A Really Special Mine In An Unexpected Place

There was an interesting mineral mix at this abandoned mine… The district was known for copper, lead and silver (which this mine also had small amounts of), but this particular mine was primarily a fluorine-fluorite mine. It is almost unfathomable to me that the miners here could have made a profit from a small operation for an industrial mineral like that. However, I suppose that with a lot of hard work and resourcefulness (plenty of evidence of that at this site), that the miners might have pulled it off. I sure hope that they did!

So, the story of our adventure on the drive to the mine… The road in was fairly rough and we became high-centered on a large boulder. It was one of those winning the negative lottery experiences - we could have driven over it with no trouble 1,000 times, but on this occasion happened to hit it just right, which kicked the truck up onto the boulder and left the tires stranded in loose gravel. It took some work as the loose sand and gravel was not very helpful in supporting a jack, but we eventually got the truck jacked up and packed all the rocks we could find under the tires to get the truck off the boulder as much as possible and to provide as much traction as possible. With some effort on the part of the truck and some new dents to add character, we got the truck off the boulder and continued for just several hundred feet to the mine. Yes, we were that close when we got stuck.

Upon arriving at the mine, the truck suddenly died. Jeremy restarted the truck and warning lights lit up the instrument panel like a Christmas tree, the engine made a horrible sound and black smoke poured out of the exhaust. Seeing all of that was not a good feeling and not what you would expect from a Toyota!

We had sufficient water, but we did not have phone service out there. And this mine is a long, LONG walk from anything. We calculated that the nearest town was about 15-20 miles away as the crow flies – and it is a tiny town... Trying to make the hike during the heat of the day in the summer would likely have been deadly because we didn’t have THAT much water. However, struggling to make the hike at night had its own risks because we’d be cutting cross country and would have had a harder time staying on the right course, avoiding rolled ankles in the rocky terrain, etc. Less important, but still of some significance - two of us also had flights the next morning that we had to catch.

We figured that if we were at the mine though, we might as well explore it. So, we set out to explore the mine and hoped for the best. It was a great mine, but we had a slight worry about the truck hanging over us the whole time.

We returned to the truck as it was getting dark and there was certainly no small amount of anticipation when Jeremy pushed the “Start” button. However, it fired right up without a hint of trouble and had no problems at all on the drive out.

We ultimately concluded that the sensors overheated from the very hot day, the slow and grinding drive to get out to the mine and the effort required from the truck to get off the boulder. Being pissed off from being overheated, the sensors simply threw a temper tantrum.

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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

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

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