The Most Dangerous Mine We've Been In For A While
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
- We’ve been doing too many nice, dry desert mines lately… It was time to return to our roots of exploring flooded, muddy and dangerous abandoned mines. This mine certainly ticked the boxes regarding those requirements. And, really, with the ore car, the ore chutes, the cool geology and the impressive stopes, this was a hell of a pleasant surprise for a mine that we had low expectations for!
This abandoned gold mine is unusual in that it is a lode mine beneath a large section of ancient river channel that was hydraulicly mined. Typically, lode deposits will be above placer deposits (the lode deposits feed into the placer workings). However, the rules of the ancient river channels are very different (as evidenced by their frequent presence on mountaintops). Having seen no evidence of quartz outcropping on the surface, I still believe the lode elements of this mine were an accidental discovery. It was very common for gold miners to run drain tunnels underneath the ancient river channels or adits to tap the sweet spot where the placer material meets the bedrock. An adit run in toward this contact zone sweet spot can be more profitable and less work than removing massive amounts of rock and gravel overburden. I would imagine the miners were probably fairly surprised to encounter rich quartz veins on the way to where they thought the ancient river channels were hidden.
The miners may even have reached the ancient river channel. I have only seen that orange mine mud that we were wallowing in on one or two occasions where a mine did not directly hit the ancient river channel. The point where I was forced to stop by that mud wall spilling down in front of me is a feature I have seen in underground placer mines where the miners hit the ancient river channel. Right at that spot, it will often be impossible to proceed in these mines.
I can’t tell you about the history of this mine because all we have is a point on a map. No name. It’s in one of the oldest mining districts in California though.
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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.
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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
Don’t do it Justin! Don’t do it!! SKETCHY!!! You blow my mind sometimes. One helva explore. Thank you!
There have been a handful of Justins explores that I feared for his safety.
As Meat Loaf said,"You took the words right out of my mouth". Stay safe fellas!
I always remember the one where he was on the lift station in a huge cavernous stope, the platform had been undercut and you could hear the bottom crumbling away a few feet under him. Then he exited the mine by scooting along ore cart tracks spanning a bottomless pit.
@@stanbatchelor810 The one that comes to my mind was the one he was slogging through waist-deep muddy placer solo and started going in circles. You could tell he was getting fatigued. But since he posted the video, we knew he got out. But yikes!
Holy crap! Much more of a mine than one could ever credit from what can be seen from the outside! A world of mud and muck! Thank you for exploring it and sharing it with us couch potatoes!
We explore, wet, muddy, unstable, picturesque mines like this in central oregon all too often. Would love a few dry ones for a change. 👍⚒🔦
That's why we make our trips to Nevada, Utah, etc. We need a break from the mud and wet sometimes...
A friend of mine had his dad die when we were 8. He had dirt bike gear on and was walking through a flooded mine. He walked right over a vertical shaft covered by the mud and sank over his head. Basically quick sand type consistency.
Usually I am more interested in the mine layout and artifacts. But the natural mineralization is truely amazing in that one! Awesome!
Wow! Seeing all the rotten timbers and fallen lagging in that first drift you went down. I kept saying to myself "Get Out"! The colors and flowering plant life! All the mud. All in all, pretty cool mine! Thanks Justin and Crew!
The depths of this set of workings presented more like the bowels of a watery limestone cave with all those strange formations. Or perhaps just bowels in general? Interesting one!
I'm sad we didn't get to see the dam being removed 😂
Those spiders look a lot like the infamous brown recluse. Rarely fatal, but their bites can make you sick for a while. Great vid!
This explore reminds me of one of my favorites of yours. I can't remember what mine it was, but it was a solo explore that you did. The video was long. You ended up emerging from another exit, and the entire journey was 1 discovery after another. For all intents and purposes, it was like watching you get born again when you came out the other side. I wish I could remember what video it was, 4 or 5 years ago.
I'd watch It again.
Calhoun?
If that truly was a lode mine deeper back and placer nearer the entrance I would be curious what gold would be waiting in the pools and crevices of whatever creeks or rivers lay at the bottom of that cliff. It would have been nice to see what was up those ladders for sure. Thanks for sharing Justin.
Amazing cool vid Justin always look forward to the TVR notification thumbs up.
Holy hell! That stretch at around the 25 minute mark made my hands sweat 😮. The sketch factor was up there on this one. Thanks for documenting these cool pieces of history before they’re gone!
Nice mine explore Justin!!!
Wow this is crazy. Some of the stopes you've shown is crazy. Must have been hell working in there
Wow! Super Sketchy! Seeing the profile of the old mud dam part way up that drift ... and then seeing that wall of mud blocking the end ... doubt it would take much to have that plug let go ... a few inches of water on the ground could be the difference. Glad you didn't get any closer!!
Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦
You’re livin the life man, doing what you love whenever it seems like. I’m curious how to get in your shoes. Love the vids!
Indeed, I have reached that point you described. I hated the humiliation of the 9-5 and worked ruthlessly on building up multiple income streams, passive income, etc. in order to be free. I love the mental challenge of investing.
Very cool video. Thank you.
Ack, all that mold... nope, nope, nope. Thx for going in...
A lot of pretty mineralization. Thanks for showing us.
Placer! Yes! It’s been forever.
Great video, thanks
Looks like El Dorado County.
I got really nervous when you were wading through the end of that first drift, especially when the top had already shown evidence of failure. Too bad those ladders were too rotten to scramble up into the stopes -- would've been really neat to see the geology of the working faces up inside the stopes. Really cool mine, thanks for sharing!
Yes, I think I would have needed to be there in the 1990s to be able to get up those ladders.
Yeah it's been a while since I've seen you in a mine that made me uneasy watching it. I mean, if we're watching the video, you've obviously made it out ok, so normal it's just interesting to watch... Not also giving me that uneasy, almost nauseous feeling in my gut.
Seen you do a few of those a few years ago. This one got me. *shivers*
Theres some crazy mines in El Dorado county, maybe you could do a segment in that area , This was a good one, dont like the mud or the rot but the vein and the colors were amazing
What a beautiful colorful mine. Stay safe guys, love your exploration s spiders and all just kiddin about the spiders.
Hi Justin, a really cool old days mine explore, I seem to remember a similar mine that was knee deep in mud a while ago. Your buddy certainly had a baptism of mud for his 1st mine explore, those straws and mineralisation were so worth it though. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx ❤
Unfortunately, knee deep in mud is not an uncommon experience in our home area...
Really cool and scary explore!
Welcome to the world of wet, muddy mines I usually end up in. 😉🔦👍⚒
Back to the wet sketchy stuff nice👍
All that rotting timber, hanging death and ochrey mud, you could almost be in the UK! Never seen that transition from vein to placer here though. Fascinating place, thanks as always & take care.
25:05 first time i have specifically not wanted you to make sure it doesn't turn or go farther, lol. very scary looking!!
Yall are CRAZY!!! 😳🫨
Man Justin, that was a shade sketchy back there chief. That truly begs the question. I've seen you fellas in the most awesome and thr most sketched out locations. Is there at any point in time in a mine where it is wrong when a man looks you or a friend in the face and says , nah.... I gotta tap out right here. That's not for me not today. I'll wait here for ya's. Is that cool for someone to do that or no?
Anyhow, as always safe travels and very safe out there. Thanks for bringing us along on your adventures and not only documenting but digitally preserving history and letting us be a small part of it with you!
Take care and on to the next.
Not Justin, but on my end that reaction is perfectly acceptable and welcomed. Trust your instincts and respect those of the folks you care about too. The underground can be cruel and there are those times you have to call it deep enough. It's different for everyone, yes, but the invisible mortal lines do exist and need to be taken seriously. I've gone through some deathly bad stopes and drifts that were barely hanging on - it's something ineffable certainly, but never worth it. I've had guys stop in their tracks before; you just inform 'em they're solid and it's ok to laugh if you get killed, in fact, they're obligated to!
27:05 that is one SKETCHY old mine for sure , how did all that mud get in there? Loving your explores frank they are the best ever and so well explained 🙏🏻
Wild organic growth! Wow
I have gone in to some bad mines but not going in to one this bad. LOL thank you though love it.
Good evening from Southeast South Dakota
that 'sketchy' area looked Alien like....and sketchy AF!! tremendous explore as usual
When you get into truly yucky wet mudball mines like this one I can only admire your dedication to the mammoth task you set yourself.....
Thanks for sharing..... (I bet the car still runs)
Great shirt idea,"For a lack of a better words Justin 20:23,lol
That's a whole lot of " NOPE " for one mine , and I have been in some seriously sketchy places .
Nice mine that, very colourfull due to being nice and wet. Reminds me of the ones over here. Hate those boring, dry dessert mines.
Shame y'all couldn't explore the upper workings, because they seemed to be where majority of the actual work was done.
Leaving the lower level as the main haulage, but y'all already know this fact.
Y'all didn't see where they may have popped out higher up the mountain side?
I noticed that where the buildings were, there appeared to be a hard packed road to that part.
No signs of a mill lower down, because they had to be getting the oar out somewhere down below.
As i didn't notice anything resembling a hoist setup, are anything to actually load trucks or anything similar.
Justin I'd say spiders aren't your favorite creatures from the way you avoided the subject
Are you familiar with the workings of this particular shaft?
Aced again.👍
33:28 You could take a picture or two of the vehicle & VIN, and submit it to the Police!
Very cool, where you in the Tahoe or Plumas? I've been exploring canyon creek, west cost area.
That muck and silt is nasty bro hahaha.I been in it for a few hundred yards before sucks!!
Nice size vein they worked there man beautiful stope with props.Wow the AMD formations are wicked!Ive seen flowers deep underground like that before so cool!!What a beautiful dark mine.
WOW that was one very sketchy extremely dangerous mine you explored ! But the mineralisation colours were stunning (A kaleidoscope of colours) and those stalactite type formations unbelievably long. 🚢🇬🇧🚂⛏
9:28 ayooo 🤙🏻
I wonder if some of the mineralized mud inexplicably on the sides were a small ooze out from the walls. Glad you didn't go closer to that mud wall! Didn't you encounter a lower mud wall that started collapsing as the water drained and you got closer?
Very interesting mine!👍👍
That mud looked like dried mustard at 16:50 😂
Hey the gooey “mud mineralization” at 17:30 ish is an iron-rich spring, iron is dissolved in anoxic water until oxygenation at the rib, turns to ferric hydroxide. It’s a fault and that’s where I’d dive for ore:)
The terrain looks very similar to Southern Oregon, Ashland. Tons of gold mines here. Must be very far north in California.
Home on the Range where the Deer and Buffalo play maybe
Hi Justin, you find the best mines. I would love to see what the quarts would Essay at. The price of gold it might be worth it? Thanks again for the show
That was amazing and scary at the same time...the "flowers" growing in there, well that is something new. A lot of quartz, makes a guy wonder what they did get out of that one. The car..typical tweakermobile. They buy them with a down pymt. at the "buy here pay here" dealers, or from some gullible citizen, and never make another payment.
This is the fist time I have seen grey poupon in a tweaker ride...made me laugh...
what a juicy ore there in there, besides you need to divert the water and remove large amount of mud. what i saw was a Gold/Silver and Copper mine in one, primary was Gold, with the 2 others secondry or 3rd
That’s some bad shit!!
We have others to choose from for when you visit... I won't insist that you do this one.
That looks local to me, what’s a good way to get in touch? I do the occasional exploring in my area would love to meet you guys! I’m in the NC/GV area if your familiar. Closest one on the map to me is the Hoge…
FILM ref - That pipe sticking out and you thinking of touching it reminded me of the flood scene in the film 1959 Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Wouldn't walking sticks help navigate the mud-terrain or flooded areas of the adit?!?! Great content as always man you find lots of good mines safe travels & happy trails
They would, but I have a camera in one hand and a light in another. So, I don't have enough hands.
I would have stopped once you said 'spiders'...
Do you save the equipment out of the mines like the ore car and the locomotives and the rail I'd love to have that stuff you restore and show i just bought my first ore car looks just like that one goin to redo it
Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon? But of course! (Check the rear deck lid, passenger side.)
Holy crap. Reminds me of the time Frank and I attempted to enter the Pine Tree mine in Mariposa CA and he immediately got stuck in knee deep mud that he extricated himself out with difficulty.
That sucking mud can be tough to extricate yourself from...
Its interesting that there are survey marks in spray paint, the mine was surveyed professionally in recent times, so someone has the mine plans. The entrance slump has caused the mine to back up, hence the waist deep water, this would have been cleared if the mine was worked professionally, even for taking samples.
A+
Where did you go exploring in Colorado, do you have any video in the state,I live in Colorado Springs and lived here my whole life 😊
Yes, we've published a lot of videos from Colorado. There are some great mines there.
So what's a lode mine and a plaster mine? What do they look for in each?
yall gotta get a drone to fly in there when its too shady for entry. drones can stir dust up, but they work well in wet tunnel systems
Might have made it into the top 5 sketchy mines... remembering those pacers from years ago with rotted crumbling timbers all over...
Totally Awesome explore. What did your Italian say? Risky
Haha, the Italian wasn't present on this one, but I can assure you that she would NOT have been a fan!
This mine reminds me of the mystery 3 mine Monte cristo.
I‘d go in this ten times instead of once in to a fairly dry asbestos mine.
That looks like most of the mines In Washington. 😂 Wet and rotten. Nice explore.
The reason why abandoned mines are abandoned
This was another great mine adventure, However I did not see my eldest brothers mark on the walls of this one.
At 34:30 those look like timber sockets.
Why all the mud? Is it seeping out of the walls?
That mine is in my backyard and I have been there, but I don't explore portals, to dangerous for me.
With all that sulfide in the vein, I bet it would be a gold values recovery nightmare at the mill.
Figuring that out would not be a job that I would envy!
Muck, muck and more muck. What else would a mucker want?
You need to show those flowers to a botanist. You might have discovered a new species, to be called Rosa TVRensis in Latin:))
Oh geeze I read this wrong. I read it as the most dangerous man you’ve been in. And then I sat here and thought about any dangerous men I have been in and realized I’m married to my wife and have a daughter. I swear I’m sleep walking.
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You need to start selling bags of dirt from these places. No guarantees of anything more than where it came from lol. I'll buy some just for the experience of seeing it being collected then panning it out. Ya'll always find the amazing spots
watching the water suface for ripples from the mine creature
You went further then I would of lol
Its look amazing, but if I would seen that mud and all those rotten supports beams I would just NOPE the F out of there, as with my luck it would just fall down as fast as it would sense that I enter there...
i guarantee i would have gone back out just before the 22:00 mark. no way.
Home of the lessor ?
Not first 😂
Home of the lesser evil
3:44 Looks like poison oak, hope i'm wrong and none of you guys are itching.
No, that wasn't poison oak. The elevation is too high for poison oak at this site... We tend to get the poison oak in the winter when we're forced out of the high country.
Frank from exploring abandoned mines Toyota Corolla?
If it has a billion miles on it it’s his
This mine exploration gave me bad dreams, a first which left me wondering if there are mines you enter, then leave because they'r too sketchy?
Yes, there have been a handful that I've had to bail out on. There was one in Kazakhstan where the gas meter started alerting to multiple issues and then I can think of three or four in this country where conditions just got too bad. Of course, there is the possibility that the most dangerous mines are those that don't seem that dangerous and where I let my guard down. Later on in the "Lost Worlds Project" you'll see that scenario where I take an unexpected trip down a winze that was perfectly hidden right in the center of an adit and was loosely covered in waste rock. Fortunately, it was plugged a little way down with that same waste rock, but I still took a ride. Even having a lot of experience did not help because all of my experience told me that there was no way that a small winze should be set dead center in the middle of an adit junction with no indications that it is there.
Anyway, here's an example of one that I bailed on:
ruclips.net/video/WkklsnMaqiQ/видео.html
@@TVRExploring That was eyrie, at the beginning it appeared the rails and the board in the center were floating and that the water was bottomless. Then it got worse. I did a mine tour in Bisbee with my children once upon a time and that was my first and last trip into a mine.
Yes, we've had a couple like that where you duck walk on the rails over a flooded, black void beneath you where you have no idea how deep it is... It isn't a place where you want to slip off of the rails. I can't film while doing that, unfortunately, and it just doesn't come across well on camera to show a view of a flooded adit and say, "We just made our way across that and it was pretty sporty." @@erichaskell
@@TVRExploring A warning by the state of Colorado states "exploring partially flooded mines may cause an explorer to drown as the depth of the water may not be easily determined". That would give one pause.
@erichaskell Wow! Who could have thought such a thing was possible?
A very interesting cool mine but a bit out of life i guess another load off water and part of it is gone,
34:00 I imagine it's a long walk out for the crackheads.
They're the kind of people that you could give a Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos to and they'll go all day. It's crazy.
I HAVE ORIGINAL PAPERWORK FOR THIS MINE. - THE UPPER STOPES HAVE BAD AIR - MY DAD PULLED TWO GUYS OUT AND ALMOST DIDN'T MAKE IT OUT HIMSELF.
What kind of information is on the paperwork?