Looking Mine, you wouldn't find this old lode miner in there , Ribs and Back all Checkeredboarded like that, just a Cave In waiting to happen.
I have seen stamp mills in Oregon old mining sites about the same cons ! As far as the cuts and flat area , you would know more about possibility than i would , when i found old camps in past the most had small and large cuts going to bunk house's and grub hall, with miners and with logging camps?? just a thought !
Miners trash dumps are awesome, I grew up in the victoria goldfieds and always found little piles of glass bottles from the early Chinese miners ,I always took some home until I amassed that many my mother threw them all out lol. I was only a kid so I never understood the value or history of the bottles and obviously mother never did either. To her I was just bringing home rubbish.
I'm expecting Port Wine Ridge to have a big fire at some point. Lots of brush to burn hot and fast. A friend lost his home in Paradise. Almost lost the business, too. He makes Sierra Blaster a mining tool.
Silver mine? Doesn't silver look black when in it's raw form in the mine. I went to a silver mine tour in Tombstone they showed us raw silver still in the mine. It looked black with little sparkle to it kind of like coal with tiny flakes of silver reflecting back.
This was a gold mine... Silver ore comes in several forms. There's the one you mentioned, of course, and silver can also be found in galena (which is a combination of lead and silver) where it is quite shiny and, well, silver.
You know that somebody somewhere has passed by a 'Mother Load' of a vein and didn't even know it........that's what it's all about isn't it......... being lucky enough to hit it.... 16 to 1 comes to mind as an example of being lucky, to a certain extent...................... I've drilled 1000's of water wells and test holes all over the Sierras, I never had a clue if I hit any gold, it wouldn't have come up anyway unless it stuck to the drill bit! I did drill a Cable Tool Water Well through dredger tailing in Orville Ca., when I got through the dredger tailing's at 80 ft I made a heavy viscosity Bentonite 'Clay Bombs' and dropped them down the hole then bailed the heavy slury out with what gold that was left from the dredger that didn't make it out in the buckets, as soon as I got through the tailing's I got a small vile of Placer gold in the last 10 ft......................
7:43 -7:44 there's a bug up in the light beam. it's behind the pointed rock in the lightbeam, you see it turn left. Correction, bug. For some stupid reason, the quality bumped on me and it looked like a mouse moving. TH-cam, you silly.
Looks like the forest is pretty healthy there.Considering what the most of Seirra. Looking like.. Looks like some prime Sasquatch stomping ground.Maybe they got run off. You ever hear any talk of on your journys.Not to change the subject line. Just wondering.
@@TVRExploring Im sorry I should wear my glasses an proof read more often. What I was asking. Have you heard. From any your mining contacts. Any Sas sightings our your self .On any of your Journeys. I know it's off subject. But you are out in the forest alot. So thought I d ask.If you dont mind.Thank you.
All of those rocks on the “cave in” appeared to be crushed like 1” minus. If that was the case they back filled it “could have been a law?” I found it odd that it was all the same size materials
Yes, it's entirely possible that they back filled it. I agree with what you said... It also occurred to me that someone may have started working up that area I climbed and dumped all of their muck down into the adit - either over an already collapsed area or causing the blockage in the first place.
I don't think it was a low budget operation. I think they simply spent all of their budget cutting all those channels and were forced to save money elsewhere.
While I'm at it... Think about it. The really smart/business savvy people, when they start a business, they do it for $. period, full stop. They test the ground, get an average return on a pound or a ton. whatever. Then study the commodities markets for average lows and highs. Then figure what their overhead is. Labor, fuel, TAXES, permits, etc. If they can't make a profit of say 20% net(that is what oil companies make on a barrel of oil)they walk. It's either a business or a hobby. Yes?
Yes, forty two is right. As a hobby, there is not a lot to stop you from doing this on a small scale if you pick up the mining. The challenge, given our current regulatory and economic environment, is in doing it profitably!
I think the cut outs would have been a water canon operation blasting the face back to bedrock sluicing out through the cut outs. Once they see rock face they may have found a vein from where the pay was coming out of. Just my armchair quarterback thoughts :~]
If a fire ever gets started there, in all likelihood, it will be another disastrous fire like the fone that wiped out Paradise. With all the windfall and undergrowth, it would take a miracle to stop the fire short of 60,000 acres. Some agency should get in there and clear the windfall and underbrush with a D5 Cat and at least carve some firebreaks and access fire roads.
Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as just bulldozing the brush away because then you get this explosion of brush roaring back in the disturbed soil over the next few years. You can see that after large logging operations if there isn't a lot of followup work done. Instead, something like using goats or controlled burns are a lot more effective in the long run. I'm saying this from a lot of experience with managing fire and fire hazards on a family property in the mountains...
@@TVRExploring I agree. I neglected to mention any follow-up as I figured it would be obvious, but yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Goats would be an excellent choice.
Yes, bulldozer work followed by goats is an excellent combination. I don't know if our government has the drive or capability to pull off an ambitious project like that, I'm afraid.
@@TVRExploring I agree wholeheartedly. It sounds like too much planning and micromanagement would be over-ridden by common sense. That would be devastating to the Fed system.
If I found something like that I would do some discreet sampling.........and like an other persons comenting during the depretion the were thousands cutting a meager living.....in bc Canada where I live there were go emend sponsored Palmer mining depretion camps and schools....1 yr of training and they would cut them loose.......there is one of these camps a few short 50 kilometres from where I live now a provincial park with nary a trace of its past history.....
I didn't know that a similar boom had taken place in BC during that time as well, but it makes sense. Yes, it is a shame how much of our history is being erased.
Haha, yeah, the haters can't seem to stop watching these videos! I think if you click the little bell near the "Subscribe" button that you get the notifications. Or perhaps the BLM has infiltrated TH-cam and is trying to sabotage my channel...
That looks exactly like what my grandfather and his brother used to do. Their claim never really made much in profit, covered expenses and a little to play with. They repurposed a lot of stuff, grandpa built a bunch of stuff from scratch also. That jaw crusher looks like it may have been taken from a retired gravel crushing operation, thats where gramps came from. The stamp mill they had was a wore out machine grampa traded for then rebuilt. Grampa was a blackdmith and welder, ive got a ton of memories of stoking the forge or dragging leads and setting up stuff for welding on that old iron.
Those sound like good memories and it sounds like your grandfather and great uncle would have been interesting characters to hang out with!
Cool.
Just throwing this out there: I've been watching "Central Washington University"'s uploads of Nick's geology lectures. It's a very "watchable" and entertaining bit of geological storytelling on their YT channel. It's focused on Washington State's geology but he touches on several aspects of Northern California and Oregon too. It's non-monetized and uploaded just for the open source love for the subject. (Not that I have anything against individuals that monetize to support grassroots type content ;-)
I've also been watching "911Mining & Prospecting." He doesn't do much to educate the viewer about the geology/mineralogy but his uploads are quick and contain lots of easy to research terminology. It's easy to watch his uploads and intuitively understand what a prospector really sees and the important signs they are looking for within the rocks on the surface. It's interesting to piece together the signs he mentions and the abandoned mines TVR is exploring. 911's real hook is that he shows the samples he sends off for analysis and then actually posts the assayed results at the end of most uploads.
I've looked up current market prices and compared them to the projected per-ton yield percentages from his posted assay results. It really shows what this stuff is worth and how the numbers work out. Plus watching from the perspective of an institutionally educated prospector is just interesting. There's absolutely no emotional hype on his channel, just the raw assessment of the facts, and it is left entirely up to the viewer to self educate themselves in order to understand.
...anyways...I have absolutely no affiliation with either channel. I just thought I'd mention it for those that like the geology side in addition to the exploration. IMO there are a lot of fluff channels about mining/prospecting type content. Few do clean, unemotional, intuitively clear content well, like here with the exploration. Also finding academically centered content about geology that is created for the average layperson is rare. I just thought I'd mention these as they really stand out IMO.
As always, thanks for the upload.
-Jake
Thanks for sharing those two resources. I'm familiar with 911 and he posts some great stuff... I didn't know about the Central Washington University channel though and will check that out.
@@TVRExploring Nick Zentner is a great guy. Always willing to answer questions.
Thank you for sharing! I truly appreciate it.
Keep in mind that during the great depression of the 1930's there was an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people trying to make money mining in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. A vast majority never made enough to keep going. But, hope springs eternal.
Yes, that's 100% correct. The area saw a huge surge in mining activity during that period (which was assisted by the government repricing the value of an ounce of gold up to $35 an ounce).
Thanks for the Videos ,They bring me back in time... I grew up around the 49 Trail ..
I hate to repeat myself but the picture quality of your camera, how you use your lighting and your perfect dialogue is so impressive. That's why I love your videos. Keep up the great work.
Don't worry about repeating yourself, it's nice to have some positivity to balance out the trolls! Thank you for the kind words and support.
I can see why the miners had hope there. The amount of mineralization is astounding.
my father worked in the coal mining industry when i was a kid and on my first visit into one of the shafts it was already pretty modern (1995) i love to see all these different and old mines over there in the usa since it's something i have never put a foot into. ty for exploring them for us
Excellent video as always man! Could those massive cuts have been done with hydraulics for placer Gold? Where did all the material go?
They could have filled a small canyon with all the material they removed. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Thank you very much. Hydraulic mining has a different look than those cuts did and so I think those were chasing lode deposits... There was an area near the entrance where the dirt apparently removed from those massive cuts had been spread around.
You do an exceptional job of bringing us along on the exploration-
Thank you for coming along.
Dang man, you sure find some fabulous spots! Willing to bet there is still some serious gold there!
I think that I am seeing recent mining activity there: pull tab cans, plywood outhouse, not so old cut limbs, recent growth trees, strong colors on the "Little Red Wagon" and other equipment, not sure if I saw welding seams on stamp mill and your statement about equipment may have been salvaged from elsewhere.
Yes, I'd estimate there was active mining taking place up until the late 1970s or even the early 1980s in one form or another.
Now, THAT'S dedication! If not for those cuts & the creekbed, access to this abandoned mine would've been limited, at best. Much obliged to u for a glimpse into CA's interior that I'd otherwise never see.
Haha, this wasn't a particularly fun one to get to... It's very ripe for a forest fire though and so I'm sure it will be extremely open and accessible at some point in the future.
There looked to be an adit under the outhouse, surprised you did not go down and explored that chamber.
That'll be in Part 2.
I guess it's a large jaw for high-grade gold - I've worked in a mill that ran 1000tph of dolomite through a 42"x48" Hewitt Robins jaw, but we also ran 70-ton haul trucks underground there...
At 3:37 - that screen cloth would have been used to pull oversize. If I were to guess, it would have been located after the stamp mill in the circuit - oversize would then be rerun through the mill, and undersize sent to the sluice. Since there wasn't a vibratory screen unit, I'd figure they just dumped ore onto the screen cloth (angled downwards at maybe twenty degrees) and relied on gravity. Also implies that the gold was free-milling. A pretty nice operation, IF the gold grade is there to cover costs.
At 11:19, that was most likely a waste track.
Lately, I've been poking around obscure mines in hope of finding a good vein to drill and have my cuttings assayed, but will do some historic sites this weekend. I'm planning on reconnoitering access to one of the largest interconnected mine complexes in New Mexico tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes, it's got at least 10 levels, at least 9 of which I know to be dry, connecting four distinct mines. This one might be worth your time to come see!
Ha, yeah, for the little gold mines in the area, that jaw crusher was a beast...
Thank you for detailing the workings of the milling process. I was wondering how all of that fit together.
That site in New Mexico sounds incredible! Yes, please let me know how that goes!
Were those cuts purely to move around or was there an actual quartz seam that they dug and followed underground? Maybe there was gold taken from those cuts as well.
It's difficult to say for sure. Perhaps both? The first site we visited was definitely a large adit. Perhaps a later crew came along and excavated it out since it was caved in that bad ground? I didn't drop into the other cuts to see if they were just surface work or had also contained adits. It was a weird mine...
good filming and thanks for talking us through what we are looking at but just goes to show what gold mining can be done on a small budget but done well ?
Trash pits and very old outhouses are my favourite places to find out about the history of a site and the people that once lived there. I will admit to digging quite a few of both in my time. Often times, you come across some very odd or bizarre objects in old trash dumps and especially old privies/outhouses. Someone I know once dug up a human skull in one old outhouse that dated to the 1860's. He left it there and reburied it. That was back in the 1960's however. One has to wonder how that got to where it did and why. Another person I was acquainted with, dug an old outhouse in one of the old ghost towns near where I am from in Montana and found a whole collection of Chinese jade, silver and gold artefacts that must have been hidden in the old outhouse by the original owners in the 19th century and then forgotten about! That was in the old 'Chinatown' part of that particular ghost town. One of my best finds from an old 19th century trash dump was an original and whole 'Yen Hok" or Opium pipe, that both Chinese and Caucasian miners and other folks would use to smoke opium out of back in the day. It cleaned up beautifully and I still have it on display within my collection. That was by far, one of my best finds. One certainly couldn't blame the miners and other people who smoked opium back then, as mining is and was very hard and demanding work. I am sure they felt just fine after a few puffs on their Yen Hok's. Thanks as always for sharing and I will try to not write a dang book next time I comment!
I have been watching some of your videos. Very Interesting.. What is the longest mine you have been in? Keep filling...
The trees are so tall because they are beside the outhouse. LOL. Pretty cool mine location.
Great stuff! Love that you share your explorations. Thank you!
Thank you for watching.
Ingenuity is not dead ;) Such a thick and lush forest.
Very good. Wow that really was a big addition. Thank you
A very strange mine...
Great site! The first adit had a curious mixture of matrices, several of which I hadn't seen before. Thanks!
Yes, this was a weird mine. Lots of unique things here...
Great finds outside! Wow!
That's one of the advantages of these little mines hidden away in the forest as opposed to the easily visible mines in open places like Nevada. There can still be stuff to see on the outside, you know?
Nice one! I loved seeing the rustic stamp equipment - pretty impressive for being homemade.
I was impressed! It's amazing what human ingenuity can accomplish.
More like mine forensics than mine exploration today lol, but still is interesting.
Looks like perfect weather to be exploring
For once, it was!
Great adit. Thank you
Looked like it was a pretty good size operation in it's day, especially for having homemade equipment. That rusty rotten quartz sure looks good. I'd bet it wouldn't be too difficult to come up with some color just using a little sluice in the creek. It was a bit disappointing when he said there was a lot to explore in that adit, then there wasn't. I'm guessing from the lack of poison oak this site is fairly high in elevation.
This was in your backyard and I'd be shocked if you haven't been through this area, but, yes, apparently just high enough to avoid a sea of poison oak! I agree that they wouldn't have had the stamp mill and other equipment for just a little Mickey Mouse operation. So, it makes me wonder how far back that first adit ran, you know? It was obvious that the second adit was enormous in its day.
Great area and i think it can become another kampfire, enough fuel for that sadly. Nice video mate.
Thank you. Yes, unfortunately, I think it is just a matter of time until it is burned badly.
Do you ever wear a radon detector ? Thank you for more great adventures. Keep up the good work 👍
Thank you. No, I don't own a radon detector.
Have you explored the mines at Placerites, Nv? I was just up there but ran out of time before I could get over to the mine.
No, I haven't been there. What kind of mining stuff is out there?
@@TVRExploring there's a Tressel at the opening of adit, not enough for an episode, but I wasn't able to fully explore the whole site.
Sounds interesting... I didn't even have that area on my list.
@@TVRExploring I believe the name is Wildcat mine. There are a ton of real cool mines out there.
guys if you ever want to come to my gold mines in the uk in wales there not as good as the us but i think you would have a good time looking around what i have and even secret hidden welsh gold mines would make a good you tube film ?
Thank you. I'd love to take you up on that sometime. I was last in Wales two years ago hope to return before too much longer.
@@TVRExploring well when you do just drop me a email it would be a pleasure to have you
Thank you.
Thank you 😊 always fun and interesting
The Cal Forest service sounds like the same carry on we have here in Australia .We know that fires are a natural part of forest life here, but in places such as the blue mountains in NSW they refer to the rubbish on the ground as "fuel load ". Our trees use fire to germinate new trees and have evolved over the millennia to re grow after fires. That's how Florida found that Australian gum trees planted in the everglades would spread further if they tried burning them out. So,when ever a big fire breaks out here ,the first to get the blame are forest management ,because they deserve it.
I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse that we're not alone in having to put up with terrible forest management. We had a huge fire rip through our property several years ago and I was astonished to see several eucalyptus trees sprouting from the ashes. I have no idea how they got there as there are no eucalyptus trees for miles around. So, yes, they are VERY adapted to the fire cycle.
Did you vist the abandoned cemetery not far from there?
really like your videos, was wondering about the sidearms in Ca. Could be for stumbling across illegal grow operations or other drug activities?
Yes, I carry a pistol for the human predators.
That was some really bad ground there, I bet they were constantly fighting with collapses whilst it was working, possibly one of the reasons it closed. Nice to see the old equipment still in situ, that is a rare thing over here.
Yes, that crumbly slate is no fun at all... It is as bad as the underground placer mines we encounter. Indeed, it is always nice to come across equipment. That is one of the advantages these spots hidden in the forest have over the easily visible spots in the deserts of places like Nevada.
Great vid :) just curious, why was everyone armed with pistols?
Snakes and bigfoot
The pistols are for the human predators as well... Out there, you're really on your own. No one else around, no phone service, etc.
Because carrying a rifle underground would be silly
Thank you G.C.E and TVR . Who went in to check the pass between the levels in the Out house ? You guys are tough , and yes about some of what you said about F.S . Overgrown is right . It was nice that you guys went in the brush to show us this Mine with the Unique self built Equipment .
Haha, well, someone's got to do it, right? Yes, one of the advantages of these mines hidden away in the forest is that there is usually a lot more equipment preserved on the site as opposed to the easily visible mines in places like Nevada.
Yes It was very thick ! We had to run away from a Storm in the Superstition Wilderness once , while looking for a Mine . I was a Javelina Hunt / Back pack Overnite trip . We had no photos and did not find the Opening when the Storm Came and forced us back . We were finding more and more Debris from the Mining venture before things became life threatening . Flash floods and we had to leave the truck on the other side of the Swollen creek . I love your videos because you guys are so tough and can deal with rough conditions . Decades later I found out a man named Miller worked it last in the 1970s . I wish I had film from that trip ! Stay Safe .
Man, I wish you had film from that too!
Nice vid!
Be worth running a metal detector over those audit walls.
I own a 3 Battery Stamp Mill made in 1865 but as far as DIY Stamp Mills go that one looks pretty cool and I bet it worked good. One Sketchy Looking Mine, you wouldn't find this old lode miner in there , Ribs and Back all Checkeredboarded like that, just a Cave In waiting to happen.
Ha, yeah, it is definitely not a mine that I'd want to camp out in.
Fortuna and this mine are very close to my home. It looks as if mining was setup behind my home. Do you guys ever find valuable things in these mines?
Well, the mines sometimes contain historical artifacts of value and we see small amounts of gold on occasion in the underground placer mines.
I have seen stamp mills in Oregon old mining sites about the same cons ! As far as the cuts and flat area , you would know more about possibility than i would , when i found old camps in past the most had small and large cuts going to bunk house's and grub hall, with miners and with logging camps?? just a thought !
Yes, Oregon has some great old mines...
Miners trash dumps are awesome, I grew up in the victoria goldfieds and always found little piles of glass bottles from the early Chinese miners ,I always took some home until I amassed that many my mother threw them all out lol. I was only a kid so I never understood the value or history of the bottles and obviously mother never did either.
To her I was just bringing home rubbish.
I'm sure you found some great stuff!
I'm expecting Port Wine Ridge to have a big fire at some point. Lots of brush to burn hot and fast. A friend lost his home in Paradise. Almost lost the business, too. He makes Sierra Blaster a mining tool.
Yes, I agree with you. The fire will go racing up these steep sides...
Silver mine? Doesn't silver look black when in it's raw form in the mine. I went to a silver mine tour in Tombstone they showed us raw silver still in the mine. It looked black with little sparkle to it kind of like coal with tiny flakes of silver reflecting back.
This was a gold mine... Silver ore comes in several forms. There's the one you mentioned, of course, and silver can also be found in galena (which is a combination of lead and silver) where it is quite shiny and, well, silver.
You know that somebody somewhere has passed by a 'Mother Load' of a vein and didn't even know it........that's what it's all about isn't it......... being lucky enough to hit it.... 16 to 1 comes to mind as an example of being lucky, to a certain extent...................... I've drilled 1000's of water wells and test holes all over the Sierras, I never had a clue if I hit any gold, it wouldn't have come up anyway unless it stuck to the drill bit! I did drill a Cable Tool Water Well through dredger tailing in Orville Ca., when I got through the dredger tailing's at 80 ft I made a heavy viscosity Bentonite 'Clay Bombs' and dropped them down the hole then bailed the heavy slury out with what gold that was left from the dredger that didn't make it out in the buckets, as soon as I got through the tailing's I got a small vile of Placer gold in the last 10 ft......................
I wish that more people could hear what you have to say about the overgrown forests!
Me too!
I hope that trench was dug out with something mechanized. Sure would be hell working that out in the sun
How many ticks did you get?
none
A little too high for ticks here… Plenty of mosquitoes though!
dang a few days a couple of screw guns and you guys could have this place up and running.
Not profitable at $22 bucks an Oz is very profitable at $1200 bucks an Oz.
Yes, and a lot of these mines did not close down at the time because they ran out of gold.
@@TVRExploring Gold prices falling from $23 pr Oz to 21.75 pr Oz for a year could turn a profitable mine unprofitable and cause bankruptcy.
7:43 -7:44 there's a bug up in the light beam. it's behind the pointed rock in the lightbeam, you see it turn left.
Correction, bug.
For some stupid reason, the quality bumped on me and it looked like a mouse moving. TH-cam, you silly.
That was crazy. Its like they dug out their own personal grand canyon.
I've never seen anything like it before. It was a weird mine - lots of unique things here...
Looks like the forest is pretty healthy there.Considering what the most of Seirra. Looking like.. Looks like some prime Sasquatch stomping ground.Maybe they got run off. You ever hear any talk of on your journys.Not to change the subject line. Just wondering.
Talk on the journeys?
@@TVRExploring Im sorry I should wear my glasses an proof read more often. What I was asking. Have you heard. From any your mining contacts. Any Sas sightings our your self .On any of your Journeys. I know it's off subject. But you are out in the forest alot. So thought I d ask.If you dont mind.Thank you.
No, I haven't had any experiences (that I know of)...
Ok. Thanks for the.reply back on that.
Cool video 👍👍👍👍
I think they called that stuff porphyry. Though I don't think it was.
All of those rocks on the “cave in” appeared to be crushed like 1” minus. If that was the case they back filled it “could have been a law?” I found it odd that it was all the same size materials
Yes, it's entirely possible that they back filled it. I agree with what you said... It also occurred to me that someone may have started working up that area I climbed and dumped all of their muck down into the adit - either over an already collapsed area or causing the blockage in the first place.
I don't think it was a low budget operation. I think they simply spent all of their budget cutting all those channels and were forced to save money elsewhere.
All that sheet metal on the ground is a great place for snakes to hide
Haha, yes, that thought crossed my mind too.
COOL VIDEO! Thank you for sharing this, What would stop a person like you or I to go in and start mining again?
Money? Regulations? Time?
While I'm at it... Think about it. The really smart/business savvy people, when they start a business, they do it for $. period, full stop. They test the ground, get an average return on a pound or a ton. whatever. Then study the commodities markets for average lows and highs. Then figure what their overhead is. Labor, fuel, TAXES, permits, etc. If they can't make a profit of say 20% net(that is what oil companies make on a barrel of oil)they walk. It's either a business or a hobby. Yes?
@@TheNimshew I see what you mean!
Yes, forty two is right. As a hobby, there is not a lot to stop you from doing this on a small scale if you pick up the mining. The challenge, given our current regulatory and economic environment, is in doing it profitably!
@@TVRExploring 👍✌
cool explore
I think the cut outs would have been a water canon operation blasting the face back to bedrock sluicing out through the cut outs. Once they see rock face they may have found a vein from where the pay was coming out of. Just my armchair quarterback thoughts :~]
Iam new to this channel i would like to no how thay got all that heavy stuff there????
Usually heavy equipment like that is brought to the mine in pieces and then reassembled on site.
You are obviously not afraid of spiders!
That last one looks familiar.
Nah, I wouldn't have gone up there without telling you all about it...
Mosquito and tick territory
Very, very true!
Cool! 👍
If a fire ever gets started there, in all likelihood, it will be another disastrous fire like the fone that wiped out Paradise. With all the windfall and undergrowth, it would take a miracle to stop the fire short of 60,000 acres. Some agency should get in there and clear the windfall and underbrush with a D5 Cat and at least carve some firebreaks and access fire roads.
Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as just bulldozing the brush away because then you get this explosion of brush roaring back in the disturbed soil over the next few years. You can see that after large logging operations if there isn't a lot of followup work done. Instead, something like using goats or controlled burns are a lot more effective in the long run. I'm saying this from a lot of experience with managing fire and fire hazards on a family property in the mountains...
@@TVRExploring I agree. I neglected to mention any follow-up as I figured it would be obvious, but yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Goats would be an excellent choice.
Yes, bulldozer work followed by goats is an excellent combination. I don't know if our government has the drive or capability to pull off an ambitious project like that, I'm afraid.
@@TVRExploring I agree wholeheartedly. It sounds like too much planning and micromanagement would be over-ridden by common sense. That would be devastating to the Fed system.
That's the world we live in, I'm afraid.
I wonder if they called the ceilings backs because it is the back of the giant.... ssshhhhh flat earth
Do you ever take a metal detector over the waste rock pile?
No, we're just there for the history...
Just wondering...I bet our modern equipment could find gold in the waste pile.
Oh, undoubtedly our modern equipment could pick up a lot at many of these old sites. You're right.
Thank you for responding to my comments so often. It's like having an online friend who is so knowledgeable about mining and exploring!
Haha, I'm glad to hear that!
Koo that's what's up buddy
Wow 😯 those spiders ughhhh I hate spiders
Yeah, I could have done without them...
If I found something like that I would do some discreet sampling.........and like an other persons comenting during the depretion the were thousands cutting a meager living.....in bc Canada where I live there were go emend sponsored Palmer mining depretion camps and schools....1 yr of training and they would cut them loose.......there is one of these camps a few short 50 kilometres from where I live now a provincial park with nary a trace of its past history.....
I didn't know that a similar boom had taken place in BC during that time as well, but it makes sense. Yes, it is a shame how much of our history is being erased.
👍👍🇨🇦
All those spider webs must be annoying.
Haha, yeah, I could have done without those!
😎
I'm not getting notified of your vids......
And I see the BLM has visited this video four times.
Haha, yeah, the haters can't seem to stop watching these videos! I think if you click the little bell near the "Subscribe" button that you get the notifications. Or perhaps the BLM has infiltrated TH-cam and is trying to sabotage my channel...
@@TVRExploring lol
I am currently collecting weird disaster videos ……
I've decided to give up on my channel after seeing this one