Toxic Abandoned 1990s Mining Town
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Welcome to Wonderhussy Adventures #225
Exploring one of California's dirtiest little secrets: a toxic mining town hidden waaaay up in the mountains that was so contaminated, all the residents were evacuated...and the entire town has been abandoned since the 1990s! TONS of personal items were left behind, as well as lots of beautifully rusted old machinery and equipment at the mill site.
This was hands down one of THE COOLEST places I've ever explored...check it out!
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wonderhussy, wonder hussy, abandoned mine, abandoned mine shaft, abandoned house, mine shaft, urban exploration, urbex, ghost town, abandoned town, abandoned superfund site, toxic town, abandoned mill, industrial urbex, abandoned mining
It was the first gould rotary furnace. I grew up in this town for 8 years after it was shut down, my parents were the caretakers. The buildings were mostly livable and originaly furnished back then. The brothel was up on the side of the hill overlooking the town and we lived in that building until it burned down in the mid 1980's originally there was about 100 buildings in the town before the recent fire. I loved being a kid there.
My husband and his brother worked and lived in that mercury mine on the saw mill, the mercury room and the grizzly (breaking rocks). Although they did have their own trailer parked there to sleep in. They did have to take weekly urine test. And if they tested positive of the mercury they were sent over to work in the saw mill. There was a whole community of workers and their family living there, especially Basques people that did not speak english. There was a post office, grocery store, mess hall, and a school for the workers children. I'm sure if you scouted the area you would find relics of years of the mine, possibly Chinese artifacts from when they also worked there, of course many many years before my husband and his brother mined New Idri Mercury Mine. He remembers a big storm hit there in 1970 and quite a number of Chinese skeletons washed out of their graves so they had to push and dump dirt back onto the skeletons to bury them again.
Great knowledge. People dont realize how badly chinese people were treated in mines and railroads. They were slaves and chained up at night in cages.
Wow! Bizarre place to work for sure.
Great background information about this mine.
Hi thanks for sharing that story! So interesting. Can you tell us why there were so many bottles of ranch and Windex pulled up? It has me and my mom so intrigued.
Still checking out your older vids and your side comments are funny and had me giggling!
Dont worry about how long your videos are people can jump a head or fast forword if they are too long . I think this is one of your most interesting of videos . This place deserves your time .
Martin Lohstroh - I really liked this one too! If it were an hour or more~ I'd still be watching! Love your explores🙂
I would have gladly watched a 3 or 4 parter on this place.
It's hard to fathom that a town from the '90s is a ghost town. Man I'm getting old.
I was just thinking the same thing!
We can tell wonderhussy doesnt do the grocery shopping! Didnt even recognize a grocery checkout stand (with the conveyor belt) LOL
I’ve been going back watching some of your older clogs and props to you girl! You put some serious thought into your editing with the addition of the mood music and shots of you posing on site to give your vlog some punch. It’s not just you talking an taking pics so thanks for making these visually interesting and fun to listen to!
Mercury mining operations ceased in 1972. However, the environmental consequences of mercury mining remained well past the abandonment of the town.
Very good, it was a super fun site. Obviously, they would have kept the bar open if they had known you were going to show up.
Baaah! Salad dressing and sofazzz!! 🤣 And yes, that truck is called a "square body," '73-'87 Chevy or GMC.
Super great adventure GOOD find .🤔⛏️👍Cjd wash state
The excitement in your voice when you are adventuring is addictive - it keeps me coming back! Keep up the great work, and thank you!
Wonder hussey , I think you found like a store that the workers could purchase food stuffs. That conveyor table looked like an old grocery checkout stand. Great video....even though it was a bit creepy.
hussy that is your #1 creepy toxic find yet! I grimaced the whole tim you walked through it. Not to mention it put me right on the edge of my seat. I was like ,Oh I hope she doesn't get hurt. Mercury is really TOXIC! Did you ever read about Alice in wonderland. Well this time it was Sara in wonderland! YIKES###!!! Your buddy in B.C.C. Jim
This is so educational! I did not know that salad dressing was made from windex and coffee!
10:30 That looks like the company store, where the people who lived there shopped. The conveyor at 6:45 looks like what you'd see in a supermarket from the 1950s-1960s.
I've seen a lot of your videos but this has to be one of your best. I've never seen so many piles of junk in so many dilapidated falling down buildings. You have to remember that everything you showed in this video including all of the building supplies to construct the buildings, all of the furniture etc. that went into the buildings, the heavy pieces of machinery ,and on and on had to be trucked up there and unloaded by people, then assembled. And now it all lies in a pile of ruin along with God only knows how much toxic waste lying around. Also another thought... where did their drinking water come from?
Thanks for taking us there WH! That really was amazing! And like a weird mystery. Background music was perfect too!
Yes, you are a Super Fun Sight, Miss Hussy. :-)
Thank you for your work. Sarah. I just recently found your channel, and your videos are incredibly addictive. You are doing what I wish I had spent my younger years doing!
You could make this vid one hour and I would still watch it. Love all the details and stories you make out of the rooms! Next time longer videos please!!!! ❤️👌🏼😍
Too cool ! I'm gonna be lookin fwd to seeing more of your great work
- Mark
Wonderhussy, another fantastic video! Like many of the others, I worry about your safety and health as you take on these adventures. It never ceases to amaze me that these old abandoned buildings have so much junk collected and placed into rooms and, not just abandoned in place. What is the purpose for moving all of the light fixtures into one room while beds are placed into another? Why are old 55 gallon drums moved into another room rather than left where they were being used? And, the big mystery, why ranch dressing, windex and snoboll cleaner left there in such huge quantities while nothing else seams to be stored there? I'd love to see a video of how that all came about or at least a verbal or written account of what it was like being there when it all went down.
I KNOW!!!! ME, TOO!!! ALL THOSE ABANDONED BUILDINGS OUT THERE LIKE THAT, yeah,..what is with all those thousands of ranch dressing bottles on the floor like that, and the windex,...what the hell happened there, that is CRAZY!!! WOULD LOVE TO BE THERE EXPLORING ALL OF THAT PLACE. STUFF ABANDONED EVERYWHERE!!! LOOKS LIKE THE KIND OF PLACE WHERE EVERYONE LIVING THERE JUST LEFT VERY QUICKLY!! SORT OF REMINDS ONE OF CHERNOBYL!!!
Great opening silhouette shot !!!
Hi Wonder Hussy, I'm Tim,now don't hold this against me,but I'm originally from Oakland,CA. I've been traveling the same desert region you do but a few years earlier! Starting in camp out tour international Mohave, then many years of enchanting trips to Death Valley Been dry camping off &on 4 many years & would like 2 share experience.I now own a Turquiose claim West of Tonopah and work it as often as conditions and life allows.I currently live in Weed,CA. I share your passion 4 the desert and admire your enthusiasm,keep on keeping on! Thanks 4 all the entertaining videos Did you see the newer Hannah Straight video,where do you think those hot springs were ? She is very secretive about her locatons.
I've been noticing your editing getting better and better! Nice work!
You remind me so much of my sister. It would be so much fun to tag along with you on your adventures. Well, along with the rest of the world, I guess that’s what we’ve been doing when we watch your videos. Keep up the good work and wonderful sense of humor:)
that tarp held down with the sand bags was probably to catch rain water for drinking.. Tnx for another great story......
New Idria utilized the process of calcination to mine mercury, which involved crushing and roasting cinnabar, then condensing the release of mercury vapor. The leftover ores or calcines from this process were piled along with other waste rock, totaling between 0.5 and 2 million tons and cover over 40 acres of mining ground.
Robert O'Connor Makes you wonder what kind if mess the chi-comms are making of their land.
Umm cinnabar sounds sounds delicious
There's one of those places at our local mall, great with coffee.
In 2005 more of the mill and retort we’re still there. The recovery block is gone now (scrappers), and half the town burned down about 8 years ago if memory serves.
At least you didn’t run into the Castro idiots (family that lives up there). They like to pull guns on people. Google it.
It would be droll if circumstances forced Wonderhussy to crawl through a tiny mine shaft dripping with mercury like Phillip Mercer had to do in the novel "The Medusa Stone." She would have to sweat nonstop to avoid mercury poisoning. Also it would've been droll if she would've been raped by The Toxic Rapist. People should buy my "Dance of Death" a James Grider novel on Amazon as many times as people have bought "The Medusa Stone."
the pick-up truck is a mid 70's chevy or gmc step-side short box, those of us who are into old trucks call this gm truck the "square body".
from '73 to the mid 80's . i have an '80 square body. looked like a small block V8 in it. I missed the indicators for the subtle redesign for '81. the orientation of the front side markers and the hood ventss at the cowl.
Very very cool from a very very cool WH!....Wow maybe I will write hidden valley see if they had a truck load stollen,That is crazy..Great job WH..Happy 4th,Nice having dinner with you.73s
I don’t comment often, but you should have a respirator and some protection, it might catch up to you some day. Loved the explore!
Sarah Jane Woodall, R.I.P.
Next up... wonderhussy goes to Chernobyl!?!?🤣
If she did this on any kind of a regular basis you are so right Pokemón Hunter. A couple hours outside once in awhile (and she doesn't look like she is currently with child) she is likely okay. I wouldn't want to take any of the furniture home though.
@teddy bear thank you for increasing my vocabulary (although I am not yet convinced you are right). I don't know any better ;)
Thank u for taking us on all these amazing adventures. Its a blast every time. Wonderhussy RULES!!!
I remember when my brother, friends and I, used to explore the old RA HANSON plant north of our home in Spokane (a cough, cough). It was abandoned then but as kids, we did not know anything (a cough, cough). Before that is was a Kaiser plant (a cough, cough). Some good old memories there.......
Steve Hogue thanks for the memories that you share on her videos because that adds another dimension of the history in people's stories
One of your all time best videos, that Bldg. with all the rooms was probably a HO house for the workers. They wore out a lot of mattresses.
Wow Sarah, beautiful but scary video. Thank you for taking me to places I will never see!
Same goes for me!!!!!
“Come work in our Mercury mining town. We provide housing with furniture and ranch salad dressing which if consumed everyday will counteract any toxicity in the air, ground or water. A bottle a day keeps the Dr. away!!”
Yikes!!! Be careful for breathing the contaminated dust in those old buildings you could see the dust in the air inside the buildings.
But, another crazy video.
So funny watching you explore!
I, feel like a toxic super fund site myself!!! But, you look great!
This might be your BEST VIDEO yet. And that's saying a lot...!
Thanks for doing this.
LOL! If you drank that much coffee and had that much salad dressing you would NEED that much toilet cleaner too!
Thank you Sarah Jane for another exciting Adventure I love mines do you know that many of the toxic materials there just come straight out of the Earth
New Idria Mercury Mine. Closed operations in 1972. Weird that there were stuff from the 90's in there. Probably dumped there by people well after the place closed.
I love everything you do in the videos it's like you bring us with you. Thank you sweetie
Hiya wonderhussy 💋! another Fab location!and thank you for sharing 😍
Video quality is so much better. Thank-you.
Maybe from time to time you should wear either a dust mask or a respirator, because as you walk you are kicking up dust then breathing it. Just a suggestion for your safety.
Great video & yes I remember the toxic avenger, class of nuke,em high is one of my favorite movies. welcome to Tromaville ! A mind is a terrible thing to Mercury waste
Holy friggin wowsers, yikers! We got all the best of Wonder Hussy in this great video!!!😘
That’s a post de-con site. It was considered to leave the contaminated items in place rather than transporting the waste and risking spreading the contamination. SOP. Unfortunately, you’re discovering the tip of a huge iceberg. Glad you know about Hantavirus. Invest in a respirator. Change the filters after every decon.
Don't cross contaminate your truck floor board or steering wheel......again be safe!! I love your videos and my wife and I are planning to retire in Vegas......we already have a condo in the Summerlin area. I can't wait until I can be called a "local" in Vegas!! Keep the great videos coming!!
New Idria is one hot mess. The mine closed in 1972 and I'm not sure why some of the papers had 1990 dates on them. Very interesting adventure. 😀👍
Renay Vance-Moser in a 2011 online newspaper article, I read that a company called Futures Foundation unbelievably brought drug addicted individuals to this place in the early 1990s as part of their treatment program. Unbelievable. Prior to that, another company bought the 880 acres and sold shares to investors promising there was much gold to be mined there. We can’t make this stuff up. Crazy.
Also while the mine closed in ‘72, the last people left in ‘95. Except for one guy who supposedly still lives up there somewhere.
Quote from Wikipedia: "The New Idria Mercury Mine was claimed in 1854, with the first brick furnace built in 1857. During the California Gold Rush, mercury was the key component to extract Gold from ores." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Idria_Mercury_Mine) That's a very long time to be polluting the environment with something like mercury--that stuff lasts forever in the environment. You have to wear a half-face respirator with Mercury Vapor, Chlorine or SO2 Cartridge filters if you're going to expose yourself to that poison.
Well, hello WH, I tuned in late.
Thanks for your live broadcast. You are fun. I hope I meet you again in person. We'll always have Mt. Whitney, hahaha 😆
That conveyor thing toward the beginning you wondered about looks the the checkout lane for a grocery store. The place with all the salad dressing and Windex was probably the store.
My guess is that a Semi truck and trailer were stolen and they had to dump the cargo before the illegal chop shop sale of the truck and trailer. I've seen that many times before. I've seen entire trailers full of brand new riding lawnmowers dumped deep in the desert and many other things like that. Or the miners just ate a lot of salads...
your theory sounds good to me! :-)P.S. pickup one of those mowers for me please.
that does make sense. I've heard about that...
Yeah 🤣🤣🤣 the miners ate a lot of salads!
The "I see you" building looks like it was the "company store." It was common in very remote sites to have a building that was the "company store" where the workers could buy stuff they needed.
Dad Blame it Sarah - you are hilarious! Going back in time looking at some of your older videos. Sure would be fun to be your runnin buddy. Yes, yes I know you like rollin solo.............................still love you tho!
That was a good video too Sarah thank you you know it's amazing the life that we didn't lead when we were younger I mean course you're a lot younger than I am but I remember lot of stuff out in the Mojave Desert where I lived thank you for the video
Your videos are so interesting and I love your commentary! Happy 4th and keep up the good work amiga :-)
Those long tubes are for grinding the rock to a powder. Filled with steel balls and ore, it rotates and grinds the ore up.
Love your vids ,, thanks for taking me along .
Let's hope that hidden valley is not where hidden valley ranch comes from!! ;)
Is meth made from hidden valley and sno toilet cleaner?
You really should wear a mask at these type of toxic locations, great adventure 🇦🇺🐨👍🏻
Crazy....this is your world...most people are clueless about the humans. Fantastic.
Another awesome one! Crazy place! Very cool!
The intro with your shadow is excellent
There;s a trade-off for how big a risk to take to earn the money, and if you live to spend it. Amazing how nature tries to assert itself even there. Thanks for the look WH.
I love that you keep exploring!! :)
Toxic chemicals especially lead can get into dust and be absorbed via contact with that dust on your skin. It can also travel to your home via that dust. May want to wear a mask and change and wash your clothes before going home. Nice video.
she's a hussy, as in stupid. she don't care.
I absolutely love your videos and you should make a suuuuper long video some time 😎
Nice creepy music wow 😮 i’m going to have to watch this again on Halloween night lol 😂👍🏾 stay safe out there 😎
company store.there is even a checkout counter. there is a world of mercury ore in the hills above tehechapi ca. just look for reddish colored dirt or rock. its all low grade, but it is everywhere. a flask, about 2.5 litres.weighs 76 pounds. only really bad if it is in a vapor state, and you should inhale it.
That Lozier equipment that you found, is a checkout stand for a supermarket.
They put the tarps down to supposedly keep the rain from spreading the contamination. "Rocketdyne" has lots of areas like that
Great and awesome video..an adventure alright ...a strange place..the sound effects are captivating..thank you so much for your work and art... Happy 4th of July...lots of love..J
compliments! it took you only half an hour to understand that that is the company store...
Great video & great find . Please be careful & safe.
You may have found the hidden valley and its abandon salad dressing mine.
@ 6:43 the weird shaped counter with the conveyor belt is a grocery store counter, I think you must be in a grocery store lol! Just recognizing it makes me feel really old.
Remember back in the day Ranch Hands got a break and pay and went to town some referred to bunk houses as hotel but not as we might think
You should invest in a filtered mask or paint mask for abandoned places like that! But it was a cool video
Get a mask. Fuck your stupid.
*you're
Hazmat suit.
The narrations would then be muffled. Not good either. She's not a novice and not stupid Verne Lomax !
Love the suspenseful music.
I think I understand your addiction to hot spring ponds now ... you're still trying to get clean.
You need a Hazmat suit ... complete with gloves, and boots.
You are incredible woman ... take care of you!
That conveyor thing looked like one from a grocery store.
Yeah...the grocery store that was full of Hidden Valley Ranch and Windex.
My first view of a video production of yours. Wow I thin you might have discovered the Salad Dressing Cult's location or maybe where they made it along with mercury?You cover all the bases of quality presentation from panning to excellent music and original commentary.That former place of commerce seems lie another canary in the coal mine to warn us that Eden was long ago and how far off the beam we have become. If it doesn't work just abandon it.for somebody else to clean up.Thanks again for making this available, you are brilliant.Your new suscriber
hey - WH. after watching 2 or 3 HUNDRED u-tube programs i was despising the background
racket (music) but the guitar you are playing is VERY pleasant. THANKS.
Just left that area last week wish I had run into you!
I saw this wonderful video earlier on Twitter. Once again, thank you for sharing your adventures. Happy July fourth, 2018 ;)
That is definitely the creepiest place you've ever explored, Sarah. Long after the human species has choked itself out of existence on ranch dressing, Windex, and industrial waste, aliens will land here and draw unsavory conclusions about our "civilization."
I am in agreement, there!!! Feeling the same way!!!!!
Next up on Wonderhussy adventures -- the reactor room of the Chernobyl NPP unit 4.
New Idria Mercury mines.. San Bento County CA.. Diablo Mountain
Check out at 3:33 the toxic dust you can breathe poking around an abandoned superfund site.
Great video! Wouldn't it be great to talk to some of those who lived there, or grew up there?
From Wikiepedia:
The community was established to support the mine, which mainly extracted mercury, since cinnabar was abundant in the local rock formations. Mercury mining at the location began in 1854. At one time, the New Idria mines were America's second most productive mines, with the New Almaden mines in the vicinity of San Jose, about 82 miles (132 km) northwest, being the first.
The discovery of mercury ore at New Idria came soon after the discovery of gold in the Sierra foothills, which began the California gold rush. At that time, mercury was important in extracting gold from gold ore. Before the New Idria and New Almaden Quicksilver Mines, the mercury came almost exclusively from Europe.
The New Idria Mining Company was formed soon after the discovery of cinnabar (quicksilver ore) in the southern Diablo Range of central California in 1854. The town of New Idria began around 1857 and about 300 men were employed at the mine by 1861. The first school opened in 1867 and the New Idria Post Office opened in 1869, with Edward A. Morse as the first postmaster. In 1894, the New Idria Post Office dropped the word "New" and the town become known as Idria.[ The New Idria Quicksilver Mining Company closed in 1972 and the town has since become a ghost town.
New Idria is a California Historical Landmark (#324) and home of the world’s first Gould Rotary Furnace, which revolutionized ore processing technology worldwide.
On July 30, 2010, a fire destroyed 13 buildings on the north side of town
INCREDIBLE, QUICK "HISTORY LESSON"! STUFF I NEVER KNEW!!
At 11:39 that light switch used to have a clear rubber bubble over it to prevent shocks in case people had wet hands when they turned it on. It looks like it could have been a refrigerated room, like a walk in cooler.
"Ain't got time for no W's!" at 13:06 LOL!!
Weird that looked like a grocery store check out with the belt on it.
If that place was involved in mercury mining and processing, you need to be tested for exposure. Mercury is a persistent neurotoxin that acts over time. A particularly gruesome case of poisoning was that of Karen Wetterhahn, an analytical chemist specialising in mercury chemistry, who found out the hard way that the protective clothing she was wearing didn't actually offer any protection. She died a nasty death.
Systemic mercury poisoning typically manifests itself first, by loss of coordination, followed by progressive memory and cognitive failures, and by the time the symptoms progress to blindness and touch sensory failure, an unpleasant death through multiple organ failure isn't too far away.
The only places that are worse than heavy metal mining facilities from the standpoint of health risks, are nuclear waste sites. Or, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, those underground bomb test sites in Nevada.
I’m betting that the cages in the store were to keep chickens for slaughter. Eggs and other smaller animals would have been kept outside in the fenced in area.
There are some places you just need to spend more time exploring. This was / is one of them. Do a multi parter like you did before. I'll be watching. I love places like this.
YEAH,...THAT MAKES TWO OF US!!!!!lplm
The company that worked the property had to have posted a reclamation bond this is not that old a property why was it not cleaned up? The state of CA. is as much to blame as anyone in not requiring that this property be cleaned up.
@walters49- I think the my beautiful state of California is bound by federal regulations. This is why we want a divorce from them. I support the CalExit* initiative. We need to remain free & the only way to do this is to leave & become our own country. I don't want us to be divided into 3. That's rape. Edit: *Calexit is now known as YES CALIFORNIA.
Exactly! good comment!!
Yeah, all those salad dressing bottles everywhere is pretty weird along with windex bottles… freaky! As interesting as that place was, I might of steered clear of it after seeing all that toxic stuff everywhere.
Seems this is when you’re discovering that your phone works better than your GoPro. Your audio is getting better as well now that I’ve seen you’re using that fuzzy little windsock thing over your mic attached to the phone or clipped to your chest area.
I hope to hear what happened to your glasses after losing them on Tikaboo. There might be an alien running around with a pair of cheap plastic made in China sunglasses with an American flag printed on them… lol!