When we explored our way down to the bottom of this abandoned mine shaft, we were pretty impressed by all that we discovered… We have the fact that this mine is in a remote location, the fact that it is a shaft (which fewer individuals are willing to venture into) and the fact that this is a dry, desert mine to thank for the remarkable number of historical mining artifacts down in the mine, but even taking all of that into account, this was still pretty extraordinary. I can only think of a handful of other mines that are preserved as well and have not been picked over by thieves and scrappers (or destroyed by the AML crews).

So many interesting things down in this one that it is hard to know where to start… The lantern? The huge number of dynamite boxes from different manufacturers? The drift that looped around back to where we started? The loaded flatcar? The large headframe underground? Perhaps needless to say, this mine has shot its way up into the Top 10 of my “Favorite Abandoned Mines” list.

I would be curious to know what was down that large winze served by the headframe. It was hard enough getting down the main shaft, but dropping down there as well would be another level of difficulty. Regrettably, our ropes on this trip were not up to the task.

This was not a recent explore for us and we have been advised by a subsequent mine explorer that the shaft has now caved and is no longer accessible. While unfortunate, that being the case, I am glad we visited and documented this mine when we did.

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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so adjust those settings to ramp up the quality! It really makes a difference.

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

You can click here for the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines: 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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