California’s Historic Italian Gap Mines
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- In the early days of California’s Gold Rush, the focus was on finding gold and not on keeping records. As such, I could uncover no specific information at all on the Italian miners that were here first to turn over the gravel and rocks in search of placer gold. The scant records I could locate on the lode mine were from more than a century ago and they only made a passing reference to it - no details at all were shared on matters such as production, equipment, the size of the mine, the number of miners, the history of the mine, etc. The one exception was a report that stated assays had revealed an average gold content of .22 troy ounces per ton of ore from this mine with an estimate of 50,000 tons of ore remaining. That’s 11,000 ounces of gold for those of you that don’t feel like doing the math. Other than that sliver of information, we are left with what we can observe for ourselves. However, with the knowledgeable audience I have, I’m sure we’ll be able to put a lot of pieces together on this one with the collective knowledge available.
The wooden ore carts were popular in remote settings such as this mine because the metal frame and wheels could be transported in pieces and then assembled once the miners arrived at the site. The wooden components - essentially the “box” of the ore cart - could usually be sourced right around the mine itself by chopping a tree down. So, it was a relatively simple way to get ore carts into operation at a mine. The wooden ore carts are, obviously, not as durable as the metal ore carts. However, they can take a surprising amount of abuse and, aside from being much lighter to transport, they are much cheaper too. So, it isn’t a surprise that we find the metal bits and pieces from the remains of wooden ore carts all over the place in the regions of the Sierra Nevada where historic mining operations were. This was the first (and only) time I have ever seen an intact frame for a wooden ore cart in California. And I have only ever seen one fully intact wooden ore cart at a mine, which was preserved by the dry deserts of Nevada.
I was quite intrigued by that mine up the side of the canyon with what I assume was an air shaft. The mines with dirt around them rather than hard rock erode shut very quickly. So, I wasn’t optimistic about getting into that one via the adit when I saw that waste rock pile from above. However, with ropes and technical gear, one could possibly drop down into the mine via the air shaft. I would imagine that no one has been in that mine for a very long time - more than 150 years if it dates to around the time of California’s Gold Rush. Imagine what could be in an untouched mine like that! Ha, probably nothing, but you never know…
There was an old rock crusher in the river below the stamp mill, but the video of this was lost.
This was a long, steep hike down and back out - especially when carrying fifty pounds of mine exploring gear on my back! The section I showed in the video with the national anthem of Italy playing in the background was just a tiny percentage of the hike and didn’t include the steepest parts. The flies and mosquitoes on the way back were absolutely awful too. So, in other words, I hope this video is enjoyed...
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You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
You can click here for my full playlist of abandoned mines: 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
Wow. Just look at all that mineralized quartz. Thanks for posting it.
Very nice. Great to see and well documented. Cool find on the ore cart. I wonder if that would be mined today if in a better location with that big quartz vein. Been so long since that river has be cleaned of gold, betcha there's more there now. Great spot, thanks for taking the hike for us viewers. Hats of to ya and heck with Mr. McBride, take care of the Italian. Lei vale il suo peso in oro.
LOL, yes, Chuck's great, but if I'm traveling behind someone, I prefer the Italian scenery. I was so surprised by that ore cart that I didn't even recognize it for what it was at first! I was wondering about the economics of this mine today as well... A lot of those older mines still have some good gold in them.
WOW! Outstanding video! I'm not big on removing history from its location but I'd be OK with bringing that ore cart back to life.
Thank you, man... Ha, yeah, I was so surprised to see that wooden ore cart that I didn't even recognize it at first! All of the components are there and so it would be an easy restore. It's unheard of to have all of the components intact and together like that.
Amazing, youve done it once again. Great quality and flow. That was a really cool spot too. Thanks for taking us along!
Thanks for coming along!
I love the small timber support that's holding the mine together! Looks like a joke a miner played. Be safe and keep these videos coming!
Love these remote little mines you find, they are the best ones to look at that nobody has been in for a long time. Always nice to see track still in place, a rare thing over in my part of the world. Love seeing the stamps, well preserved out there thats for sure! I guess it's hard to imagine how it looked years ago when they were mining it, there may have been a proper route into the mine for wagons etc
Yes, I'd much rather have a smaller mine with a lot of interesting features than an enormous one that is dull and featureless. I read recently that they actually lowered equipment down on cables to this site. It was so steep that that's really the only way that it could be done. It was a brutal hike out!
Thank you for another fantastic video. It's amazing the work and effort you put into these adventures and I appreciate it. Stay safe.
Really appreciate that... Thank you.
Excellent material. Thank you for posting this. We learned a lot and we really enjoyed it.
Thank you. I'm glad to hear that...
Your videos are absolutely the best ! You do know your business about these old mines. I have been in many of them in S.W. Oregon. Thank you !
Thank you very much.
"We're looking for Italians."
*turns around*
"Okay, mission accomplished."
Amazing video and it was amazing to see the remains of the orse cart. Stay safe and as always keepvthem coming you do great work
Thank you very much. Yes, I was so surprised to see that wooden ore cart that I didn't even recognize what it was at first!
Yes at first i thpught it was a peace of small machinery amd even after u figured out it was a ore cart it was still hard to fathom that it was in fact a cart idk how u do it but out of all the channles i follow u by far find the best mines And give the best info keep it up and again stay safe
Great video, some tough sumbishes worked that canyon! I really enjoyed the adventure, thank you TVR Exploring! Sonofabuggtussle! Just looked at your channel, subscribed, thanks for the channel!
Thank you! Yes, those old timers were tough...
Great mine. Loved the video. The scenery around the river is beautiful. Like you I am amazed that they got a stamp mill there. That would be interesting to find out how they did it. Thanks for sharing.
Going in the first part of the mine those slanted wall appears to be faults that were filled with Quartz. I found that cool and impressive considering the forces it took to accomplish that.
Yes, the molten quartz would have surged up from the depths of the earth and followed the path of least resistance through the cracks and fissures created by the faults. That's why one sees the faults so often in the underground lode mines. The miners knew what they were doing! And, yes, I think it is cool and impressive too.
Another enjoyable trip into the earth! Nice touch with the Italian National Anthem, and importing a beautiful Italian girl just for the introduction. I feel so special. The original miners probably used the river to power that small stamp mill, and that pile of fresh gravel in the river indicates to me that someone was dredging or high banking recently. (There was no algae on that one pile of rocks in the stream.) I assume a fair amount of amalgam was found in the stream in that location because there would have been a large mercury covered copper plate immediately below the stamp mill. Thanks for posting.
Thank you. Haha, glad we could elevate things a little with the Italian theme... The site was too degraded by time to determine with any certainty what powered the stamp mill, but the river is a good guess. I am sure there is still a good amount of gold in the river here. So, someone with a suction dredge or high banker could likely do quite well here. The old timers sure didn't have the benefit of such equipment!
As per usual an outstanding video. Wat a beautiful spot to trek walk nature at it's best. Tks for taken time recording these places who to say you went back there in nxt yr's could get in be a natural cave in or forestry commission distroying these spots. That mine was somebody's sweet blood at 1 time proper hard men proper hard times. As usual I'll look forward to nxt adventure explore take care.👍☘🇮🇪
Thank you very much. Yes, it was a tough hike down and back, but it was a beautiful spot... And, yes, the Forest Service destroying these sites as fast as they can is a source of tremendous frustration to me.
Sat and watched all the advertising. Good new channel for me. Thanks, enjoyed all the mine related content.
Thanks for the comment and for watching the advertising. Glad you've enjoyed the content so far...
Like your videos, the details you point out and perspective you give of you location as you explore. Thanks for the videos....
Thank you very much.
What a prolific Quartz vein! I also think that tiny timber has single handedly kept the entire adit from collapsing lol. Nice finds!
Thank you. Ha, yes, that tiny timber is probably keeping the whole mountain up! That was a fat quartz vein!
I thought it could be a treasure marker, either that or someone was bored....
I wonder if it was a place to hang a lamp via a hook?
I'd bet someone today would be able to find alot of gold around there. The river would definitely be worth panning again if its not been touched for a hundred years for instance. And that quartz vein would be worth getting assayed to see if its profitable with modern methods.
I believe you're right about the gold potential. The old timers tended to skim off the best stuff and move on. With today's tools and technology, gold can be extracted much more economically.
Awesome explore Bro! That quartz vein was beautiful! Wonder how many mines are down there that are buried with no way in anymore.
I'd love to know. I just scratched the surface.
Cool mine and enjoyed the tour.
Thank you.
I really enjoy your videos, well done photography, i wish you would show more... :)
Thank you!
Great share! I just wish you had panned out some of the muck/tailings under the old ore cart. Even some flour gold is fun to find when out and about.
Wow nice place great old mine! The size of that quartz vain wow, maybe they never quit just retired or something or got ill, and had to stop. Thanks for the video be safe!
One of the fringe benefits of such hard work would be to live in such a beautiful spot... Yes, there are so many reasons why work could have stopped here - illness, old age, recovering enough gold to want to go out and enjoy it rather than spend any more time underground, family problems, etc. As you know, many of these old mines still have a lot of gold in them.
Great video,despite the difficulty In getting there!
Nice mine,proper old one!
Thanks again for the share,always look forward to your vids!
First drone footage, now underwater video? Rad!! Stick your camera underwater at some of the flooded mines. That would be awesome!
perhaps a remote controlled submarine w/camera.
That's so cool how you did the underwater view
Hi my name is John and as the story goes as my Dad would tell me and my brother when my Grandfather came over from Italy as a boy he was supposed to have worked there and then moved to Mccloud and worked at the mill. After then he moved to Mt Shasta. Thanks for sharing this mine. John Duchi
Thank you for sharing that. The story of Italian migration is very interesting to me. Many of them were leaving horrible circumstances in Italy and were toughened up by those circumstances (which was necessary because many of them suffered through pretty rough conditions in the other countries where they ended up too).
Have you ever seen that log, with footpegs stuck in it, on the ground at 07:55 in any other mine explorations before? I have watched almost all your abandoned mine videos (thanks for posting them) and i have never seen that before. One very inexpensive way to climb up I guess :)
No, I haven't seen one like that before. Pretty clever though...
My grand father was a Italian miner in Arizona back in 1912 or so. The mine site is where my father and a couple of his brothers were born. A very hard way to make a living. It was a hand to mouth living trying to scratch copper from the ground.
When given a chance as an adult my father refused to work in the iron mines of minnesota. I on the other hand did work for several years mining iron ore during the summer months, while going to college in the winter. These natural ore iron mines needed water to process the ore and could not run in the winter because everything froze up for five or six months at a time. This gave me the opportunity to go to school each winter. I could make enough money in five or six months to go to school.
Wow, that's a fascinating history. Thank you for sharing it. I'll also share that with my Italian wife because she loves hearing about the history of Italians that emigrated to America. You worked a lot harder than most these days to pay for your education!
Beautiful spot, looks good for some placer near the creek.
Thanks
The Italians thought so too!
Woohoo, TVR, thumbs up *then* watch video. Small timber was possibly for hanging something, a lantern perhaps?
Haha, thank you. I hadn't thought about them hanging a lantern off of that tiny timber, but, yeah, that makes a lot of sense...
Funny, I do the same thing. TVR, thumbs up and then watch.
Very cool. Love me the Quartz. The banana slugs were cool. I didn't really know that either about the underwater thing. Beautiful clear water.
Given what they left behind I would be fascinated to see the ore they valued, it must have been some really finky looking quartz.
There appears to have been quite a lot more than just the one mine in that area, I wonder if they used the rail that is now in the mine to transport the stamp mill down to the workable zone, then pulled everything up to re-use it.
Loved the underwater bits!
This little mine is great so much Material left.
I wonder with the mills of today if there is Gold to get
Yours Frank
Very nice video
Does your Italian friend go into the mines with you or is she your safety person
Haha, no, she is definitely not into abandoned mines. She stays outside...
Atlas Iron Works, S.F. 1861-1923 Owner J.B. Jardin
Thank you!
I think they went out of business due to embezzlement!
This time of year it's smart to wear orange . I found an open adit yesterday in Granite basin , really clean granite rock but I just shined my 1000 lumen light in and could not see the end but it had a small waste rock pile , Just nice to see one without a bat grill , LOL.
Yes, unfortunately, an adit without a gate or that hasn't been bulldozed over is becoming an increasingly rare treat. Sometimes those adits with the small waste rock piles can be misleading. One of the largest mines I have ever been inside of had a tiny waste rock pile. I thought it would just go back for fifty feet or so. Well, I emerged almost seven hours later!
I'd like to see you hike to the Central mine along the euchre bar trail which runs along the north fork of the American river from Alta to Forest Hill CA. , lots of cool mining history including 2 stamp Mills and much much more
Are any of the mines still open?
The tiny stull makes me think of either a miner's joke, maybe it's a "good luck stull" or mine safety superstition, or a place to hang something from, like a lantern on an S hook or something.
I hadn't thought about the "good luck stull" as I was thinking along the lines of a joke or hanging a light from, but that definitely makes sense as well...
Great adventure! Those quartz veins were the biggest I've ever seen...
Yes, they were enormous!
🇮🇹🇺🇸 and proud ! great video
Thank you!
Great explore TVR , Venomous under water Banana slug . I am 2 days too late , 5074 views I normally see your vids when they are hours old . This computer has been down all Week , what a nice surprise . Hey she is back you had her up to the Snow sheds a while back . It sure is nice of you to show her our Merican Italian Mines . I have not been to the mall for a while so I do not know if the Gap is still there ? My old Geology Field trip Partner Had a Grand Mother who was Born in Italy . Her Husband was Killed in a Mine explosion about 1905 down in A Salt Mine in Western , NY . The Death Of that Italian miner left an impact 2 generations later . As your climb down shows it was a rough life for Miners back then . The video showing the stamp mill allowed me to see how it Functioned better than a museum display would have . I would Like to thank the both of you for hiking up and Down the Canyon for us .
Thank you.Yes, that was a tough one getting down and back up. It's nothing compared to what the miners in the past endured though... A good example of that would be the unfortunate Italian miner that was killed in the salt mine. Haha, yes, it isn't easy to get my Italian out to the mines, but sometimes I succeed. Thanks for the great comment.
👍👍 two thumbs up, as usual! Dig your work! (Nice pun)
Didn’t see any fish in the water..! But man how beautiful! Better then the cubicle I work in!
I put in my years in a cubicle too. I understand your suffering...
Have you gone into the "Indian Springs " mine in Butte county? I understand it's open as far as the Magalia channel and intersects with the Oro.Fino mine across the gulch.
No, I haven't been to that one. I've just started checking out the Butte County mines...
Great explore & at the face 12:20 I think I'd be chipping a few chunks off. One could pan the bottom & find some nice colors
Ha, yes, that face was pretty impressive looking... Yes, undoubtedly, there is still some good gold down there.
Really enjoy your Italian!
I'm glad to hear that. I'll try including her in more videos...
I've been watching your videos for a few weeks now and I'm wondering how you have the time and money to do all these videos? Are you a historian or something like that?
Now we now where the
Italian gold comes from.
Adesso so da dove venue
Loro Italian!!!🇮🇹
In regards to the tiny wood brace could that have been a place for hanging a light from seemed like a small hole reflective area that would produce decent light straight ahead up high like that. Just a thought. Those area's that hold
the material for the stamp mill is a good spot to sometimes find some gold as it did not quite make to the stamp mill. We lowered my father in law down a glory hole of quartz and sorted around the pile found himself a real nice
nugget. Then we could not get him out of there but we ran out of beer so he came out finally.
Yes, that's really the only thing that makes sense with that tiny wood brace unless it was a joke... Running out of beer can be a powerful motivator!
I bet they slid the stamp mill up the frozen creek in winter. Is the stamp mill water powered? That would explain the location.
I'm not sure what powered it. I was wondering that too.
So is the title going to be altered in lieu of certain heritage markers coming to light in recent times?
Oh wow I didn't know you could do that with the camera!!!! I will bet there is still gold in that river. Watch out for that first step on the shaft. WHOA!
That is one big gold mine you have located I hope you brought a metal detector and some tools it looks like there should be some color and maybe old coins in the quartz and cabin area and you might be able to put a claim on the mine, Thanks for sharing the history and please stay safe out there too .
Next mine video could you mesure the gauge of the track I'm just curious what gauge was used.
I can do that, but I'm working through the backlog of videos that I have as this season is just about wrapped up. So, that may have to wait for the next season.
@@TVRExploring that's fine
very cool always nice to find adit rail and stamp thumbs up
I wish we found it more often!
Fantastic couch trip. thank you.
I wonder if the piece of timber was used for a hand grip, to steady them selvies so the cart could go thourgh
Great to find the old stamper but what powered it??? and that quartz would be well worth assaying
I'm not sure what powered it... I was wondering that too.
May need a second visit and get some samples as well
Omg that looks like it's got serious potential!! The whole area. I'm sure there is pretty good gold around the old stamp mill
Yes, I expect there is still a good amount of gold down there...
Really great video.....Thank Q can this mine be owned? I would bet, there's a whole lot of gold left.......screw up the land again though open pit most likelly in the future .....I knew an old man who did scrap the mother load mines in the past........during the depression I think it was
Thank you. Well, this is on public land and so the mine can't be "owned" in the normal sense of the word, but it can be claimed, which gives one the right to mine it for the gold present. Given the location and its public land status, I don't think there is even the slightest chance that an open pit operation would be approved. Yes, a lot of people returned to the hills during the Great Depression to make a go of it. There was a huge surge in gold mining activity then and some people did quite well.
is it claimed? it looks like it was pretty rich .......nice to see the remains still there thanks once more
Totally absorbing. - thanks
You missed were the old berex used to be it's the large landing just before you go down to the trail head
Just for a laugh
MULE DEVOURED THE PIANO Animal Totally Wrecked a Musical instrument Near Him on a Steamboat's Deck.
"Mule ate piano shipped. Send another next boat.” This message was received recently by a local piano house from an "up-the-river” purchaser whose $5OO instrument had been forwarded via Mississippi river steamboat In its usual pine box the piano was installed on the lower deck next to a lanky, sleepy looking mule bound for the cotton fields of the upper bends. Although provided with plenty of oats and hay, the mule ripped off a portion of the outer box, disposing of six octaves of black and white ivory keys, running the chromatic scale up to “G” in the treble clef. He had gnawed away the mahogany panels in front, masticated felt dampers and hammers by the dozen, completely wrecking the melodious “insides” of the instrument Steamboat Bill, stoking a boiler twenty feet away, said the mule “must have had his foot on the soft pedal,” as he did not hear a note. When discovered the animal was unconcernedly gazing longingly across the river at a grass covered levee. It will cost $3OO to repair the piano.-New Orleans correspondent Montgomery Journal.
With gold prices what they are I wonder if any of that ore might be viable today. Might be worth an assay.
Yes, the economics today are a lot different than they were the last time this mine was worked...
That riverbed would be ripe for dredging!! A good 4" or even a 6" dredge and I would bet you could pull out quite a bit of gold.
That's some impressive image stabilization
Nice! Not often the boss comes with you!
I'm up by the diamond for a couple more days then I'll be over at Granite Basin forest service has been busy over there closing off mines destroying our history give someone from the city who has a college degree and knows nothing about mining or Forestry in charge of closing mines environmentalist I talked to the guy and his crew.
Public Safety is their excuse there's been no public hurt in a mine in the Plumas National Forest except for miners themselves.
It's like this person from the city with a 4-year degree environmentalist are the experts.
People that's lived here and makes their living here and their whole entire lives here who love and care for the land.
They consider us the problem I should correct that all people.
They're the ones who responsible for the fire in California .
Thank you environmentalist for your insanity and stopping all fuel reduction programs and logging you save the forest for these fire storm called Crown out fires much better as usual destroy and kill everything
Haha, yeah, I can't understand it... For some reason she doesn't like the mosquitoes, crawling through mud, pushing through waist-deep black water, the frequent disappointments, etc. of mine exploring. Crazy, huh?
The conditions you described are a source of tremendous frustration to me. Consider how many terrible things have been done in the name of public safety. Whenever a politician or bureaucrat tells me something is being done for my own protection, I know I am getting screwed over. The bureaucrats and the contractors that work for them in destroying these abandoned mines use public safety as the justification, but the real reason is that they need to keep finding "dangerous" mines in order to justify their lucrative jobs. No "dangerous" historical mines to destroy = no jobs.
And then there are the fires... I tell people that live in the city all of the time that fires used to burn through these forests naturally every few years and they would clean out the brush and the dead material. The early Europeans that arrived described being able to ride horses four abreast anywhere in the Sierras. Contrast that to how it is now! How people don't understand that if you prevent all of the fires, a massive overgrowth in the forest develops along with the potential for these catastrophic wildfires that kill all of the vegetation is beyond me. You would think that common sense would lead one to realize that if you take away the fires, you need to replace that with something else to avoid disrupting the entire ecosystem of the forest, which was kept in balance by the natural fires.
That's why the giant redwood forests in the west are all dying (massive cutting notwitstanding), they need forest fires to propagate their species, their seed cones need extremely high temperatures to open up and fall and germinate, all the old redwoods have remnants of charred bark, showing they went through a great many forest fires during their thousands of years on earth. And then man came along, desingated forest fires as something that shoud not happen, and just like that by preventing and stoping forest fires mankind doomed to extinction the greatest vegetation on earth.
where is granite basin?
now that was INTRESTING and the size of some of the trees,on the way to the mine was impressive....not to MENTION the shear size of the vein of quartz when you turned around must of been low yeild the vain base at the end must of been 15 foot wide
thanks for the tag along.
Glad you could come along... That canyon was so steep that I imagine large parts of it have never been logged. Helicopter logging would be the only way to go. So, yes, there were some massive trees in there. Indeed, the vein must have been barren or low yield in many parts for them to leave that much behind.
I’m up in the Tahoe area until Tuesday if you want to meet up to explore!
I always enjoy meeting new people for explores, but I'm up in Alaska now...
TVR Exploring Alaska is always fun! You have an email I can reach you on? Maybe we can plan something out more in advance.
Sure... justin.ames@gmail.com
Based on my somewhat limited knowledge, it appears they were only taking out the ore that had visible free gold in it, either that or the ore body wasnt very good, they left a lot of the quartz ore body intact and only took out certain spots.
Yes, they may have simply been skimming off the cream of the crop (the visible gold). It is sort of unusual to see them chasing the quartz in some areas and completely ignoring it in others.
If you remove that small piece of timbering, the whole mine will collapse. That is why it is imperative that you do not question the Italian's building methods.
Yes, more than just the mine, it would probably send the whole mountain above crashing down too... It's amazing how so much can rely upon the simplest of things.
Where does all that water go? Does it seep into cracks in the Rock in the floor?
Some of it seeps out, the rest just slowly percolates down...
Beautiful mine!
Depending on when this mine was operational, I;ll betcha that mini-me stoll was for holding up a lantern or candle. Just a thought.
That's the only thing that makes sense unless it was a joke... Thank you.
@ 14:18 i remember something from my mining days i had made something boss said we dont need that i set it down and said now its a shelf and moved on i wonder if its still there im 61 now 28 when that happened...
Location Southern Oregon
Sardine Creek Gold Hill
I have a question; of they were after quartz, then why did they leave so much --- like the huge vains at the start of the addit????
Well, they're not actually after the quartz. They are after what the quartz is often an indicator of, which is gold. The quartz often leads miners to gold, but it is not itself the object of their desires.
@@TVRExploring Thank you for explaining that. I watch you and another's videos and I guess I was confused by them following the quartz. I like the quartz. Again thank you.
I am one! Well, I am a Colorado native, but my grandpa came from Italy
Which part of Italy?
Sicily
Was this mine described in the state mineralogist reports, or by Lindgren, or Browne by chance?
I looked all through the reports and only found a passing reference to it in one report with no details provided. Everything I could find, I put in the description below the video...
Hmm, I'll have to dig a bit deeper in my archives and see if I can turn anything up, very intriguing. That stamp mill should have been sufficiently of note to receive an entry in one of the many reports, or at least a newspaper clipping, but frequently the names don't line up until you cross-reference owners and/or location names over the years. Given a MTRS and some effort, it should be possible to at least track down the neighboring larger mines and put this one in context referencing the old maps, and possibly even put a name to the original miners if it's recorded in one of the old district books that survived. I have spent a lot of time down at the Placer County archives researching the mining history of the Foresthill Divide region, as well as traveling to surrounding counties ' archives and museums to dig into mines of interest. The site looks vaguely familiar from my past wanderings, but it's been a long time since I've been up for that trail if its the one I'm thinking.
I have a bad feeling about this poster. 🤔
World Traveler - I guess you must find history absolutely terrifying!
Getting lost in the oldies and moldies isn't quite as dramatic as underground exploration, but it's the best place to discover the history of an area both before and after putting boots on the ground and exploring. Trying to preserve and possibly restore these historic sites requires getting to them and documenting them before the 'safety'-nazis destroy all traces.
Chris Giorgi You're in the right neighborhood with the clues you threw out, so I'd imagine you have likely been here. It's a bitch of a hike if that jogs your memory. I'd love to know more about this one if you uncover anything.
That was a huge vein of quartz, seems like there would have been some amount of gold there? Do you ever think about a carrying a plastic gold pan or metal detector? That stream would have been to tempting...
There must have been some or the miners would not have done as much work as they did in bringing a stamp mill and such down there.
At about 4 minutes and 50 seconds you ran into a bent metal pole sticking out of the ground, I'm pretty sure that was for drilling the blasting holes. And if it's bent it got stuck, and someone got a pay cut.
Thank you. I wasn't sure what it was and I've learned not to speculate too much on camera because I'll end up looking foolish. The fact that it was left there also supports your idea about its function (since it was bent).
Where abouts is this? :D
What I find interesting is that when the camera went underwater, there was a distinct lack of aquatic life in that water.
Are you thinking of things like algae or fish? Flora or fauna, in other words?
@@TVRExploring Yes. The water was just....water.
Well that was much better than following Chuck down the trail....😉
LOL! Yes, Chuck's great, but I prefer the Italian scenery...
new drinking game every time he says quartz take a shot ill bet it killz ya hahahaha
the stamp mill came up the river in high water, on a big boat
??
No, that is a rough river. They had to lower it down the side of the canyon in pieces and then reassemble it. Would've been a brutal job...
Great find. That was one of the biggest quartz seams I've ever seen. Odd that it ended the way it did. Guess it wasn't rich enough
I thought that was kind of strange too since they'd even gone to the trouble to get a stamp mill in there (which you wouldn't think they'd do if they weren't getting something good).
@@TVRExploring true. That was not an easy task! I would have figured they would have stoped all the way down the drift and yall would have been on a false floor for most of it. I mean that vein was huge and looked like it was mineralized really well. But i guess without taking samples we'll never know
WHAT TYPE OF HEADLIGHT ARE YOU USING?
I don't remember the name of it off of the top of my head, but if you look in the description of the video, you'll see a link to all of the gear that I use.
I guess quartz is a sign that gold is present. I used to dredge and they said black sands were a good sign and that gold was likely to follow. I found a whole lot more black sand that gold.
It was fun anyway.
Say, what Legion are ya'll with? Engineering cohort? For your next video I imagine you'll visit Italian Bar, a little ways outside of Columbia.
Legio IX Hispana... We should probably hit the Garibaldi Mine too.
The 9th! Beware of Picts in forests.
that "itty bitty timber" was probably put in place to hang a lantern/light
Yes, quite likely it was. Or it was a miner's joke...
thank you!
Took that stamp mill in piece by piece and put it together. Only way.
Yes, absolutely they would have done that. However, even in pieces that would have been a torturous undertaking. The base, for example, is a solid block of metal. The video doesn't convey well how steep these canyon walls were.
Right but these were Italians, not the average men.
Great vid btw, really enjoyed seeing the micro timber, may have been the miners goofing around.
What happened to your Italian friend not entering the mine with you?
Haha, I haven't found any women yet that are keen on abandoned mines...
Hey Im half Italian and love mines does that count?
Nice mine.Way safer than the shale we play around in here.
Does this mines name start with an M and the rivers name start with an A?
That would definitely put you in the right place.
The tiny timber thing was probably for a candle
Should have gotten a bunch of sample bags and sent them off for assay (xrf/fire).
Even if it came back as pure gold, there's no way I'd hike down and out of that canyon on a regular basis. It was brutal.