Glorious Tram Mine In The Desert Mountains

With a lengthy hike and no shade, it would have been wonderful to ride the tram in to this abandoned zinc and lead mine. However, today, only fragments remain of the impressive tram system that once ran here. So, instead, one must now work their way up the boulder-filled ravine and then climb the huge waste rock pile. This route used to be a mule trail, but the trail has been almost entirely carried away by floods over the decades.

This abandoned mine is older than I realized at the time that we visited. My subsequent research revealed that the ore deposit was actually discovered in the 1800s. The mine operated up until the start of World War II, but the majority of the work took place in the early 1900s.

For those that do not know as much about tram systems, a complex cable system was set up over the peaks and ridges of these mountains to ferry miners, materials, equipment and ore up and down the mountains. The views would have been phenomenal and it would have been an amazing experience to be soaring hundreds of feet over the sheer cliffs and deep canyons in this area. I'd imagine that many would choose that commute over one stuck in their vehicle on an overcrowded freeway.

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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

As well as a small gear update 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. 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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