The old mine and mill equipment still in place reminds me when I lived in Colorado in the mid 70s. When driving the Gold Camp Road from Cripple Creek and Victor to Colorado Springs there were dozens of these old mine works to be explored complete with equipment before the vultures descended and picked everything clean and then the state allowed everything to be bulldozed. Gold Camp Road was the narrow guage roadbed that ran down to Colorado Springs with several old tunnels to be passed through. There was even an old wooden water tank for a water stop along the line. Sadly, all are gone now.
I am impressed how much you have put into your work. No one else has put this much effort into exploring, videoing, and uploading this kind of history. Your travels are costly, quality is unparalleled and I can't get enough of these videos. TH-cam owes you 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
The four engines with GM Diesel on them are 6/71 detroit diesels tied in unison. Two running one way, the other two running in reverse with the cranks geared together. The modular design on the detroit engines means with a simple cam change, they can run "backwards". Someone can taken the Rootes blowers off them. That set-up represents a substantial investment. They would create around 800hp and would have been way overpowered for that flat belt drive system. The D15000 Caterpillar is also quite a powerful engine and presumably drove either another compressor or the air ventilation system, again way overpowered. The size of the waste pile and the investment in infrastructure implies there is (was) a lot more hole in the ground than is accessible now! Thanks Justin, another enjoyable exploration 👍
Thank you. Yes, we were expecting a lot more based on that rock pile and the equipment outside. It would have been something to see all of those diesels fired up and running!
During the cold war you could pick up a lot of that gear dirt cheap through government surplus Auctions. The Detroits may have been designed for a marine installation originally although missing the water cooled manifolds. The big compressor looks like a(Edit) Chicago Pneumatic similar to one i rebuilt for a sawmill once. Took big horsepower to run it,and they run constantly with an unloader valve when pressure is reached, it cuts back in when the pressure drops again. It would interesting to know how they ran the engines on 'no load' though .
That CAT D13000 was introduced in 1938. GM also introduced the 71 series engines in 1938, so that bank of 4 GM 6-71s are from the same era. These are the same size engines that they put into the bigger bulldozers like the D8, so pretty substantial. The fact that the CAT has a governor on it tells me that it was probably hooked up to a genset. The presence of a boiler repurposed to a compressed air pressure vessel strongly suggests that this mill was originally steam powered, and got modernized with the diesels, so this mine probably had a lifespan of a good 20-30 years at least, if not more.
I'm on the road now and so I haven't had a chance to properly respond to any of your posts, but I wanted to thank you because you have been posting some awesome information! You really know your stuff and it is a huge benefit to others that watch these videos... Thanks again!
Wow a old cone mill and some other pieces of a old mill. Sweet. A few mines indeed had their own mills to break down the ore. That is so cool. I just love this place. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching. Yes, this was a great site... One of the advantages of it being out in the middle of nowhere is that it hadn't been stripped of all of the fantastic equipment there.
The flat angled ceiling is called the hanging wall. Rising hot mineralized water meets it, loses some heat and pressure, and minerals like gold, silver, lead, and iron precipitate out. The center of the ore body may be thick and rich, but it can start to thin and play out the farther you dig. That's why you see small areas dug out at an angle, they were following the ore body till the gold returns weren't enough to justify continuing to mine there. I was in an old silver mine in the Calico area before it was sealed off. There were telephone pole size raw log timbers holding up the hanging wall where ore was removed. Some of these were crushed to splinters in the middle by the pressure over the decades since the mine was active.
Trying to catch up after 6 months in AZ working my claims in the Belmont Mountains. This is a great example of totally awesome mineralization and for a small company could be slightly profitable. Loved the Silver ore, the Limonite and heavy metal mineralization. Thanks for the thorough tour as usual, I really enjoy your video presentations and wish I had been there on this exploration. Most excellent and keep up the terrific work.
I hope your time on your claims was profitable, or at least enjoyable... I know I'd much rather be doing that than sitting behind a desk. Yes, the mineralization in this one was very interesting.
Another awesome mine exploration! I love the desert mines you find and explore. I see many plastic marker flags so this mine my be under live claim. Keep up the great filming.
Thank you. Yes, I have a fondness for the desert mines as well... The plastic flags can be somewhat misleading since they are preserved so well underground. We've come across flags from the 1970s that look as if they were placed the week before.
TVR, THANK U! Excellent filming, narrative and ongoing explanation; really appreciate you taking us along. Very little time wasted, informative and entertaining. I’m all in!👍
So cool, I used to live and work on a desert island, during WWII they left a bunch of old equipment out mostly pumps and earth moving kit, I used to love exploring, once even got an old Chrysler industrial flat head 6 that ran a pump to fire up. Also got old Deuce running and drove it out of the dump! I love this kind of stuff.
That's really cool. I would have loved exploring around there as well... I know the desert preserves things well, but I'm still impressed that you were able to get those old engines fired up.
Thank you. Yes, I was overwhelmed by how much was there! We would like to have spent some more time looking around, but we were feeling some time pressure because the sun was getting low in the sky and it was still a long walk/drive back to our camp.
That is a unique power unit it appears to be two Detroit diesels siamese’d wide and end to end so it’s actually 4 engines, they were a left hand and a right rotation coupled to a common gearbox
Yes, unfortunately, it isn't just Utah. California is very aggressively destroying abandoned mines as well. We're even starting to come across more and more mines in Nevada that have been permanently closed... California frustrates me the most though because they often destroy the buildings around the mine and haul away the equipment. So, when you arrive at the site, you often are just greeted with bare dirt.
Yeah, I hate that. The BLM does it sometimes too. That's one of the reasons I've been so intent on photographically documenting these wonderful historic sites. Everything's disappearing at an alarming rate. Even the stuff that doesn't get torn down eventually rots or is destroyed by wildfires.
Wow what a honeycomb of a mine. I don't know who set up those pillars but they were sketchy on a good day lol. With all he quartz and iron I am sure it was a productive mine especially with all the heavy equipment outside.
Haha, yes, those pillars didn't exactly fill us with confidence... For the exact reasons you mentioned, this is one of those mines where we suspect there may have been just a slight difference between the "official" production numbers and the actual production numbers.
Check out the Detroit diesel quad power pack. People what you see here is a combination of 4 count them 4! Inline 6 cylinder 6_71s mated together as a unit for a grand total of 24 cylinders at 71 cubic inches of displacement ... Very cool find.
Love your videos because they are not simply a "walk in the park" as so many other mine walks seem to be. You are interested in why the mine was dug in the first place and you follow areas of mineralization and show the good mineralized ore left as back supports. Some have obviously been chipped at by subsequent prospectors. Wish you would tell the location because I may not want to repeat this particular trip, but since I don't know its location, that might just happen. Anyway, your efforts of exploring and explaining are so much better than so many others, that I rate you near the top of the TH-cam geology guys. Also, I like the way you respect what you see and aren't pulling everything apart for souvenirs.
Thank you for the comment. Yes, there have been several mining companies that have poked around this site, but no one has picked up the torch yet. I'd like to be able to share locations, but have been badly burned by doing so in the past...
I do like how you point-out natural cave formations underground, when you find them, in these old mines. There must also be so many undiscovered caves deep underground. The ones we've seen are often blasted or back-filled, but we wouldn't have seen them at all otherwise.
Before getting into the mine exploring, I didn't realize how common natural cave formations are, but there are obviously a lot of them! The mine I start exploring in this Wednesday's videos has a ton of caves as well.
Great looking spot Dan, and great looking gold too. Crystalline gold is very pretty especially when still on the lode rock. I am working on a little stringer vein atm that is showing some nice crystals of gold.
Dan? Apparently the quartz in this one is actually bull quartz, but there are supposed to be some rich pockets in those other layers of rock. Good luck with that stringer!
At 1:18 is the Quad 6-71 that was made until 1960 when Detroit came out with V engines. The quad 6-71 was rated at 640hp @ 1,800 rpm (continuous) or 880hp @ 2,100rpm (peak). The 4 engines were connected to a main bull gear by clutches-meaning one engine at a time could be taken off line to service not interrupting the other 3. Was a great design when used in the landing crafts during WWII. At 2:38 is the big air compressor the Quad 6-71 was driving, and the big air tanks from the air compressor.
Lol that was a lot of waste rock. Lots to look at, good stuff. Not flooded, that’s good. 🦇 love them, that was a family reunion. Take the right way. Yap, time to leave that sketchy area. This one needs some wood pillars. Man, big, Swiss and lots to see. Like this one.
This was a strange one. The waste rock didn't match the size of the mine at all (I found a map and the sections we weren't able to access weren't that big). Dry mines are always nice, but we weren't sorry to get out of this one...
Thank you. Yes, this was an unusual one, to be sure... The inside definitely did not in any way turn out to look how I expected it to based on the outside!
@4:47 that linkage and lever I believe is what is left of the pony motor starting system. Older Cat engines were equipped with a small gasoline engine to spin start the bigger diesel engine. What you see there is the engage and disengage controls between the two engines.
If you ever get a chance to swing by Tenabo NV, keep your eyes peeled. The mine had both silver and gold, but the mine closed around 1920. My grandfather was born there, but great grandpa moved back to Ohio to work a lime quarry at Clay Center after the mine in Tenabo closed. It's officially a ghost town, but there are some people living in a nearby camp. (Caution advised)
TVR Exploring you might not be able to check the mines. Saw a blurb saying they're working the ore deposit again. But some of the old town buildings still remain.
It's interesting that even with commodities prices at a relatively low point in the cycle right now that these old mines are still attracting so much attention. It gives you a good idea of how much the old timers left behind - they definitely skimmed the good stuff.
Some sites out there say the mine in Tenabo produced 12 million ounces of silver and 25 thousand ounces of gold. I'd have loved to see what that ore body looked like.
They were finding half way descent gold there. There's so much quartz and iron still in there. Just cause they didn't report it doesn't mean they didn't get a fair amount. Plus there looked to be a lot of newer markings it there. Very cool video. Be safe out there. Would love to come out to that one and take some samples
Oh, I wasn't suggesting that the official numbers necessarily matched the actual production numbers as those things have a funny way of being very different. The official numbers are more just a matter of curiosity. Other companies have been poking around this one as well since there are pockets inside that apparently come back with very rich results.
Talk about random, multiple stoping( stopeing?). It is interesting how the equipment in the processing shed is somewhat modern, yet the mining itself looks somewhat primitive. I am really curious about the first motor you looked at. It looked like 4 motors, 2 side by side then back to back. I have never seen that before and would love to learn more on that. I can't seem to find much on it. Excellent find. You must really work your ass off to find these locations as hard as you work your ass getting there and exploring with a camera in one hand and light in the other. I agree with others. a little lens flare can actually add a nice touch. Hats off to ya. Hope Chuck's okay.
That engine is a GM/Detroit Diesel model 6051 Quad-71. They installed 2 sets in WW2 landing craft to get 1800 shaft horsepower (900 HP per set of quads). Rare stuff just sitting in the desert.
Yes, after encountering that relatively modern equipment outside, I was quite surprised by how primitive things looked inside - no ore chutes, no timbers, etc. The only modern thing was the rail, but the rest of it looked like it could have been done in the 1700s. I thought that was fairly unusual. I was impressed by that first motor as well given the way it was laid out, but after that comment below about how much horsepower it was cranking out, I'm even more impressed. Ha, and, yes, we do work our asses off to find these and, especially, to get to them!
Wow, the auto-generated Closed Captioning is kinda amusing, quartz is courts, adit is edit, and the sound of sliding down a scree pile is applause! XD Lots of small interconnected chambers, good for bats! Those big engines and other equipment are awesome! Would be one hell of a challenge to take a group out there and try to get them running in-situ!
Haha, I love the "applause" when sliding down the scree... That's pretty impressive overall though if it is just going off of the sounds in the video. I've never checked out the auto-generated closed captioning before, but now you've made me curious to do so. I can't imagine them getting all of that equipment up there and getting it set up. It would've been a hell of a thing to see it all running!
At 17:41 I am guessing that was part of a rail cart base. Mostly made of wood. The portion where the cart pivots and tilts and caries the load from above.
Nice , Thank you for driving back there and scrambling around . Golly you sure get to some remote places . I liked the Bats , bring some to the other mines . Great video .
Thank you, Alex. Yes, the equipment at this one was great. We don't often find that much equipment at a mine in the States. The best equipment at mines I have found in Italy!
again a good video. :) keep up the awesome and informative work. i live in western Australia and i know there are a fair few abandoned towns and mines mainly up north way but would you think about coming to Western Australia and checking out some of our history that has or almost has been forgotten?
I would love to come to Australia. My hesitation is that I don't know the area at all and wouldn't know where to look for good mines and ghost towns. So, I would hope to connect with a local that could teach me the ropes (so to speak) in Australia and then I could go from there.
The entrance looked iffy! I was just waiting for a snake to show up!. FYI not a snake fan!. I bet Ole Jeff Williams has seen a few!. Cool video and appreciate the exploration.
Thank you! You know what's funny? We've never run into a snake at a mine before and we've been to hundreds now. We've run into plenty of rattlesnakes on the way to an abandoned mine, but never at a mine itself yet. Of course, now that I've made that statement, I'll undoubtedly be bitten by a gigantic rattler at the very next mine we go to, but still...
TVR Exploring Sorry if I Jenkins you. I seen some video of a guy in south Dakota and he showed a rattle snake nest!. Dude that was freaky. So hopefully you will NOT come across any in the future or you'll be cursing me. LOL The video's are awesome hopefully your living the dream. Thanks and good luck.
The gold here was actually not in the quartz, but in some of the other layers of rock. I believe it wasn't visible, but had to be milled out. Ha, yes, I felt bad about bothering the bats.
Seeing the equipment still intact like that, and full ore bins ect makes me think it closed suddenly. And i then wonder how much gold they left in those ore bins...
I'm amazed how often we come across mines like that. You'd think they would at least finish processing the ore left in the ore bin or remove some of the equipment that still had value at the time.
Christian Buczko I was thinking they same thing. To be conservative, if the ore was around one ounce per ton there is probably more than twenty tons in that bin? Some mines are up to 3 ounces per ton...... There also is there chance that they mine played out and then assays said not enough Au to continue?
Somebody suggested mines closing could be because they forced the gold prices down and many mines became unprofitable. I think your estimate would be conservative if that's the reason mining ended.
It's not uncommon for mines to suddenly shut down, like this one most likely did. Usually they were run by a small company, and when the company ordered it to shut down it had to shut down more or less instantly, even with large amounts of ore left. Equipment was also left behind in case the mine was to re-open, and some times it was more expensive to move the equipment to another mine than it was to buy new.
It's generally been my understanding that a lot of the sudden closures of mines coincided with the declaration of World War II were mostly the miners went off to fight some and in some cases never came back either becoming victims of the war or having been exposed to an easier line of work!!! 🤠👍
TVR -- I know exactly where you're at , the mine is just a hodge-podge of stopes & drifts , and the Mill outside is far more interesting than the mine itself . Lots more Shafts , Adits , & Diggings in the surrounding areas . Hope you got a chance to explore more of that area than just that one mine ; I spent a week in that area and still didn't see it all . < Doc > .
Unfortunately, no, we hadn't been out to this area before and didn't realize how much stuff was out there. Definitely one that would be worth going back to! Ha, you sure are right about that mine. We had high expectations based on the size of the rock dump and the equipment outside, but the reality inside was something else entirely.
Sorry Nick but neither TVR nor I will give out locations to these sites as it would be a direct invitation to Vandals & Scrappers to come in and decimate the site . < Doc > .
I was wandering if you could point me in the right direction as to where I could place a claim on a mine that actually would produce a profit. Obviously I wouldn't decimate the history, rather I'd preserve it. Or maybe I could tag along on a few of your exploring?? Keep up the great videos!
Yes, I struggle to think of any other time where I've come to a junction underground that had drifts running off in 5 or 6 directions... Swiss cheese is right! Pretty cool to see all of those diesels run together - you've got to love the ingenuity of miners.
It is surprising that they just left all of the equipment. Unlike many mines we visit, this one would not have been difficult for them to haul the equipment away.
At approx. 2:20, why are the belt grooves on that sheave shiny? The sheave itself is rusty, the belt areas on every other sheave but that one are rusty. That one looks like it's been turning with belts on it.
Even stainless would lose it's polished shine over time, plus the sides are rusty. I was an oilpatch pump mechanic for years, I guess that's why it even caught my eye. Made me wonder if a blower or fan of some sort was catching the breeze.
That's the only thing that really makes sense. It is quite noticeable now that you've pointed it out... I was so overwhelmed by all of the stuff that was there that I didn't pay as much attention to that oddity as I otherwise would have.
While the mine itself left a bit to be desired, tho still interesting, the equipment left behind was fascinating. That was some monster compressor running off the diesel! I'd venture a guess that the somewhat smaller gas engine next to it was most likely running a generator which appeared to be the only sizeable piece of gear missing. I see all of this equipment left in situ have to wonder if the company decided it was too much trouble to reclaim any of it or maybe they left the mining business (not likely) or they didn't have time to dismantle anything because the creditors were on their way. At any rate, it was nice of them to leave such a substantial tie to the past and thank you for sharing it.
Ha, yes, the mine was pretty underwhelming after seeing all of that equipment and the size of that waste rock pile outside! It would have been something to see all of that equipment up and running... I'm often amazed by how much is left behind when a mining operation is abandoned, but that is particularly the case with this one.
Those are placed by surveyors mapping out the mine and/or taking samples... There have been several mining companies that poked around in this one since it was last worked.
What a shame all that machinery was just left there to rust away, but it's really well preserved in the desert air. Some serious engines there! I love old mines like this, with pockets, small stopes and chambers, much more interesting than the more modern ones I think. Looks like they were desperate towards the end of the mine to dig all those little test tunnels to see if they could hit a good patch of gold.
Cornish Mine Explorer I love exploring modern mines because they're familiar to me and I understand them better, but older sites have a certain 'something' as well. The mine I'm currently working is room and pillar with no underground infrastructure, would be boring to explore, but we've got a great crew and high pay so it's a good place to work.
I can understand the bigger tunnels and modern techniques, does make perfect sense to do it that way, sometimes in the older mines as you go in you are retracing the miners steps, towards the end of this mine you could see their desperation to find a good deposit with all the small mansized test tunnels before giving up on it.
The engineering work that goes into the more modern underground mines is quite impressive to me as is the sheer scale of some of those room and pillar mines. However, yes, I do have a soft spot for rails, timbers, ore chutes, etc. and I have to say that those older mines are my favorite to explore. It is interesting to see the desperate flailing about in a mine where the miners are just about to give up - almost like a person or animal in their death throes... Crude exploratory drifts running off in all directions.
Unbelievable how much massive heavy equipment they had. It must have cost a fortune just to bring it out there and set it up. I would have loved to see this fully operational. That must have been quite a sight.
Yes, it is pretty incredible to imagine them hauling all of that up there and getting it up and running. It would've been a hell of a thing to see/hear the whole operation running.
I remember as a very little kid hearing stories from some very old men who had lived in the city of Thurber, TEXAS and listened to them talk about how the city was running full tilt during its days of mining and brick manufacturing and it always fascinated me as a kid unfortunately they're gone now and I can not ask questions that I should have asked when I was younger!! 🤠👍
Same as always, a great adventure. Thanks for posting. I have noticed, however, no one doing these mine videos ever has something like a gold bug 2 to spot check for gold on the walls, etc.
Thank you SO much and yes you are recording history for the folks that think carrots come from supermarket...lol.....I am mesmerized by the fact of all this equipment being hauled in by mules,.and then the work that must have gone into these minds make us look soft as men today. The tanks,How the heck did they get them there never mind the engines. I think you guys are great Be safe.73s
They don't magically stamp out carrots in the back of the supermarket? Seriously, I completely agree with you. Those old timers were tough and they accomplished some pretty amazing things. I am staggered by the logistics that must have been involved in getting some of this equipment out to the middle of nowhere.
TVR Exploring ,,,I spent lots time exploring UT,NV,AZ,ID,,,Camp hosted for years in the Rockies..First your exploring is amazing...A place you may put on your bucket list is Pine/Featherville ID,Not sure what is left there......If you ever get low on places to go,Choose 1 well documented Mine,and do a video on where they ordered the cement,engines,lumber,etc and focus on the massive task to and how they got it in that backcountry.. Thank you,Just a thought,Stay safe..73s
I'm sure you've seen some phenomenal places then... Thank you for the tip on the site in Idaho and the suggestion about a video on the logistics of getting all of the infrastructure out to a mine. That's a good idea and, yes, obviously I will be running out of locations eventually.
That big engine in the beginning of the vid is four Detroit diesels ganged together. Looks to be four 6-71's (in line six cylinder engines, with cylinders that displace 71ci each). 24 cylinders of 2-stroke diesel "Screamin' Jimmy's". That'd make some noise. It's belted to a HUGE old air compressor. Very cool. Looks like someone took all four Roots blowers off of them (one from each engine). They bolt to the side of the block and force air into the crankcase which then enters the cylinders through ports in the cylinder walls.
Hey TVR, I saw in a earlier video you use a Ford Ranger, and the use of some small dirtbikes? CRF70 to get to mines? Whats the rigs that you use besides the 2 feets lmao to get as close to the adits as possible? Thanks man, I haven't been out in years doing this but finally have some good rigs just wanted your 2 cents on whats been working for you.
Oh, man, we have used everything from a Polaris RZR to the Ford Ranger you saw... I forget the details on the motorcycles (they belong to my exploring buddy), but those are probably the most useful piece of transportation equipment we have. They can go on some pretty horrendous roads/trails. If not even the bikes can make it, it is REALLY rough terrain.
Take a look at Rokon. My friend Orla Larsen owned the company for several years in Vermont. 2 wheel drive rigs with LOW gears that will go anywhere. Fuel or water storage in the wheels.
I'd love to have one! On Wednesday we ended up at the bottom of an incredibly steep canyon and absolutely could not get the motorcycles back out. I'm sure a Rokon could have done it. We're headed back on Tuesday to gear them down, deflate the tires and try again. We're bringing winches though too. The mine was eroded shut too, so we didn't even get a video out of it...
The outside view is a bit deceiving with all the equipment and huge waste pile. I was expecting much more extensive tunneling rather than random stoping. Some real nice looking minerals in there. Good to see such a healthy bat population in there. That first colony was really cool, I haven't seen one like that since I was a kid.
We thought it was weird as well. Our expectations were that we would be inside of this one for hours given the size of the waste rock pile and all of that equipment. As you saw, that wasn't the case at all. We thought it was unusual too how the outside was fairly modern, but the inside of this one seemed very primitive. The only modern thing inside was the rail. If that were gone, this could have looked like some mine from the 1700s. Oh, and, yes, I thought the bats were cool too!
I just watched a couple of mine videos and was quite disappointed as they were in such a hurry, they just breezed by all the graffiti on the walls, old equipment and other neat things in the mines and to boot, a very shaky camera. What can I say but "hail to the king!"
some very expensive equipment...those first 3 engines looked like they were tied together, and the mine oh wow very INTRESTING alot of waste rock and the quartz....the mineralization...very interesting
Invent a cheap way to map tunnels using an app & cameras. Also, you never know when the miners raised a stope & made a thin floor in an adit above. I didn't see lighters testing the air. either.
Yepper the ol'e " Scream'in demon" I learned to drive in a GMC Astro that had an 8 cylinder Detriot. I had a hard time going from that to a Mack because of the RPM shift points. The Detriot sure sounds good though
@@OdySlim like Jared said they used to bolt two of those together ,they were two stroke, 16 cylinder Detroit diesels, I've seen at junk yards, but I think they were used in locomotives they had a blower on top of both Motors, people would buy them blowers at the junkyard and with a manifold adapter put them on top of their V8 gasoline engines
@@mrromantimothy Thats pretty interesting. I knew in the old days they would put 2 v-8's in line. I saw one on a you tube video. About a year later another video came out from the same mine and the engine was gone. They might have been 2 v-6's but it was cool no matter what it was. BTW, it looks like people have at one time taken quite a bit off these engines. Too bad as they probably still ran, Regards from Ody
Curious if you leave what you find or is it finders keepers and you fill your truck up with whatever you find? I would hope left for the next person to see.
WOAH! I'm no expert, but that's a detroit diesel 671 series. Actually, I think its 4 of them. Hooked up 2x2? I've not seen one configured this way before, but these engines were able to be stacked in some fashion. I know they made a 24v71, but those are inline engines, so I'm assuming they are hooked up as two inline 12 cylinders. Crazy man! I watch a guy who travels all over the states working on old GM busses with these detroits in them, really neat stuff. These are two stroke diesels, like a weed eater or chainsaw, not like the 4 stroke diesels of today. If you've ever seen maximum overdrive, you've heard one of these engines very clearly :) they sound like they are running 10,000,000 rpm at like 2200 lol
Well, I work as an underground miner and I work with a lot of miners that have worked at other mines aside from ours and we all use that term. Just because you do something a certain way doesn't mean that others don't and it doesn't make you right and others wrong...
Considering how far back in time a lot of these mines were worked we should only hope that they wrote their stories down because they're long gone from this world. 🤠👍
Makes a person wonder how in the world they ever got those huge engines and cast iron pulleys back to that mine and up the side of the hill and then set them into place! How far is this from the road?
I'm always amazed at some of the places that miners get to... This is a good ways off from the main road. There was a steep, rough road leading up to the mine, which is where they undoubtedly brought the equipment up, but it would have been a stressful, back-breaking job to do so - even with modern equipment.
They did it with mule trains, before roads were ever built to the area. I'm absolutely amazed at the stuff like stamp mills and cableways and lifts the old timers carried to 12,000 foot plus mountaintops.
Danke für das hochladen und deine Mühe
The old mine and mill equipment still in place reminds me when I lived in Colorado in the mid 70s. When driving the Gold Camp Road from Cripple Creek and Victor to Colorado Springs there were dozens of these old mine works to be explored complete with equipment before the vultures descended and picked everything clean and then the state allowed everything to be bulldozed. Gold Camp Road was the narrow guage roadbed that ran down to Colorado Springs with several old tunnels to be passed through. There was even an old wooden water tank for a water stop along the line. Sadly, all are gone now.
I am impressed how much you have put into your work. No one else has put this much effort into exploring, videoing, and uploading this kind of history. Your travels are costly, quality is unparalleled and I can't get enough of these videos. TH-cam owes you 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I very much appreciate the kind words and support. It really means a lot to me... Thank you.
The four engines with GM Diesel on them are 6/71 detroit diesels tied in unison. Two running one way, the other two running in reverse with the cranks geared together. The modular design on the detroit engines means with a simple cam change, they can run "backwards". Someone can taken the Rootes blowers off them. That set-up represents a substantial investment. They would create around 800hp and would have been way overpowered for that flat belt drive system. The D15000 Caterpillar is also quite a powerful engine and presumably drove either another compressor or the air ventilation system, again way overpowered. The size of the waste pile and the investment in infrastructure implies there is (was) a lot more hole in the ground than is accessible now! Thanks Justin, another enjoyable exploration 👍
My guess would be at the time they got the engine set up from a much larger mine ... either that they owned or a buy out of another mine.
Thank you. Yes, we were expecting a lot more based on that rock pile and the equipment outside. It would have been something to see all of those diesels fired up and running!
During the cold war you could pick up a lot of that gear dirt cheap through government surplus Auctions. The Detroits may have been designed for a marine installation originally although missing the water cooled manifolds. The big compressor looks like a(Edit) Chicago Pneumatic similar to one i rebuilt for a sawmill once. Took big horsepower to run it,and they run constantly with an unloader valve when pressure is reached, it cuts back in when the pressure drops again. It would interesting to know how they ran the engines on 'no load' though .
They can also run away XD
Thank you for sharing this knowledge.
Thank you for telling us were your position was when you take the next shot, makes a heck of a difference!!!
I second that motion!!! 🤠👍
One of the best looking mines on You Tube buddy! Thanks for exploring and sharing!
That CAT D13000 was introduced in 1938. GM also introduced the 71 series engines in 1938, so that bank of 4 GM 6-71s are from the same era. These are the same size engines that they put into the bigger bulldozers like the D8, so pretty substantial. The fact that the CAT has a governor on it tells me that it was probably hooked up to a genset. The presence of a boiler repurposed to a compressed air pressure vessel strongly suggests that this mill was originally steam powered, and got modernized with the diesels, so this mine probably had a lifespan of a good 20-30 years at least, if not more.
I'm on the road now and so I haven't had a chance to properly respond to any of your posts, but I wanted to thank you because you have been posting some awesome information! You really know your stuff and it is a huge benefit to others that watch these videos... Thanks again!
Wow a old cone mill and some other pieces of a old mill. Sweet. A few mines indeed had their own mills to break down the ore. That is so cool. I just love this place. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for watching. Yes, this was a great site... One of the advantages of it being out in the middle of nowhere is that it hadn't been stripped of all of the fantastic equipment there.
I'm always amazed at how hard people worked 'back in the day'. Yet another great exploration!
The flat angled ceiling is called the hanging wall. Rising hot mineralized water meets it, loses some heat and pressure, and minerals like gold, silver, lead, and iron precipitate out. The center of the ore body may be thick and rich, but it can start to thin and play out the farther you dig. That's why you see small areas dug out at an angle, they were following the ore body till the gold returns weren't enough to justify continuing to mine there.
I was in an old silver mine in the Calico area before it was sealed off. There were telephone pole size raw log timbers holding up the hanging wall where ore was removed. Some of these were crushed to splinters in the middle by the pressure over the decades since the mine was active.
' the long drive to the middle of nowhere in Nevada' That's my kind of adventure. Thanks for sharing.
Mine too!
Nice, I could spend a few days looking around that one, interesting !
Thanks for sharing and take care. 👍
Thank you. Yes, it was hard to take everything in at this one. There was a lot going on.
Trying to catch up after 6 months in AZ working my claims in the Belmont Mountains. This is a great example of totally awesome mineralization and for a small company could be slightly profitable. Loved the Silver ore, the Limonite and heavy metal mineralization. Thanks for the thorough tour as usual, I really enjoy your video presentations and wish I had been there on this exploration. Most excellent and keep up the terrific work.
I hope your time on your claims was profitable, or at least enjoyable... I know I'd much rather be doing that than sitting behind a desk. Yes, the mineralization in this one was very interesting.
Another awesome mine exploration! I love the desert mines you find and explore. I see many plastic marker flags so this mine my be under live claim. Keep up the great filming.
Thank you. Yes, I have a fondness for the desert mines as well... The plastic flags can be somewhat misleading since they are preserved so well underground. We've come across flags from the 1970s that look as if they were placed the week before.
Ah... The magic of a warm dry place! Preserves things of all types.
TVR, THANK U! Excellent filming, narrative and ongoing explanation; really appreciate you taking us along. Very little time wasted, informative and entertaining. I’m all in!👍
Thank you very much!
So cool, I used to live and work on a desert island, during WWII they left a bunch of old equipment out mostly pumps and earth moving kit, I used to love exploring, once even got an old Chrysler industrial flat head 6 that ran a pump to fire up. Also got old Deuce running and drove it out of the dump! I love this kind of stuff.
That's really cool. I would have loved exploring around there as well... I know the desert preserves things well, but I'm still impressed that you were able to get those old engines fired up.
Great video as usual guys all that Machinery is really awesome I could spend hours there going through that nice job
Thank you. Yes, I was overwhelmed by how much was there! We would like to have spent some more time looking around, but we were feeling some time pressure because the sun was getting low in the sky and it was still a long walk/drive back to our camp.
That is a unique power unit it appears to be two Detroit diesels siamese’d wide and end to end so it’s actually 4 engines, they were a left hand and a right rotation coupled to a common gearbox
Hey TVR, try getting to some mines in utah, the state is really hammering down on sealing up abandoned mines for good.
everywhere is it don't matter the state.. well except for NV.. they don't give a F just slap a orange sign and they good :D
Yes, unfortunately, it isn't just Utah. California is very aggressively destroying abandoned mines as well. We're even starting to come across more and more mines in Nevada that have been permanently closed... California frustrates me the most though because they often destroy the buildings around the mine and haul away the equipment. So, when you arrive at the site, you often are just greeted with bare dirt.
Yeah, I hate that. The BLM does it sometimes too. That's one of the reasons I've been so intent on photographically documenting these wonderful historic sites. Everything's disappearing at an alarming rate. Even the stuff that doesn't get torn down eventually rots or is destroyed by wildfires.
raydunakin Yes, 100%. I appreciate the efforts that people such as yourself make to document these sites before they are completely gone...
Wow what a honeycomb of a mine. I don't know who set up those pillars but they were sketchy on a good day lol. With all he quartz and iron I am sure it was a productive mine especially with all the heavy equipment outside.
Haha, yes, those pillars didn't exactly fill us with confidence... For the exact reasons you mentioned, this is one of those mines where we suspect there may have been just a slight difference between the "official" production numbers and the actual production numbers.
What a cool old mine, thanks for the great video!
Check out the Detroit diesel quad power pack. People what you see here is a combination of 4 count them 4! Inline 6 cylinder 6_71s mated together as a unit for a grand total of 24 cylinders at 71 cubic inches of displacement ... Very cool find.
Love your videos because they are not simply a "walk in the park" as so many other mine walks seem to be. You are interested in why the mine was dug in the first place and you follow areas of mineralization and show the good mineralized ore left as back supports. Some have obviously been chipped at by subsequent prospectors. Wish you would tell the location because I may not want to repeat this particular trip, but since I don't know its location, that might just happen. Anyway, your efforts of exploring and explaining are so much better than so many others, that I rate you near the top of the TH-cam geology guys. Also, I like the way you respect what you see and aren't pulling everything apart for souvenirs.
Thank you for the comment. Yes, there have been several mining companies that have poked around this site, but no one has picked up the torch yet. I'd like to be able to share locations, but have been badly burned by doing so in the past...
That's one chaotic mine, looks like they had gold fever and were chasing vains every direction
Yes, it definitely had that feel!
I do like how you point-out natural cave formations underground, when you find them, in these old mines. There must also be so many undiscovered caves deep underground. The ones we've seen are often blasted or back-filled, but we wouldn't have seen them at all otherwise.
Before getting into the mine exploring, I didn't realize how common natural cave formations are, but there are obviously a lot of them! The mine I start exploring in this Wednesday's videos has a ton of caves as well.
Great looking spot Dan, and great looking gold too. Crystalline gold is very pretty especially when still on the lode rock. I am working on a little stringer vein atm that is showing some nice crystals of gold.
Dan? Apparently the quartz in this one is actually bull quartz, but there are supposed to be some rich pockets in those other layers of rock. Good luck with that stringer!
beautiful lookin Jarosite and Plumbojarosite not to mention the Limonite.....great Gold potential....would love to know the location ...
If it isn't already claimed I'd have to say..... " Lets GO!!!"
Man I was just thinking that's some of the best looking mineralized rock and limonite I've ever seen!
Ask Jeff Williams a
You can't have none Jeff!
Troy NV cool spot out there in Central Nevada. It's just below Troy peak.
At 1:18 is the Quad 6-71 that was made until 1960 when Detroit came out with V engines. The quad 6-71 was rated at 640hp @ 1,800 rpm (continuous) or 880hp @ 2,100rpm (peak). The 4 engines were connected to a main bull gear by clutches-meaning one engine at a time could be taken off line to service not interrupting the other 3. Was a great design when used in the landing crafts during WWII. At 2:38 is the big air compressor the Quad 6-71 was driving, and the big air tanks from the air compressor.
Thanks for all of the great info! You really know your subject matter...
Anything with "Steel Wheels" has to be "evil, wicked, mean and nasty"- Steppenwolf. 👍👍👍
Might've been on to something there...
Lol that was a lot of waste rock. Lots to look at, good stuff. Not flooded, that’s good. 🦇 love them, that was a family reunion. Take the right way. Yap, time to leave that sketchy area. This one needs some wood pillars. Man, big, Swiss and lots to see. Like this one.
This was a strange one. The waste rock didn't match the size of the mine at all (I found a map and the sections we weren't able to access weren't that big). Dry mines are always nice, but we weren't sorry to get out of this one...
That was a weird one! So much equipment outside and almost nothing inside. Great job documenting it as always!
Thank you. Yes, this was an unusual one, to be sure... The inside definitely did not in any way turn out to look how I expected it to based on the outside!
@4:47 that linkage and lever I believe is what is left of the pony motor starting system. Older Cat engines were equipped with a small gasoline engine to spin start the bigger diesel engine. What you see there is the engage and disengage controls between the two engines.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
If you ever get a chance to swing by Tenabo NV, keep your eyes peeled.
The mine had both silver and gold, but the mine closed around 1920.
My grandfather was born there, but great grandpa moved back to Ohio to work a lime quarry at Clay Center after the mine in Tenabo closed.
It's officially a ghost town, but there are some people living in a nearby camp. (Caution advised)
No, I haven't been out there yet. Thank you for the history and the tip - sounds like an interesting place...
TVR Exploring you might not be able to check the mines.
Saw a blurb saying they're working the ore deposit again.
But some of the old town buildings still remain.
It's interesting that even with commodities prices at a relatively low point in the cycle right now that these old mines are still attracting so much attention. It gives you a good idea of how much the old timers left behind - they definitely skimmed the good stuff.
Some sites out there say the mine in Tenabo produced 12 million ounces of silver and 25 thousand ounces of gold.
I'd have loved to see what that ore body looked like.
That's pretty impressive!
They were finding half way descent gold there. There's so much quartz and iron still in there. Just cause they didn't report it doesn't mean they didn't get a fair amount. Plus there looked to be a lot of newer markings it there. Very cool video. Be safe out there. Would love to come out to that one and take some samples
Lee you are getting me Riled Up!
Oh, I wasn't suggesting that the official numbers necessarily matched the actual production numbers as those things have a funny way of being very different. The official numbers are more just a matter of curiosity. Other companies have been poking around this one as well since there are pockets inside that apparently come back with very rich results.
TVR Exploring yea looked like money in the ground to me
In skilled hands, I'm sure it would be.
Talk about random, multiple stoping( stopeing?). It is interesting how the equipment in the processing shed is somewhat modern, yet the mining itself looks somewhat primitive. I am really curious about the first motor you looked at. It looked like 4 motors, 2 side by side then back to back. I have never seen that before and would love to learn more on that. I can't seem to find much on it. Excellent find. You must really work your ass off to find these locations as hard as you work your ass getting there and exploring with a camera in one hand and light in the other. I agree with others. a little lens flare can actually add a nice touch. Hats off to ya. Hope Chuck's okay.
That engine is a GM/Detroit Diesel model 6051 Quad-71. They installed 2 sets in WW2 landing craft to get 1800 shaft horsepower (900 HP per set of quads). Rare stuff just sitting in the desert.
Yes, after encountering that relatively modern equipment outside, I was quite surprised by how primitive things looked inside - no ore chutes, no timbers, etc. The only modern thing was the rail, but the rest of it looked like it could have been done in the 1700s. I thought that was fairly unusual. I was impressed by that first motor as well given the way it was laid out, but after that comment below about how much horsepower it was cranking out, I'm even more impressed. Ha, and, yes, we do work our asses off to find these and, especially, to get to them!
Wow, the auto-generated Closed Captioning is kinda amusing, quartz is courts, adit is edit, and the sound of sliding down a scree pile is applause! XD Lots of small interconnected chambers, good for bats! Those big engines and other equipment are awesome! Would be one hell of a challenge to take a group out there and try to get them running in-situ!
Haha, I love the "applause" when sliding down the scree... That's pretty impressive overall though if it is just going off of the sounds in the video. I've never checked out the auto-generated closed captioning before, but now you've made me curious to do so. I can't imagine them getting all of that equipment up there and getting it set up. It would've been a hell of a thing to see it all running!
At 17:41 I am guessing that was part of a rail cart base. Mostly made of wood. The portion where the cart pivots and tilts and caries the load from above.
Ah, yeah, I see what you're saying... I hadn't thought about that before, but that absolutely makes sense. It was just beneath a raise too.
Nice , Thank you for driving back there and scrambling around . Golly you sure get to some remote places . I liked the Bats , bring some to the other mines . Great video .
Haha, well, the remote places are where one can still occasionally find the good stuff... I liked the bats too!
Amazing reportage as always, ad amazing piece of equipment left over.
Thank you, Alex. Yes, the equipment at this one was great. We don't often find that much equipment at a mine in the States. The best equipment at mines I have found in Italy!
Really enjoy the abandoned mines you explore
Thank you.
That Caterpillar d13000 was likely a portable generator. Missing the power set. Probably looted for copper.
This mine must be really remote as it hasn’t been stripped of everything. Good video.
Thank you. Yes, this one is definitely out of the way...
again a good video. :) keep up the awesome and informative work. i live in western Australia and i know there are a fair few abandoned towns and mines mainly up north way but would you think about coming to Western Australia and checking out some of our history that has or almost has been forgotten?
I would love to come to Australia. My hesitation is that I don't know the area at all and wouldn't know where to look for good mines and ghost towns. So, I would hope to connect with a local that could teach me the ropes (so to speak) in Australia and then I could go from there.
@@TVRExploring th-cam.com/video/PaHw_bGI2ME/w-d-xo.html don't go there and explore unless your suited up
@@TVRExploring some information on the mine and what some of our old wa mines look like th-cam.com/video/3irP-AQzYAo/w-d-xo.html
The entrance looked iffy! I was just waiting for a snake to show up!. FYI not a snake fan!. I bet Ole Jeff Williams has seen a few!. Cool video and appreciate the exploration.
Thank you! You know what's funny? We've never run into a snake at a mine before and we've been to hundreds now. We've run into plenty of rattlesnakes on the way to an abandoned mine, but never at a mine itself yet. Of course, now that I've made that statement, I'll undoubtedly be bitten by a gigantic rattler at the very next mine we go to, but still...
TVR Exploring
Sorry if I Jenkins you. I seen some video of a guy in south Dakota and he showed a rattle snake nest!. Dude that was freaky.
So hopefully you will NOT come across any in the future or you'll be cursing me. LOL
The video's are awesome hopefully your living the dream. Thanks and good luck.
Ha! We were just there and not much changed. Did you see the cemetery below the mill in the willows? Most visitors miss that.
Glad it hasn't changed too much... No, count me in with the others that missed the cemetery. I am sorry I didn't see that.
Lots of fine camping by creek. It’s remoteness keeps it safe from vandals. Enjoy ur nevada videos.
good possibility gold there..but where's the vein ?? thanks for sharing another great vid !! and poor poor bats you scared them...lol
The gold here was actually not in the quartz, but in some of the other layers of rock. I believe it wasn't visible, but had to be milled out. Ha, yes, I felt bad about bothering the bats.
Seeing the equipment still intact like that, and full ore bins ect makes me think it closed suddenly. And i then wonder how much gold they left in those ore bins...
I'm amazed how often we come across mines like that. You'd think they would at least finish processing the ore left in the ore bin or remove some of the equipment that still had value at the time.
Christian Buczko I was thinking they same thing. To be conservative, if the ore was around one ounce per ton there is probably more than twenty tons in that bin?
Some mines are up to 3 ounces per ton......
There also is there chance that they mine played out and then assays said not enough Au to continue?
Somebody suggested mines closing could be because they forced the gold prices down and many mines became unprofitable. I think your estimate would be conservative if that's the reason mining ended.
It's not uncommon for mines to suddenly shut down, like this one most likely did. Usually they were run by a small company, and when the company ordered it to shut down it had to shut down more or less instantly, even with large amounts of ore left. Equipment was also left behind in case the mine was to re-open, and some times it was more expensive to move the equipment to another mine than it was to buy new.
It's generally been my understanding that a lot of the sudden closures of mines coincided with the declaration of World War II were mostly the miners went off to fight some and in some cases never came back either becoming victims of the war or having been exposed to an easier line of work!!! 🤠👍
It must have been quite a job getting all that equipment out there!!!!
It's inconceivable to me how the miners got some of the mining equipment to the remote locations they did...
Thankyou for the videos i can't git out like that no more so i really injoy them thankyou
TVR -- I know exactly where you're at , the mine is just a hodge-podge of stopes & drifts , and the Mill outside is far more interesting than the mine itself . Lots more Shafts , Adits , & Diggings in the surrounding areas . Hope you got a chance to explore more of that area than just that one mine ; I spent a week in that area and still didn't see it all . < Doc > .
Unfortunately, no, we hadn't been out to this area before and didn't realize how much stuff was out there. Definitely one that would be worth going back to! Ha, you sure are right about that mine. We had high expectations based on the size of the rock dump and the equipment outside, but the reality inside was something else entirely.
So where is this mine, looks awesome and a great place to learn about
Sorry Nick but neither TVR nor I will give out locations to these sites as it would be a direct invitation to Vandals & Scrappers to come in and decimate the site . < Doc > .
I was wandering if you could point me in the right direction as to where I could place a claim on a mine that actually would produce a profit. Obviously I wouldn't decimate the history, rather I'd preserve it. Or maybe I could tag along on a few of your exploring?? Keep up the great videos!
That should be called the Swiss cheese mine. Some neat equipment were two of those GM diesels connected in tandem?
looks like 4 gm diesels all conected!
Yes, I struggle to think of any other time where I've come to a junction underground that had drifts running off in 5 or 6 directions... Swiss cheese is right! Pretty cool to see all of those diesels run together - you've got to love the ingenuity of miners.
that's a lot of money just in engines and all the equipment so they made some serious money on that mine great video my compliments sir
It is surprising that they just left all of the equipment. Unlike many mines we visit, this one would not have been difficult for them to haul the equipment away.
At approx. 2:20, why are the belt grooves on that sheave shiny? The sheave itself is rusty, the belt areas on every other sheave but that one are rusty. That one looks like it's been turning with belts on it.
I don't know why it is like that. I assumed it was stainless steel at the time, but I really am not sure...
Even stainless would lose it's polished shine over time, plus the sides are rusty. I was an oilpatch pump mechanic for years, I guess that's why it even caught my eye. Made me wonder if a blower or fan of some sort was catching the breeze.
That's the only thing that really makes sense. It is quite noticeable now that you've pointed it out... I was so overwhelmed by all of the stuff that was there that I didn't pay as much attention to that oddity as I otherwise would have.
J'aime beaucoup vos exploration bravo pour vos vidéos👏👏👏
Merci beaucoup!
While the mine itself left a bit to be desired, tho still interesting, the equipment left behind was fascinating. That was some monster compressor running off the diesel! I'd venture a guess that the somewhat smaller gas engine next to it was most likely running a generator which appeared to be the only sizeable piece of gear missing. I see all of this equipment left in situ have to wonder if the company decided it was too much trouble to reclaim any of it or maybe they left the mining business (not likely) or they didn't have time to dismantle anything because the creditors were on their way. At any rate, it was nice of them to leave such a substantial tie to the past and thank you for sharing it.
Ha, yes, the mine was pretty underwhelming after seeing all of that equipment and the size of that waste rock pile outside! It would have been something to see all of that equipment up and running... I'm often amazed by how much is left behind when a mining operation is abandoned, but that is particularly the case with this one.
Somebody explain the pink tape's function.
Those are placed by surveyors mapping out the mine and/or taking samples... There have been several mining companies that poked around in this one since it was last worked.
Man I would love to make the surface workings functional again
Amazing how all that equipment and lumber got to the location.
I really enjoy your Vids ! I love looking at this kind of stuff ..
What a shame all that machinery was just left there to rust away, but it's really well preserved in the desert air. Some serious engines there! I love old mines like this, with pockets, small stopes and chambers, much more interesting than the more modern ones I think. Looks like they were desperate towards the end of the mine to dig all those little test tunnels to see if they could hit a good patch of gold.
Cornish Mine Explorer I love exploring modern mines because they're familiar to me and I understand them better, but older sites have a certain 'something' as well. The mine I'm currently working is room and pillar with no underground infrastructure, would be boring to explore, but we've got a great crew and high pay so it's a good place to work.
I can understand the bigger tunnels and modern techniques, does make perfect sense to do it that way, sometimes in the older mines as you go in you are retracing the miners steps, towards the end of this mine you could see their desperation to find a good deposit with all the small mansized test tunnels before giving up on it.
The engineering work that goes into the more modern underground mines is quite impressive to me as is the sheer scale of some of those room and pillar mines. However, yes, I do have a soft spot for rails, timbers, ore chutes, etc. and I have to say that those older mines are my favorite to explore. It is interesting to see the desperate flailing about in a mine where the miners are just about to give up - almost like a person or animal in their death throes... Crude exploratory drifts running off in all directions.
Sweet been anticipating the next bid.
Great video....but some people don't know how mine is laid out,,,if u could explain it that would be great
Unbelievable how much massive heavy equipment they had. It must have cost a fortune just to bring it out there and set it up. I would have loved to see this fully operational. That must have been quite a sight.
Yes, it is pretty incredible to imagine them hauling all of that up there and getting it up and running. It would've been a hell of a thing to see/hear the whole operation running.
I remember as a very little kid hearing stories from some very old men who had lived in the city of Thurber, TEXAS and listened to them talk about how the city was running full tilt during its days of mining and brick manufacturing and it always fascinated me as a kid unfortunately they're gone now and I can not ask questions that I should have asked when I was younger!! 🤠👍
Dang! two cool engines in at one mine? SCORE! Lets get that second one running ;)
I agree!
Same as always, a great adventure. Thanks for posting. I have noticed, however, no one doing these mine videos ever has something like a gold bug 2 to spot check for gold on the walls, etc.
Thank you. We're in it for the history and the adventure rather than the mining... Plus I already have enough heavy gear to carry!
I love how you show all details
what are all the ribbons used for?
Those are survey markers or they mark a site where a sample was taken.
Thank you SO much and yes you are recording history for the folks that think carrots come from supermarket...lol.....I am mesmerized by the fact of all this equipment being hauled in by mules,.and then the work that must have gone into these minds make us look soft as men today.
The tanks,How the heck did they get them there never mind the engines.
I think you guys are great Be safe.73s
They don't magically stamp out carrots in the back of the supermarket? Seriously, I completely agree with you. Those old timers were tough and they accomplished some pretty amazing things. I am staggered by the logistics that must have been involved in getting some of this equipment out to the middle of nowhere.
TVR Exploring ,,,I spent lots time exploring UT,NV,AZ,ID,,,Camp hosted for years in the Rockies..First your exploring is amazing...A place you may put on your bucket list is Pine/Featherville ID,Not sure what is left there......If you ever get low on places to go,Choose 1 well documented Mine,and do a video on where they ordered the cement,engines,lumber,etc and focus on the massive task to and how they got it in that backcountry..
Thank you,Just a thought,Stay safe..73s
I'm sure you've seen some phenomenal places then... Thank you for the tip on the site in Idaho and the suggestion about a video on the logistics of getting all of the infrastructure out to a mine. That's a good idea and, yes, obviously I will be running out of locations eventually.
That big engine in the beginning of the vid is four Detroit diesels ganged together. Looks to be four 6-71's (in line six cylinder engines, with cylinders that displace 71ci each). 24 cylinders of 2-stroke diesel "Screamin' Jimmy's". That'd make some noise. It's belted to a HUGE old air compressor. Very cool.
Looks like someone took all four Roots blowers off of them (one from each engine). They bolt to the side of the block and force air into the crankcase which then enters the cylinders through ports in the cylinder walls.
Yes, it is a shame that bits and pieces of the equipment are missing. It would've been something to hear/see when everything was running...
Do you guys ever take any samples?
I think that air compressor was made by Chicago Pneumatic.
Hey TVR, I saw in a earlier video you use a Ford Ranger, and the use of some small dirtbikes? CRF70 to get to mines? Whats the rigs that you use besides the 2 feets lmao to get as close to the adits as possible? Thanks man, I haven't been out in years doing this but finally have some good rigs just wanted your 2 cents on whats been working for you.
Oh, man, we have used everything from a Polaris RZR to the Ford Ranger you saw... I forget the details on the motorcycles (they belong to my exploring buddy), but those are probably the most useful piece of transportation equipment we have. They can go on some pretty horrendous roads/trails. If not even the bikes can make it, it is REALLY rough terrain.
Take a look at Rokon. My friend Orla Larsen owned the company for several years in Vermont. 2 wheel drive rigs with LOW gears that will go anywhere. Fuel or water storage in the wheels.
I'd love to have one! On Wednesday we ended up at the bottom of an incredibly steep canyon and absolutely could not get the motorcycles back out. I'm sure a Rokon could have done it. We're headed back on Tuesday to gear them down, deflate the tires and try again. We're bringing winches though too. The mine was eroded shut too, so we didn't even get a video out of it...
The outside view is a bit deceiving with all the equipment and huge waste pile. I was expecting much more extensive tunneling rather than random stoping. Some real nice looking minerals in there. Good to see such a healthy bat population in there. That first colony was really cool, I haven't seen one like that since I was a kid.
We thought it was weird as well. Our expectations were that we would be inside of this one for hours given the size of the waste rock pile and all of that equipment. As you saw, that wasn't the case at all. We thought it was unusual too how the outside was fairly modern, but the inside of this one seemed very primitive. The only modern thing inside was the rail. If that were gone, this could have looked like some mine from the 1700s. Oh, and, yes, I thought the bats were cool too!
I'd like to see this mine shot with IMAX camera. Mine workers just each doing their own things, which is a recipe for cave instability and such.
I just watched a couple of mine videos and was quite disappointed as they were in such a hurry, they just breezed by all the graffiti on the walls, old equipment and other neat things in the mines and to boot, a very shaky camera. What can I say but "hail to the king!"
I thank you for the support and kind words...
I bet you have one heck of a collection of still shots. This site would make a nice place to shoot.
Haha, yes, I've got thousands of still shots from mines over the years. I don't know what to do with all of them!
Sell copies through your site!
Do you know if any of these mines are outside of Fernley nevada
I'd like to run a metal detector over that full ore bin, looking for gold nuggets.
Alimin8r me too
That Cat engine ran a compressor originally.
Somene robbed the superchargers of those old 6-71 Detroit's. I really enjoy watching your videos.
Thanks! Yeah, it's too bad someone ripped those off.
some very expensive equipment...those first 3 engines looked like they were tied together, and the mine oh wow very INTRESTING alot of waste rock and the quartz....the mineralization...very interesting
Yeah, I thought this was a pretty interesting/unusual one - both inside and out!
Great video tks. May i ask what the camera is ? Its very clear viewing
It's actually several cameras... I did a video on all of the gear I use (see below) that breaks things down:
th-cam.com/video/QDqYeSNN7LA/w-d-xo.html
At 7:25 there is a flat or shaved off rock, can anybody make out what it says? Also
looks like a sombrero etched into the bottom section
Yes, I wish I had focused more on that. I can't remember if I just didn't notice it or what...
Invent a cheap way to map tunnels using an app & cameras. Also, you never know when the miners raised a stope & made a thin floor in an adit above. I didn't see lighters testing the air. either.
TVR exploring is there any way you could get a hold of me privately?
You can email me at TVRExploring@gmail.com
Looks like some hot rudder stole all the superchargers off the Detroit engines
Great video bud
Thank you.
6-72 detroits maybe? Must have been something you could hear for miles with all four screaming.
Yepper the ol'e " Scream'in demon" I learned to drive in a GMC Astro that had an 8 cylinder Detriot. I had a
hard time going from that to a Mack because of the RPM shift points. The Detriot sure sounds good though
Notice how they are tied together, they could set them up this way, and set the opposite engine to run in reverse, still making full hp.
Quadmount 6-71 like they had in the landing boats on d-day!
@@OdySlim like Jared said they used to bolt two of those together ,they were two stroke, 16 cylinder Detroit diesels, I've seen at junk yards, but I think they were used in locomotives they had a blower on top of both Motors, people would buy them blowers at the junkyard and with a manifold adapter put them on top of their V8 gasoline engines
@@mrromantimothy Thats pretty interesting. I knew in the old days they would put 2 v-8's in line. I saw one
on a you tube video. About a year later another video came out from the same mine and the engine was
gone. They might have been 2 v-6's but it was cool no matter what it was.
BTW, it looks like people have at one time taken quite a bit off these engines. Too bad as they probably still
ran, Regards from Ody
Four Detroit's ganged together like that would make an incredible amount of noise, especially in that valley!
It would've been something to see/hear, that's for sure!
Curious if you leave what you find or is it finders keepers and you fill your truck up with whatever you find? I would hope left for the next person to see.
I never take anything. Ever.
Why did they have the or black off
Amazing how they got all that heavy equipment there back in the day!!
It would have been a major job!
super interesting video, cheers mate!
Thank you!
i fell like those 4 engines and the wheel act as a very big compressor, maybe for the miner's power tools ?
Yes, that's correct. It would power the pneumatic drills underground along with various other pieces of equipment.
WOAH! I'm no expert, but that's a detroit diesel 671 series. Actually, I think its 4 of them. Hooked up 2x2? I've not seen one configured this way before, but these engines were able to be stacked in some fashion. I know they made a 24v71, but those are inline engines, so I'm assuming they are hooked up as two inline 12 cylinders. Crazy man! I watch a guy who travels all over the states working on old GM busses with these detroits in them, really neat stuff. These are two stroke diesels, like a weed eater or chainsaw, not like the 4 stroke diesels of today. If you've ever seen maximum overdrive, you've heard one of these engines very clearly :) they sound like they are running 10,000,000 rpm at like 2200 lol
Pretty wild, huh? I'd love to have seen (and heard) this setup when it was running!
I have worked underground and we never called anything a “chamber “!
Well, I work as an underground miner and I work with a lot of miners that have worked at other mines aside from ours and we all use that term. Just because you do something a certain way doesn't mean that others don't and it doesn't make you right and others wrong...
I used to work underground gold mine here in Australia and reminds me òf things...
I'm sure a lot looks familiar...
Wouldn't it be awesome to interview a person that worked in the mine? I'm sure they could tell some stories.
Considering how far back in time a lot of these mines were worked we should only hope that they wrote their stories down because they're long gone from this world. 🤠👍
Makes a person wonder how in the world they ever got those huge engines and cast iron pulleys back to that mine and up the side of the hill and then set them into place! How far is this from the road?
I'm always amazed at some of the places that miners get to... This is a good ways off from the main road. There was a steep, rough road leading up to the mine, which is where they undoubtedly brought the equipment up, but it would have been a stressful, back-breaking job to do so - even with modern equipment.
Was the road up to the mine too rough to drive? Is that why you had to hike?
They did it with mule trains, before roads were ever built to the area. I'm absolutely amazed at the stuff like stamp mills and cableways and lifts the old timers carried to 12,000 foot plus mountaintops.
Excellent,Thanks