Absolutely Loaded Abandoned Gold Mine

Where do I even begin with a gold mine that is THIS loaded with artifacts and equipment? I had no idea what we would find and I certainly had no idea that I would see anything like what you see in this video... I have seen impressive mines before and mines that had a lot of mining artifacts and equipment, but never anything that had this much in one place. Normally, as my dear viewers know, we’ll see a cool compressor here (that Chicago Pneumatic compressor in this mine would have been the highlight of a video at a normal gold mine) and an impressive ore car there, but to have all of that in one place was pretty mind-blowing. We should be grateful for remote locations!

Unfortunately, that remote location didn’t do anything to save the mill from the forest fire. That was a recent forest fire as well… So, we just missed seeing the mill by a year or so. Of course, that grow operation was probably thriving before the fire and, public land or not, the growers likely would not have welcomed mine explorers tramping around with cameras. To have a setup like that on public land is fairly bold and would suggest that they were not overly concerned with access rights for everyone. This is why some friends of mine go armed to every abandoned mine they visit!

On a completely unrelated note, I don’t understand how sketchy grow operations like this are still around and competing with the sophisticated players that can mass produce huge quantities of higher-quality marijuana in warehouses. How are the sketchy operators not seeing their profit margins destroyed? The operation at this site was, obviously, for a lot more than personal consumption.

Back on track with the mine… It was actually fairly difficult to track the history of this gold mine because it was consolidated within a group of mines. So, separating its individual history from discussions of the activities of the broader group was nearly impossible. What I can say for sure is that this was one of the earlier mines in the district and what I can say with some confidence, but not full confidence, is that this mine appears to have shipped its last gold not long after World War II.

Of course, I am, regrettably, holding some information back as this mine is a real treasure and I don’t want to move it up the priority list for the Forest Service to destroy. For those of you that don’t know, one criteria that the Forest Service (and other agencies that destroy mines) use in prioritizing closures is how much attention a mine is receiving with its real name and location on social media. In other words, more traffic = faster closure/destruction.

I’m sure that some of you are wondering about the other levels and workings at this mine. Our crew split up and the others were exploring outside while we were underground. As you saw, this wasn’t the best ground and so the other portals and workings they located were not accessible.

The possible points of access on the underground level we explored in this video were sporty, but hypothetically doable. Returning with the climbing gear is in order, but given the state of collapse throughout the mine, I am not optimistic about those lower levels.

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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically.

You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD

As well as a small gear update here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6

You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://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!

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