An Iced Up Gold Mine Melts And Finally Reveal Its Secrets
1.3 میلیون بار بازدید -
3 سال پیش
-
Exploring this iced up gold
Exploring this iced up gold mine presented a unique challenge to us in that it required a lot of patience – many years of patience, in fact! As you might expect, this abandoned mine is found at a high elevation and in the middle of nowhere… So, it is quite an ordeal to reach it. The road in is quite rough (you absolutely need a 4WD and it had better be one that you don’t mind getting bashed up a bit and pinstriped from scraping against brush) and then one is compelled to hike for a long distance up steep, rocky mountain faces to finally reach the mine itself. However, ever faithful to the great promise of this mine, we returned every year like a battered lover returning to an abusive relationship, hoping for something to be different this time.
For years, we faced only disappointment. The only reward from the exhausting days would be the good company and good views. Progress was being made though. Painfully slow progress, but still progress... When I first laid eyes on this mine, the ice completely covered the portal like a glacier. A year or two later, the ice had retreated to where a tiny opening was visible into the adit. On the next visit, it had opened up a little more… Every time we visited, more ice had melted away.
Despite the great difficulties in reaching this mine, we would usually check on it once a year. It became a pet project for us – our baby – and we were excited about getting into a mine that we knew no one had been inside of for a very long time and that had certainly never been on video before.
And finally – finally!! – this year, we were rewarded for our patience and persistence. We were able to hammer enough ice down to be able to get in.
We thought that getting to the gold mine was the hard part. However, once inside the adit, we realized that that was just the start. It was much more difficult to get across that ice that was still in the mine than any of us expected! For starters, the clearance between the ice and the top of the adit was only about three feet - and far less in some places! The uneven surface meant that easily sliding on our butts (as I had naively anticipated us doing) was impossible. One could only crawl or crab walk. However, the surface of the ice was covered in water from the melting ice. So, aside from getting us soaked in ice water (literally), we were slipping and sliding all over the place, which was absolutely exhausting when working with such minimal clearance. The fun was compounded by dodgy ground above us for most of the way in… This created concern about accidentally brushing against the top of the adit, but, of more immediate concern, large sections of the ice were embedded with sharp rocks that had sloughed off of the top. Imagine crawling through a tiny pipe filled with slippery, wet ice that is embedded with caltrops and you’ll have the right picture.
After enduring approximately two thousand feet of that, we finally reached the end of the ice and enjoyed, at the most, a few hundred feet of relatively easy walking before encountering freezing, muddy water dammed up behind a caved section of the mine. I was too disgusted to even bother taking the camera out to film it… I’ve always said that I draw the line at swimming in abandoned mines. However, we had come too far and fought too hard to give up now. Plus, we were already soaked and freezing… What difference would another round make at that point?
We have never been able to locate much on the history of this mine. It’s in a mining district that dates back to the 1800s and the mine likely dates back to that era. However, it is one of those mines that was clearly worked off and on over the decades since then. If I had to guess, based on the equipment and artifacts still inside, I would guess that it was last worked in the 1930s.
*****
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
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!
*****
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.
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
For years, we faced only disappointment. The only reward from the exhausting days would be the good company and good views. Progress was being made though. Painfully slow progress, but still progress... When I first laid eyes on this mine, the ice completely covered the portal like a glacier. A year or two later, the ice had retreated to where a tiny opening was visible into the adit. On the next visit, it had opened up a little more… Every time we visited, more ice had melted away.
Despite the great difficulties in reaching this mine, we would usually check on it once a year. It became a pet project for us – our baby – and we were excited about getting into a mine that we knew no one had been inside of for a very long time and that had certainly never been on video before.
And finally – finally!! – this year, we were rewarded for our patience and persistence. We were able to hammer enough ice down to be able to get in.
We thought that getting to the gold mine was the hard part. However, once inside the adit, we realized that that was just the start. It was much more difficult to get across that ice that was still in the mine than any of us expected! For starters, the clearance between the ice and the top of the adit was only about three feet - and far less in some places! The uneven surface meant that easily sliding on our butts (as I had naively anticipated us doing) was impossible. One could only crawl or crab walk. However, the surface of the ice was covered in water from the melting ice. So, aside from getting us soaked in ice water (literally), we were slipping and sliding all over the place, which was absolutely exhausting when working with such minimal clearance. The fun was compounded by dodgy ground above us for most of the way in… This created concern about accidentally brushing against the top of the adit, but, of more immediate concern, large sections of the ice were embedded with sharp rocks that had sloughed off of the top. Imagine crawling through a tiny pipe filled with slippery, wet ice that is embedded with caltrops and you’ll have the right picture.
After enduring approximately two thousand feet of that, we finally reached the end of the ice and enjoyed, at the most, a few hundred feet of relatively easy walking before encountering freezing, muddy water dammed up behind a caved section of the mine. I was too disgusted to even bother taking the camera out to film it… I’ve always said that I draw the line at swimming in abandoned mines. However, we had come too far and fought too hard to give up now. Plus, we were already soaked and freezing… What difference would another round make at that point?
We have never been able to locate much on the history of this mine. It’s in a mining district that dates back to the 1800s and the mine likely dates back to that era. However, it is one of those mines that was clearly worked off and on over the decades since then. If I had to guess, based on the equipment and artifacts still inside, I would guess that it was last worked in the 1930s.
*****
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
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!
*****
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.
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
3 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1400/06/24 منتشر شده
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