I think it would be helpful for sales if you listed the weight of each piece you are selling. It's great to see all of your specimens for sale have healthy bids...good Luck Brent!
For anyone wondering, the sold price for the 12 listings he made on EBay totaled $4,798.99 - when split into a 12 hour shift was $399.92/hour. The description is outdated currently. All of the listing were auctioned, and the highest bids were $636 for a Smithsonite/Malachite/Pyrite chunk, then $610 each for two chunks, one of Malachite/Chrysocolla/Turquoise and another of just Galena (lead). One chunk of a prominent Smithsonite vein sold for $503. The rest were all around the $250-$350 range, and all auctions were bid on between 30 and 70 times, averaging around 40/50 bids.
The hourly rate from the “shift” wouldn’t be technically correct, because there were extra hours listing and selling the rocks that should be included in the time too (maybe also travel and any expenses incurred (lunch, gas, accommodation) should probably also be deducted.. (and also even the time packing (supplies and time) and posting (time/gas) the rocks after auction as well) 🤗
Something about the Jefferson Chimney description that caught my eye - if it is cut off at the bottom by a fault line, then somewhere else nearby, it should actually continue further down, you'd just have to find out how much the fault line has moved the rock and which direction the rock has been moved. From there, you can work backwards to locate the lower portion of the Jefferson Chimney. If the miners didn't locate the lower portion, it would be inaccessible, but also it means the town is still sitting on a bunch of that ore.
I am actually a current miner of zinc in Tennessee. It is fascinating and terrifying to see you go after these specimens. We typically try not to go underneath any type of loose rocks as a rule of thumb. To watch you crawl through spaces you can barely fit is crazy. Usually when small rocks fall, big rocks are not far behind.
Almost everytime I see Brent to crawl through the narrow spaces, I am asking myself it this will not be his last adventure... It could be his tomb... I would be very scared down there...
I hope you know that dynamite over time turns into highly unstable ntro glycerin. What happen the nitroglycerin weeps out ward from the tnt. Dont touch them of go near them a falling rock could set them off. Really cool spesimins !
You have 1.7 million subscribers. Sell your rocks as Cerro Gordo specimens with a note telling the story of your find, your trip down the mine, and a reference to the video. That's what's even more valuable: The story.
@@samjanssens1509 You must be a shitty story teller then. Most people get their business loans from banks on not much more than a story and some shady paperwork to back it up. Many are done JUST on the story alone.
As a mineral enthusiast, I personally like the natural look of crystals and matrixes. Also a good tip. If you find a pristine crystal formation, try not to break it up if you don’t have to or want to. Palm size ores and crystal might sell for hundreds but person size walls of smithsonite can sell for 10’s of thousands as large crystal clusters like what you have found don’t get preserved too often anymore. Either way I love the video series and can’t wait for the next one!
The only problem with that is how he would get the whole wall out of the mine. It's a very small operation and the only access they have is an old rickety elevator.
@@blackhawk15897 This is true, but for the right collector just the ability to guide them to an undisturbed site could net you a sizable finders fee without having to deal with the hassle of extraction yourself
I visited Cerro Cordo last week as I was driving back to Canada from Palm Springs with my family. It was a great experience and did check out the museum (thanks Avery) and all the cool nooks and crannies of Cerro Gordo that I've seen in the videos over the last 4 years. The merch they have for sale is great. I highly recommend going for a visit if your car can handle the road. It was curvier and steep then portrayed int eh videos for sure. I now understand why cement trucks refused to go up there. It was great to even run into Brent on his way to the latest adventure and him taking the time to say hi to us. Keep up the great videos and good work you are doing in Cerro Gordo.
Thank you for this video. Fascinating look at those old workings. I worked 17 years as an underground bituminous coal miner. Based on those years of experience, there is no way I would have crawled under all that loose, broken top. If you are going to keep doing this, you need to learn how to take down loose top and install roof support to sustain good top. Holes in the ground created by humans are entirely different in character than holes in the ground created by Nature. Old timbers decompose by slowly combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and/or carbon monoxide. Make sure you have air to breathe. I would want a couple of 15-minute O2 canisters: One on my hip and one on the elevator---at a minimum. Good luck and God Bless!
Since the advent of RUclips, I have discovered so many things that I have missed out on. Like buying a sailboat and sailing around the world or living in an abandoned ghost town and doing all manner of exploration. I am so jealous of the people that get to do these things because when I was young, it didn’t even dawn on me that these were things to do. Kudos to the adventurers. Adventures.
I’ve been looking to the horizon for 50 years. it can be a blessing, but it also can be a curse. I’ve seen many things People will never see. I have no family, no children and I spend most of my time alone. I spend my time now becoming closer to God and thanking him. remembering the past. Adventures have one constant… you never stop looking to the horizon.
3:35 Brent you know for a fact there are so many veins left of such good minerals gold silver turquoise all of that is there waiting for you. I am so happy you got that place and took over that mine & Ghost Town
I just can't believe that you managed to defy what individuals can and can't do. I have never imagined that somebody would just go to abandoned mine and get minerals. DAMN
Brent….your mining quests keep me enthralled despite the stress I feel for your “squeezes” into tiny spaces. You have come such a long way and your videos are so well made. Your knowledge and presentation is far superior to a lot of similar posts on youtube. Thank you, thank you for sharing this with us.
The best place to sell “rough” rocks is at gem and mineral shows that happen periodically every year and draw thousands of buyers, cutters, and rock hounds. Of course the biggest and best is the Tucson Gem and Mineral show, and there are many other good smaller regional shows such as Quartzite.
or he just makes a website refers to it and upmarks everything as sentimental value items due to the mines name and advertises to millions on his channel lol
Yup. fleabay might strike you a good one, but it doesn't compare with rock shows. Even if you have someone enterprise for you, you still get better "cuts" than most online places.
Hi Brent Robin Rowe from Selby Ontario Canada. Watched every video you put out so far. Became interested in Cerro Gordo ghost town some 60 or so years ago by reading an article in National Geographic magazine. It really caught my attention and I have wanted to go there ever since , and perhaps I will. It is so good to see someone uprooting his life to follow his dream . And so taking a hike with you would be a buggy on my bucket list . I will be 77 years on July 27 so don’t be surprised when I show up with my girl to spend a night in the new hotel. So I hope you have many more years of fun doing what you love.
I am laughing. You need to kick our rears. I am 75 - a great grandma - my grandson Alex showed me Minecraft and it was at the beginning!!! I have played it off and on all these years. I love it. I follow several channels. I watched this channel when it first started and I come back every so often to see how it is going. I love to go mining!!! And yes, the chests - find those chests. I love the blues! I want a necklace out of some blue and purple too. Yup. :-) :-) Can you shine the rocks - to make things to hang on a chain? I think it would be fun to make items - put a small notation as to where they came from! How neat!!! As a piece of history from Cerro Gordo! I'd love to buy one!!!
I work at the Oil at Gas business and like watching your videos to see the formations underground. very interesting to me. In Kansas, there are oil deposits at 400 feet. In Oklahoma, you can find oil at 1100 feet. It is very interesting to watch you walk through formations that we drill through. It is helpful to visualize and understand lost circulation formations and other anomalies we deal with.
We were at Cerro Gordo last week on a Tuesday Morning. Thank you for sharing the town with us during that day. Your Representative was wonderful and very accommodating during our visit. We hope to return soon to partake in the 8 mile run this upcoming year. This was one of our big highlights during our two week road trip. Looking forward to the hotel and possibly staying there sometime in the future
It's insane how much effort and work you have put into improving this mine. You've made it much more accessible, safer to explore and your restoring and gathering information about it's history and what it currently contains. It's fascinating
Brent, I hate to tell you this, but we as a community took a poll, and we all decided we need an hour long episode put out every day from now on. Thanks brother! 🙃
@@michelleharrell8452 a word called ''irony'' 🙃 english isn't my first language and i can clearly see the guy was being ironic ,just chill and enjoy the video
i really do appreciate those who still do these long form less edited hour long videos! i live for them! just listened while in a big rain storm. perfect part of my day! :)
Just a bit of terminology for you...Horizontal tunnels completely underground are referred to as "drifts". Vertical tunnels are referred to as "shafts" if they come out at the surface, if they don't come out to the surface, they are called "winzes" or "raises", depending on which end you're on. Nice video - stay safe!
Your dedication to the preservation of the mines is absolutely admirable! The earth is such a beautiful thing and I appreciate your mission to share this with the world. Stay safe and keep digging!
November 1930 was when my dad was born!! I just found your channel and I am so happy I did. I watch a lot of RUclips and this content is some of the best I’ve seen. I absolutely love this stuff but I could never do it and you brought me right down to the bottom so I could see this beauty from in our earth. Thank you ❤
Your videos just touch my soul in a way that can’t be expressed in writing. I can’t fathom that you spend so much time in the mine by yourself. I don’t think I could, but you pass along your experiences with all of us. My wife and I have spent some time in Death Valley, and the surrounding areas but mostly on the Nevada side. We hope to make it out there some day and stay at the American Hotel when it’s completed, and look at all the treasures you and Cerro Gordo have. What a life experience! Thank you for sharing your life and progress, it and you are truly amazing!
I give you serious credit man, just watching this video raised my anxiety. I couldn't imagine crawling through there and going through the tight squeeze's.
@@danekakielty makes life worth living... The thrill, the excitement.. That sense of danger and risk... This is how humans have evolved and advanced. People like this allowed us to evolve by taking chances others would not.
Seeing him squeeze through there actually reduced my anxiety for him to zero. Before that I was worried for his safety. But after that I realized that if he doesn’t care about his own safety, why should I?
Hello my name is Deborah and I live in Tucson Arizona. The minerals you got out of this mine is very popular here in Tucson twice a year there’s a Gem and mineral show here that lasts more than two weeks. I’m sure you can get top dollar for that. People come from all over the world Tobit and sell their goods. Just thought I’d share that with you. 😊
Love this episode. That said, my sphincter puckered watching you skinny through the narrow openings. I grew up in Folsom California and the gold mining history of the area. I have been down tunnels created by the Chinese workers. At one point as I was skinning through an area I decided I was done. Fascinating yes. Y Kudos to the immigrants who suffered for the gold. You are a warrior Brent. Glad you have a support team. Not sure how much they could help you in the situations you embark on. Glad you are happy doing what you do!
As a Welsh man I find the scrap of old newspaper very interesting. For those who don’t know Cambria is another name for Wales. Whose patron saint is David. There must have been quite a lot of miners from Wales in the region during that period.
This video was AWESOME and butt puckering at points. If I saw that squeeze in the 200 level I would have turned around but I almost certainly wouldn't have gone down there in the first place. Thanks for the really cool video, your hard work really shows through.
This ia one of the most interesting and fascinating channels on RUclips. I’ve been watching it on and off since the beginning and can’t beleive it’s still going, and yet totally respect that it still continues to enrich our lives in so many ways.
The purple fluorite you have is known as Tiffany Stone. It's slightly radioactive, I have been told, and definitely glows under the blacklight. It's worth a lot! It's pretty rare, and it's prized for jewelry pieces. Y'all need a rock shop on the mountain! I will help you set it up! 😉
There is something very primal and deeply compelling about going deep into the Earth and finding valuable things...like becoming rich from just the Earth giving you something...but you have to have the courage to go get it..
Brent. My Uncle Bill died at Silver Peak Mine, NV. My Dad's Family were hired to work in the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The Family was moved from Butte MT due to their mining experience in Montana. Thank you.
@@robertbihn3005 the bids last i checked were somewhere between 3000-5000 usd total, so thats pretty much guaranteed for him at least, as auctions tend to jump the last minutes.
@@robertbihn3005 most have 2 days left on them before they end. Most also have over 50 bids on them. so its safe to say he will sell them. At the time of me posting this comment. He has listed 170 dollars worth as sold in the description + has 9 listings totalling $2465 every one of them has a minimum of 29 bids which means that even if he doesnt get the "HIghest" bid successfully there are plenty of fall back bidders. So for 12 hours of mining + likely 12hours of outside the mine working (cutting, polishing, Listing...etc) he'll make roughly 2600 dollars. OR roughly 109 dollars per hour. (note i'm just estimating on the "outside the mine" hours. With him having access to the mine and the ability to spend days in it. He could easily turn the mine into a full time job. Work 12 hours in the mine one day, spend the next day's 12 hour shift cleaning, cutting, prepping, listing the gems, rest for a day, rinse repeat.
Funny how people don't know what they're bidding on and the value they place on them. They're rocks! These have very little value which is why Brent couldn't find any local rock seller to buy them.. Doesn't matter where they came from. They are rocks.. not refined gold or silver which do have value.
I would place a check valve at the water pump to prevent the weight/pressure of all that water pushing back on the pump. I would also add a few more smaller pumps further up the mine to help reduce the load on the main pump.
Are you kidding me! You have a bed down there. I can’t even imagine spending that much time in there let alone setting up home. Fascinating! Thank you for the adventure.
This was really pushing the envelope, considering how that whole place is so prone to collapse. Don't know how you squeeze through those really tight spots. Please be extremely careful, we don't want to lose you! I have been with you since the first day, you feel like an old friend by now.
hello, you might have met my grandfather at one point because if i remember correctly he would have been mining around the same depth as you and i hope your living your best life.
Im on 20 odd mins into the video, and going to drop a like a comment right now as im already enjoying the vid cheers for the content ,respect where respect due.
Bring a good wire brush next time to reveal the surface are when you find a pocket. THAT way, the edges of the pocket/vein will be more apparent, and you can just knock the host rock. It keeps more mineral intact!! Love you, love your vids. Please stay safe safe safe
At 16.54 I saw that beautiful rock taken as is and carved in a Yin/Yang erupting into a perfect natural base, where the rough evolves into the YinYang growing and perhaps half sunken symbol, is intertwined with a polished piece, of course with the seed of its opposite within. A truly tremendous presentation; you excel at what you are doing and where sometimes I thought you were as mad as a hatter, I could see myself 50 or so years ago doing the same pot holing. Well done sir.
Wow Brent, 3 years ago you had a hard time with endurance and fear. You are fearless! I am so impressed with your courage and endurance. you ve taken us on an endless journey. keep up the good work. Patrick
Dude.....I'd love to experience that one day. My senses are so heightened, seeing mineralization in rock. You shouldn't be by yourself doing that by any stretch of the imagination. If you get trapped, nobody knows you need help and that slowly and painfully becomes your tomb. I know you know that already. I still love these vids. LoL.
Hey brent, it's a fan. Ive never enjoyed a youtube creators videos so much in my life. From your storytelling to adventurous mind. It encourages me and many more. I can't wait till the next video!
The power of music! Dude, when you were struggling in the mine, that eerie music changed "i got slightly uncomfortable" moment into "that is terrifying danger". Your editing skills are 10/10
this whole time i was waiting for you to have a little editing fun and CGI in a minecraft creeper somewhere hahaha. watching this video, it really motivates me to wanna learn how to safely explore mines myself. if i'd go down that mine one day and find that big rock you left behind, i'd wanna rescue it and send it to you. i really wanna see that one above surface sometime :3
I found you via Max Millers’ tasting History. I love your passion for this place. It’s inspiring to see you bring history to life. Your ghost town has such potential and I’m excited to see what you do with the place. The spirits of the town must be happy with your honor of their work.
Hi , i am so excited that you started looking at the rocks, minerals & crystals in the mine! I love rocks, so much so that when i was a kid and wrote a story for school, all the characters were named after rocks. Galena was the main character. Calcite was the male characters and Bismuth was the bad guy Lol. Those specimens you extracted are so beautiful. I think I'd cry if I ever found or received any of the rocks you dug up. My parents went to Cerro Gordo a few years ago when the previous care taker was there. My dad took a bunch of pictures, some are of the hotel & the inside of the hotel. If you're interested in seeing them to help redecorate during the reconstruction, let me know.
Whoa! This adventure was terrifying! I have never felt so claustrophobic! Beautiful specimens. I know you are going to be able to get some decent money for them. Thank you for taking us along. Take care, Brent.
You can only play Russian roulette so many times until fate catches up to you. The rocks around 12:30 are all cracked above him whilst he squeezed through a narrow gap. Don't be that guy it's not worth it
OMG Brent, take a partner with you when exploring like that. Safety in numbers. Yes some of your explorations are safer than others, this one wasn't. I pray for your safety. Ty for taking us along
Just wanna say a prayer. God please watch over this man as he descends through the depths and please protect him and guide him back safely every time. Amen. Stay safe brother.
Whoa what a great place to get a claustrophobia attack. Great comments from the readers here too! I'm glad other folks thought this guy is crazy too. Shoot! exploring dangerous holes seems pretty popular 3700 comments 1.7 million views should have told Bogart the adventure getting the gold was more valuable than the dust. I notice a lot of old farts in the comments. 76 here. stay safe
Had a second thought. You have a friend named Dan Hurd. He runs a succesful online gem store. Bet he would be honored to pedal Cerro Gordo gems & minerals.
I am quite sure that he is doing just fine with his eBay sales of the minerals. You would be wise to consider this video to be highly effective marketing.
I've seen Dan.. He is entertaining. Although, his attitude (and channel) to me, is an anti-altruistic endeavor that feeds a mainstream audience for profit gain. It always boils down to exploitation. It ends up boring or a vector view for others to come along and trample in areas for others to make a buck or two at the environment's expense.
What a shame after all your hard work that no-one wanted to buy your rocks. I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in the museum and I hope that you will receive some decent income to fund the building of the American Hotel. Take care, keep safe. ❤ Dorset, UK
I went to college at New Mexico Tech AKA New Mexico School of Mines. I studied petroleum engineering however I was friends with several mining engineering students who used to go hi-grading. I went high grading for dog tooth calcite and Smithsonite at the Kelly mine outside of Magdalena New Mexico in the ghost town of Kelly. One of the craziest phenomenon was that the passage of time while down in the mine was distorted. 16 hours passed in the blink of an eye. It's interesting that you would experience the passage of time as being slow. I sure hope you don't go down there by yourself. I took a few photos when I was down in Kelly mine nothing spectacular. I was 19 or 20 years old at the time when I look back on it I can't imagine doing that. Watching your video puts knots in my stomach. Please be careful and stay safe! Great video.
12:25 you are putting yourself in incredible danger here. It would be so easy for one of those pieces to dislodge and pin you in the mine. This happens to spelunker's all the time. It's a horrifying way to go.
I'm claustrophobic, this video gave me great anxiety right around the 13 minute viewing. If you told me the fountain of youth was at the bottom of that mine , I'd say hallelujah and good luck to who discovers it ! Because it sure AF won't be me ! 😂😂😂... love your channel though ! Living my dreams vicariously through you all the while sitting comfortably and safely on my couch . Be safe 🙏
Nice. To see u. Keep digging. God, tells me . Your going to find something awesome, I wish I could join you. Bless you, ty . For your environmental entertainment.
Well deserved sub from me sir. As a young aussie bloke these videos are nostalgic from a time where my old man would take me out bush and into some old mines
Consider selling some of your rocks to your visitors so that they may take back with them a memory they can look at and hold in their hands to cherish the memory years later in their lives. Perhaps by the pound, or by the beauty of certain pieces that stand out. Purchasing a rock associated with the memory of having stayed in your hotel overnight, might just make your rocks more valuable than you ever thought possible. Just something you might want to consider planning ahead down the road. Good luck!
I just took a peek at your eBay sales, and it looks like you're going to realize quite a decent profit from your 12+ hours down in the mine, certainly more than those who came before you to find and sell the riches from the Cerro Gordo Mines. Congratulations!
Hi Brent… I think your peeps that follow you would love to buy some pieces of your rock. I would love the blue/green stone so I could make a necklace. Let me know how I can purchase a piece. Thanks for this great video!!!❤
There is a lot more where this came from The first common blasting caps used in America were imported from Germany. Dependence on a foreign source for caps was deemed unsatisfactory, especially on the west coast, and as a result, the first American manufacture of blasting caps was started about 1877 by William Oliver and Freeborn Fletter. Together they built a small cap factory near Stege, CA and incorporated their business as the California Cap Company in April 1880. Fletter died in 1899 and Oliver in 1918. Following Oliver’s death, his son Roland Oliver succeeded him as president. The California Cap Company became the major supplier of blasting caps for the western U.S. for many years.
Here are some of the minerals I pulled out! www.ebay.com/usr/cerrogordo1865
I think it would be helpful for sales if you listed the weight of each piece you are selling. It's great to see all of your specimens for sale have healthy bids...good Luck Brent!
So interesting Brent. I have a mine as well and would love to do something w it?😊
I can't see any listings at the moment. Maybe it is only for sale in US?
How does a rock shop sell if they don't buy them. Are they just shoeing up?
Need to install a pressure tank after your pump.
You should look for minecarts with chests, they only spawn in abandoned mineshafts
yea
He'd have to be careful of the baby zombies tho
@@eeyoinknah he should look out for cave spiders there are a lot of spawn ears in abandoned mineshafts
@@CharNotLime also for spawners of skeltons and zombies
Sometimes you get really lucky and on the bottom level of the mineshaft you can still find diamonds
For anyone wondering, the sold price for the 12 listings he made on EBay totaled $4,798.99 - when split into a 12 hour shift was $399.92/hour. The description is outdated currently. All of the listing were auctioned, and the highest bids were $636 for a Smithsonite/Malachite/Pyrite chunk, then $610 each for two chunks, one of Malachite/Chrysocolla/Turquoise and another of just Galena (lead). One chunk of a prominent Smithsonite vein sold for $503. The rest were all around the $250-$350 range, and all auctions were bid on between 30 and 70 times, averaging around 40/50 bids.
Fantastic!!!
Nice
Imagine doing that 12 hour shift 3 times a week. That adds up to a LOT of money after a year ( roughly 600,000 a year )
The hourly rate from the “shift” wouldn’t be technically correct, because there were extra hours listing and selling the rocks that should be included in the time too (maybe also travel and any expenses incurred (lunch, gas, accommodation) should probably also be deducted.. (and also even the time packing (supplies and time) and posting (time/gas) the rocks after auction as well) 🤗
Not including the 12 hour shift the folks at the elevator did tho
“So I did a bit of mining off camera”
🤣🤣🤣
I busted ❤
I was looking for this comment 😂
Something about the Jefferson Chimney description that caught my eye - if it is cut off at the bottom by a fault line, then somewhere else nearby, it should actually continue further down, you'd just have to find out how much the fault line has moved the rock and which direction the rock has been moved. From there, you can work backwards to locate the lower portion of the Jefferson Chimney. If the miners didn't locate the lower portion, it would be inaccessible, but also it means the town is still sitting on a bunch of that ore.
Avoid ores... lol
I am actually a current miner of zinc in Tennessee. It is fascinating and terrifying to see you go after these specimens. We typically try not to go underneath any type of loose rocks as a rule of thumb. To watch you crawl through spaces you can barely fit is crazy. Usually when small rocks fall, big rocks are not far behind.
Noted and well put! Is the zinc you're mining in smithsonite as well? sphalerite?
@@GhostTownLiving I used to mine smithore. Well, my M.U.L.E. used to mine smithore and crystite. an Atari/Commodore classic.
Almost everytime I see Brent to crawl through the narrow spaces, I am asking myself it this will not be his last adventure... It could be his tomb... I would be very scared down there...
While very interesting, I find going down there by yourself to be extremely reckless and ill advised.
I hope you know that dynamite over time turns into highly unstable ntro glycerin. What happen the nitroglycerin weeps out ward from the tnt. Dont touch them of go near them a falling rock could set them off. Really cool spesimins !
You have 1.7 million subscribers. Sell your rocks as Cerro Gordo specimens with a note telling the story of your find, your trip down the mine, and a reference to the video. That's what's even more valuable: The story.
last time i took a story to the bank they wouldnt take it tho :/
@@samjanssens1509 - no, banks don't take your other souvenirs either. :)
If you haven't read his book already it's a great read!
@@gunnar_langemark Souvenirs with value are called collateral.
@@samjanssens1509 You must be a shitty story teller then. Most people get their business loans from banks on not much more than a story and some shady paperwork to back it up. Many are done JUST on the story alone.
As a mineral enthusiast, I personally like the natural look of crystals and matrixes.
Also a good tip. If you find a pristine crystal formation, try not to break it up if you don’t have to or want to. Palm size ores and crystal might sell for hundreds but person size walls of smithsonite can sell for 10’s of thousands as large crystal clusters like what you have found don’t get preserved too often anymore.
Either way I love the video series and can’t wait for the next one!
The only problem with that is how he would get the whole wall out of the mine. It's a very small operation and the only access they have is an old rickety elevator.
@@blackhawk15897 yea that is the issue and mainly why those things are rare. Still he could at least not crush the shit he already had
@@blackhawk15897 This is true, but for the right collector just the ability to guide them to an undisturbed site could net you a sizable finders fee without having to deal with the hassle of extraction yourself
Yeah I do not understand why he broke that piece in Half
He is clueless just making videos with blabbering the guy is totally lonely and talks to himself
I visited Cerro Cordo last week as I was driving back to Canada from Palm Springs with my family. It was a great experience and did check out the museum (thanks Avery) and all the cool nooks and crannies of Cerro Gordo that I've seen in the videos over the last 4 years. The merch they have for sale is great. I highly recommend going for a visit if your car can handle the road. It was curvier and steep then portrayed int eh videos for sure. I now understand why cement trucks refused to go up there.
It was great to even run into Brent on his way to the latest adventure and him taking the time to say hi to us.
Keep up the great videos and good work you are doing in Cerro Gordo.
Thank you for this video. Fascinating look at those old workings.
I worked 17 years as an underground bituminous coal miner. Based on those years of experience, there is no way I would have crawled under all that loose, broken top. If you are going to keep doing this, you need to learn how to take down loose top and install roof support to sustain good top. Holes in the ground created by humans are entirely different in character than holes in the ground created by Nature.
Old timbers decompose by slowly combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and/or carbon monoxide. Make sure you have air to breathe. I would want a couple of 15-minute O2 canisters: One on my hip and one on the elevator---at a minimum.
Good luck and God Bless!
Not a Miner or anything, but I was also curious about the breathability of the air
Oh man I hope he reads this and takes the advice
amen to sustainable good top
Isn't that what the chutes for?
He's a RUclipsr, not a whole ass private company
Since the advent of RUclips, I have discovered so many things that I have missed out on. Like buying a sailboat and sailing around the world or living in an abandoned ghost town and doing all manner of exploration. I am so jealous of the people that get to do these things because when I was young, it didn’t even dawn on me that these were things to do. Kudos to the adventurers. Adventures.
Bro YT in 2006 was just weird stuff.
Live your best life you can and whatever you don't achieve enjoy living vicariously therefore. Envy is no good, a Lil jealousy of course is natural. 😊
Well, I remember when there was no internet, or cell phones, or computers, only 3 TV networks, and party lines.
@@Sonny_Eclipse party lines. Haha. You actually called them??
I’ve been looking to the horizon for 50 years. it can be a blessing, but it also can be a curse. I’ve seen many things People will never see. I have no family, no children and I spend most of my time alone. I spend my time now becoming closer to God and thanking him. remembering the past. Adventures have one constant… you never stop looking to the horizon.
3:35 Brent you know for a fact there are so many veins left of such good minerals gold silver turquoise all of that is there waiting for you. I am so happy you got that place and took over that mine & Ghost Town
I just can't believe that you managed to defy what individuals can and can't do. I have never imagined that somebody would just go to abandoned mine and get minerals. DAMN
Brent….your mining quests keep me enthralled despite the stress I feel for your “squeezes” into tiny spaces. You have come such a long way and your videos are so well made. Your knowledge and presentation is far superior to a lot of similar posts on youtube. Thank you, thank you for sharing this with us.
The best place to sell “rough” rocks is at gem and mineral shows that happen periodically every year and draw thousands of buyers, cutters, and rock hounds. Of course the biggest and best is the Tucson Gem and Mineral show, and there are many other good smaller regional shows such as Quartzite.
I was also going to suggest the Gem & Mineral shows 😊
or he just makes a website refers to it and upmarks everything as sentimental value items due to the mines name and advertises to millions on his channel lol
thanks, it was the one question that kept lingering in my head, those rocks in the shops have got to come from somewhere.
Yup. fleabay might strike you a good one, but it doesn't compare with rock shows. Even if you have someone enterprise for you, you still get better "cuts" than most online places.
How DARE you say the Tucson Gem and Mineral show is better than the Quartzite show! The Tucson show killed my Father.
Hi Brent Robin Rowe from Selby Ontario Canada. Watched every video you put out so far. Became interested in Cerro Gordo ghost town some 60 or so years ago by reading an article in National Geographic magazine. It really caught my attention and I have wanted to go there ever since , and perhaps I will. It is so good to see someone uprooting his life to follow his dream . And so taking a hike with you would be a buggy on my bucket list . I will be 77 years on July 27 so don’t be surprised when I show up with my girl to spend a night in the new hotel. So I hope you have many more years of fun doing what you love.
I am laughing. You need to kick our rears. I am 75 - a great grandma - my grandson Alex showed me Minecraft and it was at the beginning!!! I have played it off and on all these years. I love it. I follow several channels. I watched this channel when it first started and I come back every so often to see how it is going. I love to go mining!!! And yes, the chests - find those chests. I love the blues! I want a necklace out of some blue and purple too. Yup. :-) :-) Can you shine the rocks - to make things to hang on a chain? I think it would be fun to make items - put a small notation as to where they came from! How neat!!! As a piece of history from Cerro Gordo! I'd love to buy one!!!
Me too! I would love to buy a ring or necklace!
So wholesome. !!!!
One of my favorite episodes so far. What a journey!
Thank you!
I work at the Oil at Gas business and like watching your videos to see the formations underground. very interesting to me. In Kansas, there are oil deposits at 400 feet. In Oklahoma, you can find oil at 1100 feet. It is very interesting to watch you walk through formations that we drill through. It is helpful to visualize and understand lost circulation formations and other anomalies we deal with.
Brother he is at 9000' elevation. You're most likely on flat land.
We were at Cerro Gordo last week on a Tuesday Morning. Thank you for sharing the town with us during that day. Your Representative was wonderful and very accommodating during our visit. We hope to return soon to partake in the 8 mile run this upcoming year. This was one of our big highlights during our two week road trip. Looking forward to the hotel and possibly staying there sometime in the future
I hope the 8 mile is not in hot weather. Be safe guys!
Did you go to OSU?
It's insane how much effort and work you have put into improving this mine. You've made it much more accessible, safer to explore and your restoring and gathering information about it's history and what it currently contains. It's fascinating
Brent, I hate to tell you this, but we as a community took a poll, and we all decided we need an hour long episode put out every day from now on. Thanks brother! 🙃
What. Who are You. Do you Live at Cerro Gordo. You are watching a video. Are you working for Brent in the mine??????
@@michelleharrell8452 a word called ''irony'' 🙃 english isn't my first language and i can clearly see the guy was being ironic ,just chill and enjoy the video
i really do appreciate those who still do these long form less edited hour long videos! i live for them! just listened while in a big rain storm. perfect part of my day! :)
@@asatechnics8363 Unless this community is associated with Brent they HAVE NO RIGHTS to tell Brent they the Community want to Run His Page.
Great video and beautiful haul. But that mine is a scary lonely place.
Just a bit of terminology for you...Horizontal tunnels completely underground are referred to as "drifts". Vertical tunnels are referred to as "shafts" if they come out at the surface, if they don't come out to the surface, they are called "winzes" or "raises", depending on which end you're on.
Nice video - stay safe!
isn't it an adit if it comes out to the surface? edit: guess that's just the horizontal ones.
@@jlt131 Yes, you are correct just the horizontal ones.
I found Chinese miners
Your dedication to the preservation of the mines is absolutely admirable! The earth is such a beautiful thing and I appreciate your mission to share this with the world. Stay safe and keep digging!
Thank you very much!
November 1930 was when my dad was born!! I just found your channel and I am so happy I did. I watch a lot of RUclips and this content is some of the best I’ve seen. I absolutely love this stuff but I could never do it and you brought me right down to the bottom so I could see this beauty from in our earth. Thank you ❤
Your videos just touch my soul in a way that can’t be expressed in writing. I can’t fathom that you spend so much time in the mine by yourself. I don’t think I could, but you pass along your experiences with all of us. My wife and I have spent some time in Death Valley, and the surrounding areas but mostly on the Nevada side. We hope to make it out there some day and stay at the American Hotel when it’s completed, and look at all the treasures you and Cerro Gordo have. What a life experience! Thank you for sharing your life and progress, it and you are truly amazing!
Those jagged rocks in the tight places really freaked me out.!! So glad your ok Brent! Whew!
I give you serious credit man, just watching this video raised my anxiety. I couldn't imagine crawling through there and going through the tight squeeze's.
Same here! I probably won't be able to finish this video. I'm fascinated with old mining towns but whew! All this deep down exploring is risky!!
@@danekakielty makes life worth living... The thrill, the excitement.. That sense of danger and risk... This is how humans have evolved and advanced. People like this allowed us to evolve by taking chances others would not.
12:00 not sure if that’s brave or stupid tbh.
Least he has wifi now
Seeing him squeeze through there actually reduced my anxiety for him to zero.
Before that I was worried for his safety. But after that I realized that if he doesn’t care about his own safety, why should I?
Hello my name is Deborah and I live in Tucson Arizona. The minerals you got out of this mine is very popular here in Tucson twice a year there’s a Gem and mineral show here that lasts more than two weeks. I’m sure you can get top dollar for that. People come from all over the world Tobit and sell their goods. Just thought I’d share that with you. 😊
The Hotel will get funded by your Mine and many of us are very happy to see the eBay moving right along. Congratulations!✌
Love this episode. That said, my sphincter puckered watching you skinny through the narrow openings. I grew up in Folsom California and the gold mining history of the area. I have been down tunnels created by the Chinese workers. At one point as I was skinning through an area I decided I was done. Fascinating yes. Y
Kudos to the immigrants who suffered for the gold. You are a warrior Brent. Glad you have a support team. Not sure how much they could help you in the situations you embark on. Glad you are happy doing what you do!
As a Welsh man I find the scrap of old newspaper very interesting. For those who don’t know Cambria is another name for Wales. Whose patron saint is David. There must have been quite a lot of miners from Wales in the region during that period.
This video was AWESOME and butt puckering at points. If I saw that squeeze in the 200 level I would have turned around but I almost certainly wouldn't have gone down there in the first place. Thanks for the really cool video, your hard work really shows through.
This ia one of the most interesting and fascinating channels on RUclips. I’ve been watching it on and off since the beginning and can’t beleive it’s still going, and yet totally respect that it still continues to enrich our lives in so many ways.
The purple fluorite you have is known as Tiffany Stone. It's slightly radioactive, I have been told, and definitely glows under the blacklight. It's worth a lot! It's pretty rare, and it's prized for jewelry pieces. Y'all need a rock shop on the mountain! I will help you set it up! 😉
My thoughts exactly!
radioactive? all i hear is extra flavor
Is that what depression glass was?
Fun fact, i keep Tiffany stone by my crotch as a form of birth control. No one is having my babies! Noone!!
@@VexxyDaProtogen You shouldn't eat rocks, you should eat RAM.
I'm sure each stone is worth thousands to collectors especially due to historical factors in that cave system, absolutely amazing!!
There is something very primal and deeply compelling about going deep into the Earth and finding valuable things...like becoming rich from just the Earth giving you something...but you have to have the courage to go get it..
Brent. My Uncle Bill died at Silver Peak Mine, NV. My Dad's Family were hired to work in the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The Family was moved from Butte MT due to their mining experience in Montana. Thank you.
❤ My dad too - MT, NV ..
~ Blessings.
For those of you wondering, his bids on ebay are currently thousands of dollars combined... a pretty good days work!
did anything sell ?
@@robertbihn3005 the bids last i checked were somewhere between 3000-5000 usd total, so thats pretty much guaranteed for him at least, as auctions tend to jump the last minutes.
@@robertbihn3005 most have 2 days left on them before they end. Most also have over 50 bids on them. so its safe to say he will sell them. At the time of me posting this comment. He has listed 170 dollars worth as sold in the description + has 9 listings totalling $2465 every one of them has a minimum of 29 bids which means that even if he doesnt get the "HIghest" bid successfully there are plenty of fall back bidders.
So for 12 hours of mining + likely 12hours of outside the mine working (cutting, polishing, Listing...etc) he'll make roughly 2600 dollars. OR roughly 109 dollars per hour. (note i'm just estimating on the "outside the mine" hours. With him having access to the mine and the ability to spend days in it. He could easily turn the mine into a full time job. Work 12 hours in the mine one day, spend the next day's 12 hour shift cleaning, cutting, prepping, listing the gems, rest for a day, rinse repeat.
Funny how people don't know what they're bidding on and the value they place on them. They're rocks! These have very little value which is why Brent couldn't find any local rock seller to buy them.. Doesn't matter where they came from. They are rocks.. not refined gold or silver which do have value.
Diamonds however do have some value , since they are used to cut the rocks lol.. other than that .. most jewels are worth nothing.
I would place a check valve at the water pump to prevent the weight/pressure of all that water pushing back on the pump. I would also add a few more smaller pumps further up the mine to help reduce the load on the main pump.
Are you kidding me! You have a bed down there. I can’t even imagine spending that much time in there let alone setting up home. Fascinating! Thank you for the adventure.
This was really pushing the envelope, considering how that whole place is so prone to collapse. Don't know how you squeeze through those really tight spots. Please be extremely careful, we don't want to lose you! I have been with you since the first day, you feel like an old friend by now.
Everything fun is dangerous. Just not everything dangerous is fun.
This mine has been in existence for over 100 years in an earthquake prone environment. The odds of collapse are quite low
@@wyatthausman4377Amen to that
@@the2theonly672 : that might be called the "survivor effect". That is, the surviving parts of the mine have not collapsed(!) lol
@@wyatthausman4377I don't think I've ever felt like my life was in danger while playing Uno with the kids
Being an ole hard rock miner back in 1968 as my first real worked at 5000 FOOT LEVEL CREIGHTON 5 SHAFT IN SUDBURY ONTARIO CANADA 🇨🇦 REALLY ENJOY
hello, you might have met my grandfather at one point because if i remember correctly he would have been mining around the same depth as you and i hope your living your best life.
Im on 20 odd mins into the video, and going to drop a like a comment right now as im already enjoying the vid cheers for the content ,respect where respect due.
Thank you! Hope you enjoyed the rest as well
Bring a good wire brush next time to reveal the surface are when you find a pocket.
THAT way, the edges of the pocket/vein will be more apparent, and you can just knock the host rock. It keeps more mineral intact!!
Love you, love your vids. Please stay safe safe safe
Bro is living Minecraft IRL💀💀💀
⛏️
@@GhostTownLiving 🔵🪨⛏️
💎🪨⛏️
@@GhostTownLiving 🫢
⛏️🏃🏻♀️ 🪨💎 “Never give up hope” - Minecraft
At 16.54 I saw that beautiful rock taken as is and carved in a Yin/Yang erupting into a perfect natural base, where the rough evolves into the YinYang growing and perhaps half sunken symbol, is intertwined with a polished piece, of course with the seed of its opposite within. A truly tremendous presentation; you excel at what you are doing and where sometimes I thought you were as mad as a hatter, I could see myself 50 or so years ago doing the same pot holing. Well done sir.
You are one brave ambitious guy. Thanks for taking us along on your journey!
Wow Brent, 3 years ago you had a hard time with endurance and fear. You are fearless! I am so impressed with your courage and endurance. you ve taken us on an endless journey. keep up the good work. Patrick
I don't like walking down the hall alone in my house at night.... much less being 700ft under the surface alone.....
You have balls of steel
try breakdancing down the hall, that you'll like
You are crazy and brave. Not even the world's strongest tough guys.Would probably do have the things you do. That
's why I keep watching...
Dude.....I'd love to experience that one day. My senses are so heightened, seeing mineralization in rock. You shouldn't be by yourself doing that by any stretch of the imagination. If you get trapped, nobody knows you need help and that slowly and painfully becomes your tomb. I know you know that already. I still love these vids. LoL.
Hey brent, it's a fan. Ive never enjoyed a youtube creators videos so much in my life. From your storytelling to adventurous mind. It encourages me and many more. I can't wait till the next video!
The power of music! Dude, when you were struggling in the mine, that eerie music changed "i got slightly uncomfortable" moment into "that is terrifying danger". Your editing skills are 10/10
Massive respects to you risking ur life to make these youtube videos for us👍
Awesome watch Brent, Thank you for sharing with us all : @ )
I remember when you first bought this place, it makes me so happy to see you still active!
this whole time i was waiting for you to have a little editing fun and CGI in a minecraft creeper somewhere hahaha.
watching this video, it really motivates me to wanna learn how to safely explore mines myself. if i'd go down that mine one day and find that big rock you left behind, i'd wanna rescue it and send it to you. i really wanna see that one above surface sometime :3
Cerro Gordo should open it's own rock shop!
I found you via Max Millers’ tasting History. I love your passion for this place. It’s inspiring to see you bring history to life. Your ghost town has such potential and I’m excited to see what you do with the place. The spirits of the town must be happy with your honor of their work.
Welcome aboard! Thank you for the kid words
Hi , i am so excited that you started looking at the rocks, minerals & crystals in the mine! I love rocks, so much so that when i was a kid and wrote a story for school, all the characters were named after rocks. Galena was the main character. Calcite was the male characters and Bismuth was the bad guy Lol. Those specimens you extracted are so beautiful. I think I'd cry if I ever found or received any of the rocks you dug up. My parents went to Cerro Gordo a few years ago when the previous care taker was there. My dad took a bunch of pictures, some are of the hotel & the inside of the hotel. If you're interested in seeing them to help redecorate during the reconstruction, let me know.
Whoa! This adventure was terrifying! I have never felt so claustrophobic! Beautiful specimens. I know you are going to be able to get some decent money for them. Thank you for taking us along. Take care, Brent.
You can only play Russian roulette so many times until fate catches up to you. The rocks around 12:30 are all cracked above him whilst he squeezed through a narrow gap. Don't be that guy it's not worth it
Dude be careful please. The supports are old and if that collapses on you. 😢
At about time stamp 12.25 , I determined Sir that you are CRAZY !!! And I like it . Very adventourus and bold.
Brent, I suffer from claustrophobia. Watching this video is unbelievably hard! I've got to keep reminding myself that you made it out OK. Wow! 😵💫
OMG Brent, take a partner with you when exploring like that. Safety in numbers. Yes some of your explorations are safer than others, this one wasn't. I pray for your safety. Ty for taking us along
These people don't listen to warnings. You'll read about a youtuber who died in some cave some day. There's quit a few of them.
He does seem to have a guy "topside" radioing to him each time he got into the lift.
@@nate9696 doesn't help much if you're stuck under a rock and the guy up top isn't expecting to hear from you for another 2 hours.
That's a big NO from me
The entrance to the 200 level seems like an unnecessary unacceptable risk in its present condition. The rest didn't look too bad
Might also consider tumbling, making spheres, and/or cutting into pendants... just some ideas.
I've been experimenting with all those. More to come!
Just wanna say a prayer. God please watch over this man as he descends through the depths and please protect him and guide him back safely every time. Amen. Stay safe brother.
This video was really enjoyable to watch. One of your best so far.
Don't wind up like those Chinese miners. Read your book, awesome. Love seeing your adventures. Stay safe, thanks for sharing!
Whoa what a great place to get a claustrophobia attack. Great comments from the readers here too! I'm glad other folks thought this guy is crazy too. Shoot! exploring dangerous holes seems pretty popular 3700 comments 1.7 million views should have told Bogart the adventure getting the gold was more valuable than the dust.
I notice a lot of old farts in the comments. 76 here. stay safe
I'm so happy for more mine content.
Same! This was a fun one!
Time to break your all-time camping out record on the 900 foot level Brent!
Great video, please do more like this. You're living the life that millions of people around the world would love to live!
Had a second thought. You have a friend named Dan Hurd. He runs a succesful online gem store. Bet he would be honored to pedal Cerro Gordo gems & minerals.
I am quite sure that he is doing just fine with his eBay sales of the minerals. You would be wise to consider this video to be highly effective marketing.
That is a GREAT idea.
Just set up your own rock and mineral shop in Keeler
I love watching Dan Herd too.
I've seen Dan.. He is entertaining. Although, his attitude (and channel) to me, is an anti-altruistic endeavor that feeds a mainstream audience for profit gain. It always boils down to exploitation. It ends up boring or a vector view for others to come along and trample in areas for others to make a buck or two at the environment's expense.
What a shame after all your hard work that no-one wanted to buy your rocks. I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in the museum and I hope that you will receive some decent income to fund the building of the American Hotel. Take care, keep safe. ❤ Dorset, UK
they're online on ebay. people are bidding $150-200 for some.
I went to college at New Mexico Tech AKA New Mexico School of Mines. I studied petroleum engineering however I was friends with several mining engineering students who used to go hi-grading. I went high grading for dog tooth calcite and Smithsonite at the Kelly mine outside of Magdalena New Mexico in the ghost town of Kelly.
One of the craziest phenomenon was that the passage of time while down in the mine was distorted. 16 hours passed in the blink of an eye. It's interesting that you would experience the passage of time as being slow.
I sure hope you don't go down there by yourself. I took a few photos when I was down in Kelly mine nothing spectacular. I was 19 or 20 years old at the time when I look back on it I can't imagine doing that. Watching your video puts knots in my stomach. Please be careful and stay safe! Great video.
12:25 you are putting yourself in incredible danger here. It would be so easy for one of those pieces to dislodge and pin you in the mine. This happens to spelunker's all the time. It's a horrifying way to go.
Just got my copy of your book so excited to start reading after work this made my week end!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it.
“I don’t really want to mess with it.” Proceeds to mess with it. 😂
I thought the very same thing!
Me too.
And he said it with a glimmer in his eye😁
I’ve loved watching this channel grow from nothing to the masterpiece it is today
So happy to see another Cerritos Gordo video! 😊
Meant Cerro
I'm claustrophobic, this video gave me great anxiety right around the 13 minute viewing. If you told me the fountain of youth was at the bottom of that mine , I'd say hallelujah and good luck to who discovers it ! Because it sure AF won't be me ! 😂😂😂... love your channel though ! Living my dreams vicariously through you all the while sitting comfortably and safely on my couch . Be safe 🙏
hahah, love this comment. Thanks for checking out the video!
Nice. To see u. Keep digging. God, tells me . Your going to find something awesome, I wish I could join you. Bless you, ty . For your environmental entertainment.
Well deserved sub from me sir.
As a young aussie bloke these videos are nostalgic from a time where my old man would take me out bush and into some old mines
That flying rock that hit the camera really made you deer in hedlights for a moment. 😂
The mining content is great but scares me you're so brave 😂 just thinking about the guys who did that every day. Crazy. Love everything you do!
They were fearless guys back then! Really hard work.
As a skinny, spry guy who could get through those spaces, I would love to make a good buck just bringing a couple rocks up from a tunnel.
Consider selling some of your rocks to your visitors so that they may take back with them a memory they can look at and hold in their hands to cherish the memory years later in their lives. Perhaps by the pound, or by the beauty of certain pieces that stand out. Purchasing a rock associated with the memory of having stayed in your hotel overnight, might just make your rocks more valuable than you ever thought possible. Just something you might want to consider planning ahead down the road. Good luck!
I just took a peek at your eBay sales, and it looks like you're going to realize quite a decent profit from your 12+ hours down in the mine, certainly more than those who came before you to find and sell the riches from the Cerro Gordo Mines. Congratulations!
If you find those 35 chinese miners on your property, there are probably coins and artifacts on them.
Levis... lol
I would love to buy a rock with an explanation card. I cant get there from Australia so its kind of a way of being part of this. Loved the book!
How much fun you’re having! Spelunking never gets old. I wish you the best adventures on your spread. Enjoying your vids. C.
Hi Brent… I think your peeps that follow you would love to buy some pieces of your rock. I would love the blue/green stone so I could make a necklace. Let me know how I can purchase a piece. Thanks for this great video!!!❤
That big chunk is crazy
What a tight squeeze! I found myself holding my breath while you wormed your way out.
There is a lot more where this came from
The first common blasting caps used in America were imported from Germany. Dependence on a foreign source for caps was deemed unsatisfactory, especially on the west coast, and as a result, the first American manufacture of blasting caps was started about 1877 by William Oliver and Freeborn Fletter. Together they built a small cap factory near Stege, CA and incorporated their business as the California Cap Company in April 1880. Fletter died in 1899 and Oliver in 1918. Following Oliver’s death, his son Roland Oliver succeeded him as president. The California Cap Company became the major supplier of blasting caps for the western U.S. for many years.
The town of Stege has been absorbed into Richmond, Ca..
8:55 "i probably shouldn't mess with this" *immediately messes with it*
If you discover a vein that travels forever, it’s probably Samsonite. Cool video.
"Everything turns to dirt with time." Sage words of wisdom 🙌 😂
Alls I knows is it’s Saturday and I have 1 hr to devote to a video. I’m so thankful I opened RUclips to find your video!