Mines Like This Aren't Supposed To Be In California
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- The title of this video is a nod to those that say that all of the abandoned mines in Southern California have been sealed up by the government or plundered by “collectors” to the point that they are just featureless holes in the ground… They have not. And the impressive mine in this video is proof of that, despite abandoned mines like this not supposedly not existing in Southern California anymore. These abandoned mines are not unicorns. They are still out there. Yes, one must work much harder to find them now in such places, but they are still out there. We can only marvel at the golden age of mine exploring in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when such abandoned mines were everywhere…
For a mine of this size, there is surprisingly little information available on it. Part of this is due to the fact that, unlike states such as Nevada or Arizona that have digitized their archives and made them available to the public, California has done nothing with their historical archives other than make them extremely difficult to access. Many of them are in Sacramento, but others are scattered across the state and one must be credentialed to simply review them in many instances. Naturally, even if any of them have been digitized, none of these have been made widely accessible to the public. It’s California. What can I say?
However, even with the obstacles presented by the Golden State taken into account, there is still surprisingly little information available on this mine. Once you’ve seen how large and impressive this mine is, I think you’ll agree that that is somewhat odd.
What I have uncovered seems to indicate that this was primarily a lead and silver mine, with copper, gold and zinc also being present in small, but rich quantities. Works appears to have started in the early 1900s and continued into the 1950s.
Credit for the discovery of this site goes to Mine Explorers ( / @undergroundmines )
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You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
Thanks for watching!
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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them - nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.
These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand - bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.
So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
Dude the gimble is really paying off. Its so nice to see everything so smoothly and without excess shake/noise. Thanks for the great video!
EX coal miner here. I didn't hear you mention this, but I wanted to share my perspective on the timbers built like a cage in the beginning. I would typically see those placed at natural fault lines. When you pass threw a fault line( litteraly huge cracks in the rocks) , it would typically be one of the more dangerous areas in the mine. Sometimes there is enough space to make the fault cave like after the roof falls. The cage was typically built for some support and light protection.
Damn this mine checks all the boxes... cool relics, colorful ore, huge stopes, deep winzes, in good overall condition, and even natural cave / fissure feature. Looking forward to part 2!
I explored many similar mines when I lived in the southern part of the mother load. It was amazing how well preserved most of them were. I learned that many of the smaller operations were simply shut down because of WW2. Nice video. Thx.
I live in Mariposa ca. Looking for mines to explore, any suggestions?
Hites cove area had interesting ruins, but no entrance access. Try to find USGS Survey info on mine locations in your area.@@jasonsnyder3724
Only just realised why I enjoy your filming style so much - it's the fact you always orient at junctions and features, meaning it's really easy to follow the shape of the mine, to a point it would be relatively easy to navigate. It's like getting a lift somewhere a few times and then being able to drive the route based on landmarks alone. Do you do this deliberately to help you in case you get lost, or is it purely for our benefit? Either way, it's really reassuring! Thanks for another fun adventure! :-)
It's purely for your benefit... I know it is hard to stay oriented (or orientated since you're in the UK) when watching a mine exploring video. So, I try to string the segments together in order to make the different areas easier to keep track of in your mind.
I totally agree...I so very much appreciate the verbal directions and makes me feel like I am there and not missing anything...helps to understand the big picture
@@TVRExploring also you smooth in the way up pan the camera. It gives us viewers a decent amount of time to see everything. Thanks for going the extra mile on this.
Never ceases to blow my mind how much earth these guys would move by hand. You may say they had rail cars. Those rail cars didn’t fill them selves nor did the digging.
Jeff Williams is a modern day nut and would have fit right in back then with the gumption and energy to do the work. Heck, he’s doing now crawling in on his belly filling 5 gallon buckets hauling it out by hand.
Another good video for us couch potatoes. Thanks.
Well, it's like I always say... The old timers were tough!
@@TVRExploring life was hard back in the day.
There's a lot of stope action in that one man! Can't wait for part 2. Whenever you have a part 2 or 3 or 4 we know its goin to be a good one. Yall stay safe out there.
I enjoy how you do not have music in the beginning of your videos and I enjoy that you do not have music throughout your videos I enjoyed the way you investigate keep up the good work
Looking forward to part two! Always enjoyable..
That newspaper was referring to a book that was originally published in 1914!
The wood in that mine is not very old.
The vein in the first large stope is pretty impressive. Y ou can see why they were chasing that. Notable that in the stope you see square manufactured stulls, round tree cut stulls, and pillars. The use of the round stulls dates a section as older. The board with the slates may (and I am not sure) have been to measure fuse. A lot of the small cuts off the adit are more than likely prospects rather than stopes. In a number of them y ou can see drill holes. If they were going to stope and area they would have kept going. Terminology can be different. Where I am from they call the top of an adit the ground since the ground is actually over your head. This was an extensive mine to say the least. Can't wait for part 2. Stay safe guys
Awesome looking mine. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were in Nevada by the preservation state of this mine!
Looks like a Southern Nevada Mine, that's for sure!
Very interesting mine! It looks like they left a good bit of ore behind. Can't wait to see part 2!
Nice explore Justin. Thank you!
Next video?!? Tease! This one was VERY extensive and a lot of fun. Thanks for bringing us along!
Growing up in California gold country I've explored a few mines over the years but nothing as vast as this. Thanks for sharing 👍
At 13:44 that 44 gallon drum need not be Carbide, pre WW2 shell and a few other petrochemical companies also used ribbed 44 gallon barrels for fuel, grease and oils. The only way to tell would be to turn the drum over and Lok at the top, generally if a sealed lid with 2 bungs it was fuel or oil, removable lid meant grease or other product. The lids generally were painted white and stencilled with what the contents were.
They were ribbed as they were made of thinner rolled steel sheeting and the rains gave rigidity, the heavier straight walled with only 4 raised rolling ribs came in during early WW2 as distance and type of transportation meant the drum walls needed to be thicker to prevent damage.
Thanks for the detail on that.
Very interesting mine, Towards the end there I noticed what appeared to be the remains of a photograph pulled from an old Polaroid style camera. Remember? You took the shot, removed the single piece of film, waited a few minutes, peeled back the film to reveal the picture.
It has been a lot of years since that style camera was used extensively. It also seemed that a lot of the lumber in that mine was stained with oil etc. Even the vertical supports and framework, which leads me to think it was recycled from some other operation into this mine.
That "bell" was an old brake drum from some sort of machine for those who didn't recognize it. These miners all had one thing in common, they were nothing if not resourceful in finding ways to make stuff work. What was the green material Jason? Copper? The minerals and material in the ore bearing seams etc was interesting and not the usual colors we see.
Looking forward to #2. I knew you were gonna do this to us. I just knew it, LOL.
I'm 24, when I was a kid I had a polaroid camera, but I don't remember having to peel anything off. I hit the button, the flash went off and the picture printed, and you had to fan it back and forth to dry it, but I don't remember having to peel anything off. It's that just and older style of things, or am I remembering incorrectly?
@@PostalPatriot556 yeah, later models peeled it on eject. I’m a very spry gen x but I do remember my uncles Polaroid. It was the accordion collapsible kind. That was a long time ago and I can’t remember the name of the model. You’d have to peel back the top layer of plastic yourself....and then fan the photo because you’d be impatient for it to develop. I still love the color Polaroids render. It gives the photos an instant sort of nostalgia. My memories are in that particular saturation.
@@JustAnotherPaddy they were called Polaroid Land Cameras, and used a peel apart film. They were the common type of instafilm until the typical Polaroid film Type and shape we know today came out in 1972.
That's a fascinating mine. Looking forward to next week
My uneducated guess was silver & copper. I read the description after watching the video and see I was somewhat correct. That brake drum bell was pretty innovative.
You seem like you're always spot on with your hunches... Well, at least those that you've shared. I was impressed by the drum bell as well. Like I always say, miners are resourceful!
Oh Boy I have to wait gotta go to Doctors . I will be back to watch later Thank you for the Video .
Ahhhhhh!!!! When is part 2???? This is like already driving me crazy! Another great video.
You are literally one of the best detailed in your video filming You missed nothing that I could tell thank you greate mine great vid Stay safe.
Wow thats a big mine and epic stoping. Looking forward to more. Be safe out there
That was a very nice mine up to now, very interesting.
Hi Justin, wow what a cool mine, so many drifts and stopes with quite a few awesome pieces of equipment with still quite a bit of track left which is always cool to see. You big tease, I can't wait to see what you found down that winze in the part two. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx 🙏💖
What's down that winze is pretty cool... I was pretty impressed to see how much was still there in the way of equipment and rail in such given that this is located in Southern California.
@@TVRExploring It was a very cool find for sure. x
1963 art was Elvis.
The ore must have been pretty good to leave such small pillars.
That stope with those pillars was amazing looking
Love this one cant wait for the next part 👍
News paper looks early 1900’s. Beautiful mine. Great job finding and exploring these places. Pretty exciting and scary at times I’m sure
Strange Adventures Of A Girl Tramp was a title in the January 1935 issue of True Confessions. Art style matches too.
Mine has a lot of neat things laying around. Love the big air tank
Nothing like a good tease. I like the woodwork's in mines but pillars are a special kind of cool.
It would have been a lot to cram all of this mine into one video... I think pillars are cool as well!
Great Video at 14:24 fuse length cutting board and at 26:47 the arrow on the tank had writing on it. On the way in to the left was old wooden air vent under dirt and rock.
Great mine! Looking forward to the lower levels!
very unique mine right there, but that's the amazing thing about exploring old mines, each ones different
Wow, surprising mine! Very cool start!
You sound a lot like Christine Slater Lol.... Nice video. Good descriptions and educated information. Thanks!
Well I loved this segment and am looking forward to the next. Stay safe guys.
Great footage brother! keep up the great work!
Fantastic Awesome history about that mine in your description box below mate,always enjoy theses mine explores as find them so intresting and cool looking cause u never know what u will find 🔥🔥. Can't wait for part 2 🙏🐔
Thank you very much. Yes, there is some good stuff down that winze...
@@TVRExploring can't wait to see what's down there 🙏🙏
Great mine. Thank you for helping to keep us going..
Had to be hard to walk past the area that you know is going to have goodies and still explore the worked out areas!
Will be my warm spot of next week up here in Minnesota, can't wait!
Awesome mine really enjoy your videos
It's exciting when you say your in Southern California. I'm minutes from the Kern Canyon in Kern County California. Head up to Isabella area and you find gold fever in the area. Keys ville. This mine has lots to look over. Thanks so much. I may never mine for anything but I can dream.
My dad was a geologist who said you could pretty much dig down anywhere in the world and find minerals. So why not dig up your back yard? You might strike a good gold vein and annoy the neighbors at the same time (grins!).
That is an entire mine full of right hand rules. Another great job of exploring!
I'm a land surveyor by trade, I love seeing the survey markings you walk by in the mines.
Great video as usual I can't wait for part 2
No way I'd go in there:*( scary stuff...but fun to watch you go in...
I've always wondered why do they plug the ore shoot?
Generally they don't. These are all old mines and over the years material from whatever is above (stope, ore pass etc) slips down to the chute area (the choke-point) and frequently causes the blockages (plugs) that you see. Slippage can be from normal sluffing to earthquake-induced rock fall (think many, many minor quakes over forty to a hundred years). Also, as dry as these mines look, frequently there will be yearly water flow -- ore chutes make great creek beds! Not to mention mine explorers who feel compelled to chuck large rocks down every hole they come across--guilty here too at times in the past.
As an aside, I noticed that you called them ore shoots. when I was much younger I knew some old-timers who used that meaning/spelling to refer to chutes that way. It would be indicate a load from the back or upper sides of a stope that, when blasted, would naturally drop down and funnel into a load-point and frequently plug it up. Different parts of the country and different times had miners using different terms to describe the same thing.
Awesome video man.. Cant wait for #2 in this mine
USGS is United States Geological Survey no? Could be they used this mine to get data for their survey?
No cheaper hole in the ground than the one that's already dug out for you.
Brings back so many memories....used to explore mines all over the southwest
This one looks a little like one of the Darwin mines, but could be anywhere.
I started at Candelaria, NV in 1969 and kept it up until the early 80s. My friends were climbers, so we'd happily use ropes and Jumars to tackle vertical shafts. No digi cameras in those days, too bad. But those guys that bought the Cerro Gordo property? We hit the upper levels of that place in 1974 - nice Smithsonite! Speaking of which, you might throw the rockhounds a few seconds on the minerals involved, they'd love it. Cheers...
That’s a very cool riveted drum.
Hi there cant wait to watch
That lumber looked to be I'm good shape!🇺🇸⛏
Hella sick video man. Super cool to see how savage the old timers were.
A question tho.. How the hell did you not get turned around and lost up in there?
Did you any markings or anything to know your way back? Shit makes me nervous just watching.
Really nice mine and episode!
@2:18 the neck of an "old" bottle seen behind the first ore chute.
Thank you Justin.
I sure would not like to be down in that Ballroom during a plate shift!
Hell yeah! This is a Crazy mine. But they are in California. You every come up to French Gulch I would love to explore a mine with you..
I've been to a few big ones there
32:23 is that water also there was a ladder going down attached to the wall
Who ever did this mine did some really good construction! not falling apart like most i see....
16:32, graffiti is soot written by flame from carbide lamp?
Amazing. Hauled that tank in the mine
Aren’t these old mines full of faraway shadows darting around corners? Or what about the stale dirty air that lingers from rain and quakes?
Take a geologist along.. Or take some samples for assay. Get a mining companies' assessment of the property just for curiosity.
My business partner and I will be happy to run any samples collected along the way. We can do gold and silver fire assay right now, no demand for base metals in our area.
Would be nuts if they didn’t leave with a couple buckets full of ore
I'm going to try to not get distracted...
Immediately gets distracted.
I guess I would too..
I have stumbled on a few were I live in Coleville CA. most have been collapsed (probably on purpose) but I have found a few that are vertical shafts that go into blackness.
I wish i could explore and explore -- i wish i could go out to California.. all kinds of stuff to keep busy
This mine must be located here in Shasta County cuz it popped up when I typed it in. I've been to 8 mines that are intense like this here
Love all of your videos. How is the mine coming along. Thank you
Looks like a Southern Nevada Mine, that's for sure!
you should do a video on Cerro Gordo!
Go watch ghost town living if u want cerro gordo vids
right on cool adventure
I think I've seen too many horror movies, half expecting some kind of nasty creature to pop up out of the shadows.😅
Very clear and very good video and much better without you and your partner narrating over each other. I thoroughly enjoyed it, Looking forward to watching part 2. Thanks
Looked it up Womans Day magazine June 1953
Could you share a link? great work finding it. '53 is right in the timeline.
Awesome! Thanks for looking that up.
I found this in jan 1935 of true confessions mag."1/35 TRUE CONFESSIONS MAG. CLAUDETTE COLBERT, STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A GIRL TRAMP"
Unfortunately the mag isnt available to read but its the earliest i found.
Went to find the link and it was gone it was a magazine for sale on Ebay it was also a swimsuit edition so thats why it probably ended up in a mine
Vericose veins, just what I always wanted
Please excuse my ignorance, recently new viewer, but do you know why they quit working these mines that you explore? If it's because the mine is no longer producing and no longer profitable, then why don't they at least take out their equipment? Seems to me it would be several thousand in scrap value alone.
They stop mining if the vein runs out, or if they run out of money: it can be quite expensive to run a mine. WW2 closed a few mines. Many mines do get stripped when closed, particularly for track and machinery. I don't know why more leave things behind. Before petrol/diesel, the main means of moving heavy things was donkeys. Maybe it just wasn't worth it to haul scrap iron 20-100 miles by donkey?
Are there miniature railroad spikes holding the rail to the ties ?
Am I the only one who's upset that he didn't take the pants some of those minor clothes like the jeans and the pants especially sell for thousands of dollars
Yes, Levis specifically sell for hundreds of thousands. (srsly, not joking)
I would love to put them on display. Original miner livis aren't just anything.
For this being in So Cali going through a multitude of earthquakes; How in the hell did this stay intact as well??? Very amazing!!!!!
TVR have you thought about getting with Brent at Cerro Gordo?
Very cool old mine.👍👍👍👍👍❤🇺🇸
How long approximately did it take the miners to dig this mine? How many miners? How come the mine clos😂d?
Doesn't (or didn't) the GS in USGS stand for Geological Survey?
I'm new to this mine explorations.. Would like to know the definitions of the mining jargon. And names of different ores you see.. This would be great.. Thank you
What was that thing moving across the wall at around :43?
DOH! A cliffhanger! Ok, I have questions. Did the miners drink alot down there, or are all the beer cans from other folks who snuck in? If so, who in their right mind would sneak into an abandoned mine and get drunk?? Why is there always unprocessed ore in the chutes? Didn't they want to get the last bit of ore? They already mined it, why not use it?
Great mine and I always enjoy your videos .
I wonder if someday trees used to make the huge beams and other woodworkings will be so rare people will start dragging the wood out of mines to actually use in building ? Seems like some of it is in perfect condition. 🤷🏻♂️
Oh and that United States Geological Survey (USGS) gravity was done in the year I was born 🙂
Thanks again for showing us these cool places !
Great interesting video.so much wood used in mine mean u ve to b careful in such conditions. pray for ur safety
Looked like a lot of gold bearing ore in there
I tried to look up the text in the print you found on elgoog but nothing came back. Looked to be possible 1920 ish print, which would go with the riveted tank. I could very well be wrong though.
I’m a Southern Californian! I’d love to know the coordinates of this one! Exploration and preservation are key for mines like this! My wife and I love exploring Johnson valley to death Vally and california city! We live in Ventura.
Checking in here - looking for the coordinates too! Not sure if I found it on MINDAT
There were pants found in a mine that are over 100 yrs old an worth a ton of money. Pretty sure it was like 5 pair left in the mine.
Yea frank on his abandoned mine channel
It looks like they filled up the back of that tunnel to prevent people from going any further.
First published in 1914, this detailed account of female hobos is a rare and beautiful example of early American storytelling. The Adventures of a Female Tramp is social history, presenting vagabond underground culture with humor, excitement and a flare for the dramatic. Each of the cross-country adventures are told by "the famous hobo" A. No. 1 who authored several books about tramping, including From Coast to Coast with Jack London, which inspired the 1973 movie Emperor of the North.
You and ghost town living so need to link up