Rappelling Down an Abandoned, Pre-Civil War Silver Mine in New Mexico Part 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Most hiking and exploring trips take you up mountains and through valleys with scenic views. This hiking and exploring trip takes you under the mountain with scenery that many aren't used to!
This abandoned mine was a challenging one to access and exit. We rappelled down a wide-open void 100 vertical feet down to the upper levels and stopes in this locally-famous abandoned mine. Inside, we were able to hike down large stopes and underground caves to a depth of 300 vertical feet below the surface from our entry point!
This two-part series catalogues thousands of feet of underground workings that connect with natural caves. There is a particular cave named the "Crystal Cave" that was documented in the 1880s as "...so spectacular, it became an immediate public attraction and overnight sensation." This cave contained elaborate formations from chalcedony, calcite, calcium carbonate, and tinted with colors from silver, lead, and copper ores. The miners name the formations the "Silver Forest," "Cleveland, Grant, Garfield, and Arthur" (after U.S. Presidents), and the "Sleeping Lamb." We have yet to rediscover this cave (as it was destroyed during the mining process), and it is at a lower level that we have yet to reach.
Part 1 shares a point of interest on the surface, initial entry into the mine, the upper level with its stopes, and an intersection with a natural cave.
Part 2 will show a Wulfenite deposit, a 450-foot-deep underground chasm with a decrepit wooden bridge crossing, and some mysterious items (like a door that belongs on a ship) that you don't usually see in mines!
Joining us once again on this adventure is @Zia Mountain Adventures, along with their friend (and now my new friend) Joe, a 10-year SAR volunteer with vast amounts of knowledge on rope work. Together, we take our underground abandoned mine exploring experiences to another level. We have hiked several miles underground, documenting this historic place, each one of us with a different perspective. I hope you enjoy our videos, and I encourage you to check out and subscribe to @ZiaMountainAdventures channel as well!
Inside of this mountain holds many mysteries and surprises- we hope to rediscover them and share them with you!
A viewer had made a suggestion to make longer videos, so this one is longer than usual. It worked for Abandoned and Forgotten Places, so I'll give it a shot! Why not?
On a side note, entering this mine can be dangerous or deadly without the right equipment. Don't do this kind of thing without the proper knowledge, equipment, ability, or experience!
This abandoned mine exploring video is shot and presented in 4K and HDR. I recommend for your viewing experience to watch this video with a TV, monitor, or mobile device with a 4K/HDR compatible display. It really does make a difference!
WARNING: Abandoned Underground's videos are intended for entertainment purposes. No intention of training, education or desire to duplicate actions performed in these videos are suggested, implied, or inferred. Performing actions that expose one to risk without proper training, education, or experience are inherently dangerous and should not be done.
#abandonedmines
#exploringabandonedmines
#mineexploring
Good Ole S B Mine. Been in there many times. Still lots of Wulfenite in there. One of the most dangerous mines!
Nice! Glad you made it in there! Did you enter the same way we did, or did you enter an alternate route?
@@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND Went in there from 1985 till 1992 through the adit on the side of the hill. The place is haunted, FYI.
@@glennhales7302 ah, that makes sense. All portals are now destroyed or gated. We did encounter airflow near the main haulage tunnel on level 1. There may be another way in. Haunted??? We didn't encounter anything, have you?
I always appreciate how you explain, on what you see or doing in your videos. I gives people a better understanding. Thank you, Jason.
I really appreciate the positive feedback! Thank you!
Yes, getting that ladder in there must’ve been quite an undertaking! Very vibrant colors all throughout the video. I was wondering if that was a water level line around 18:00, and then you said that it was. Strange how there could be that much water in a tunnel at one point and then it’s all totally gone and dry as a bone. I would not have crossed that bridge. Kudos to you for doing that successfully! Big mine, that’s for sure - and another knock-out video as well!
Those fiberglass ladders are heavy! I'm wondering if that Wulfenite deposit is worth the effort to get that thing in there... We moved it, probably 100 lateral feet and 50 vertical feet down to access the main level, and that was an undertaking! There were a lot of colors in this mine! It does look like we crossed into some of the cave system in there. The geology of this area is very diverse - there's limestone, shale, dolomite, granite, rhyolite, and a quartz monzonite porphyry sheet that cuts through the mountain. You can clearly see that sheet where I mentioned the "double barrier" portal in part 1. There's a good chance that some of the heavy monsoon rains permeated the rock and flooded it at one point. There was water still trickling down one of the ribs in that drift, and it was humid in that part of the mine, but overall it was dry. It probably eventually drained into that huge stope to the water table 250 feet below where we were! I am so glad we crossed that bridge! There were some really unusual things on the other side, and possibly an alternate, hidden way in! I really appreciate the compliment, Frank! Thank you!
No way. I’ve been doing research on this mine the whole day since I’ve been captivated by the description. All the videos of it calling it by its name were usually done on a P shaped orebody south of it, finally saw the stair video on the shaft connecting to level 3 by another TH-camr and deducted that this was the way in, other than cutting the culvert on the 3000ft drainage (which I guess is illegal as fuck). I was about to give up on finding more about this mine but saw you comment that other youtuber’s videos on it…did a bit of a digging and found “pre-civil war mine” and I thought, just for a second…could it be? As soon as the video starts playing I see the background and your description and BINGO! Props to you by keeping it unamed. But FUCK YEAH THANK YOU! Finding this felt like striking gold!
This one had been a personal goal to explore. The only problem was accessibility. Rappelling IS currently the only way to access it.. There were originally 7 portals that previous explorers could just walk into. They are all either barricaded or destroyed now. There are potential other ways in... but it would require moving probably several tons of rock (not impossible, but labor-intensive) after seeing the other sides of the destroyed portals.
Tunnel 4 is the "P" shape one you mentioned. You can still enter that one (obviously) either by crawling in or rappelling from the open stope. I have done both. That level is not nearly as interesting as the sections highlighted in this video. I met up with that other TH-camr and took him out on several trips years ago. He was supposed to change the name of those videos, but never had. To my knowledge, he still hasn't gotten that rope he was mentioning in his video "if I had a rope, believe you- me, I'd be down there!" That level of exploring isn't for most people, honestly.
You have to be very mindful on your descent down the stope in that one. One misstep in the wrong place will send you on a trip you won't come back from! We aren't finished with this place. We are trying to get to the fabled Crystal Cavern, which we believe is down the "Chasm of Doom," we nicknamed in the videos. I believe we found a suitable place to drop down that... More to come soon! Thanks again for being discreet on the location, commenting, and watching!
On another note, finding the mines I often visit through Maps and correlating to names here is a bit hard. I've had my eyes on a series of mines smack next to the southern border, where the international line runs parallel to the north, on Hidalgo county, lets call them Sam Frankfurt mines. Have you had a chancee to check them out? @@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND
Where the border runs north to south? I have not been to those yet. Lot's of activity there. I have been to several others in that area.
Yeah the minerals in there where incredible! Another one for the books! Great edit as always sir!
There were some crazy minerals in there! I can't wait to get back there to get to the "Crystal Cave!" Thank you for the encouragement!
That round thing u found could of been a miners HotTub lol
Lol! That would have been a luxury! The ship door could have sealed in the steam, and that room could have been the sauna too!
Hi Justin, oh wow that place just got more like when Mario goes down those pipes lol. Those vat things, could they be a way for the old timers to perhaps use chemicals to extract the gold or silver ??? they do look like they would have had chemicals such as Cyanide in them, especially with that airtight submarine style door to stop any fumes from getting into the mine proper ???, just an idea. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx 💙
It did look like the cave levels in Mario Bros. Thanks to the information provided by @HeadframeHunters, those vessels were seismic instruments to measure long-distance activity in the 1950s or 60s. Jeff Williams mentioned he thought they were for cyanide treatment as well. The ship door is bizarre. Thank you for the comment!
Those are strange looking vessels for a mine. Great content!
They were! We have no idea what their purpose was for. Electrolysis? Ground water study? It must have been something dangerous for them to install a locking ship door in a mine! Thank you for watching!
I believe wulfenite is quite valuable when it comes in gemmy,orange,yellow blades,the piece I have was a pretty penny,so I get the ladder struggle,lol
It is valuable to mineral collectors. I've seen small specimens go for several hundred dollars! I wonder if those mineral hunters got the value of that ladder out of there? Lol!
wonder if they were doing underground Cyanide processing .....we have seen some mines that have done that but the large steel door is still a mystery ...almost like a chemical blast door ....keep'em coming and watch them floors hahhahaha
Hey Jeff!
That's a very good theory! Does cyanide processing create heat? There was a lot of insulation around some of those vessels. There were also wires going into the vessels. I was thinking of some kind of copper electrolysis? This was primarily a lead/zinc/silver mine, but there was also copper, manganese, gold, and molybdenum mined here as well. That ship door was bizarre in itself! I've never seen anything like that in an abandoned mine before! Thank you for the comment, Jeff! I really appreciate it!
That door i would say was to keep an air tight seal maybe , what ever was in there or what ever they were processing maybe gave of toxic or explosive vapours or both . Just my guess though .
@nathan whitworth I agree that the ship door was there to create a seal airtight or otherwise. It's difficult to determine because of context regarding time. We found out those vessels are seismic measuring devices installed after mining operations. Was this door installed during mining or after? I have yet to find out...
I see that geotechnical company did earth science stuff and seismic data. Did DOD work. Sold to teledyne. Somebody with more time could research further.
I did some research but couldn't find what those vessels were used for... it's bizarre. Thanks for commenting and watching!
@@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUNDone year later but here’s a clue based on the activity nearby: the missile range to the north east did heavy nuclear testing in the 50’s and 60’s. Hell, the Manhattan project itself culminated no more than a hundred miles north of this location. Given this company had ties with the DOD it’s not far-fetched to assume the federal government made good use of a recently decommissioned mine to install seismic probes to measure and gather data on nuclear detonations on the surface and ways to determine their origin…as we know nowadays that’s one of the methods used to detect when North Korea or other nations test nuclear weapons.
@@Misselfilmen I have to give you A BIG THANK YOU for that information! I had initially found out the next day what the vessels were from Headframe Hunters (a friend of mine, a mine engineer, and fellow TH-cam creator) after I sent him photos. After reading your comment, it inspired me to do a little more digging on the subject, as we literally just finished our second trip here almost a year later to the day! I found an "Unclassified" DoD document outlining the seismographs' purpose, even a sketch of the layout of the array! It does not go into detail regarding seismic activity from nuclear blasts, but it would be safe to say that those seismometer arrays are for that purpose... especially since it was a classified document from 1965! Thanks again for the comment!!!!!
I hate to see people leaving there TRASH, behind...Grrrrrr.... Good job on the Video....Bet Gly can tell you what that was...( mad scientist )....Bet there was a big ass waste rock pile, out side.......Thanks......................JB.
Trash is an unfortunate reality in these places. Porty 1119 from the Headframe Hunters TH-cam channel would blow Gly's mind with the knowledge he possesses in mining. He is a professional miner by trade, and we explore abandoned mines together when our schedules align. We found out those vessels are seismometers from the 1950s that were placed at this particular mine, and another location in Brazil, I believe. Funny thing about the waste rock pile outside- there isn't one! The old-time miners were so selective of the ore that came from here, they dumped so much low-grade silver ore in the dump piles, the dump piles were later mined and milled!
In retrospect I don’t think running across the false floor made any difference,
It sure was entertaining, especially with Todd's reaction in the background! Lol!