Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
We’re not just bringing this mine back to life to look for gold, but because we thought that its untapped exploring potential was very high… I’m talking virgin mine workings that no human has laid eyes on for a century. The gold standard of mine exploring, in other words.
The maps we were provided show the three levels of our mine (accessed through three separate portals), but they are incomplete. A jagged line cuts across many drifts and adits on the three levels, indicating that the workings are caved and the space beyond is an unknown blank. The impression one is given from the workings shown on the map is that there are just a few thousand feet of drifts in our gold mine. However, the waste rock pile just for the level you see in this video (level three since it is on the bottom) extends for six hundred feet down the mountain! Six hundred feet! It is mostly obscured by brush and so one doesn’t realize the full extent of it unless they take a hike down through the brush, but it is massive. The other two waste rock piles at levels one and two are likewise obscured by brush.
My point with all of this is that our experience tells us that the underground workings are far more extensive than what is suggested by the maps… So, aside from the gold, of course, a big focus of ours is getting into every nook and cranny of this mine to see if we can find ways into the other workings. If we have to spend months clearing out caved sections (as we did to get to where we are now), we will do what we have to do. However, we want to scout out the most promising areas and also see if we can find any passages that we can scramble through to reach the implied workings.
THIS is what led me to belly crawl through the 1660 collapse (you’ll see a much better view of that area in a future video – as I said, this was just an initial recon run)… The maps we have show that the adit runs for several hundred feet past the 1660 section. The actual distance? About 75 feet. And I verified without any doubt that what you saw in this video was well and truly the end. That was not caved. That was solid rock. The end.
Now, you may think that we were duped in some form. However, as you’ll see in a future video, further investigation has only made us more certain of the massive workings above (and their potential). I’ll expand on this idea also as the scale of this mine has been underestimated by many people. There is no one alive today that has been deeper in this mine than us and we’ve just barely scratched the surface.
There's no harm done yet by the experts (an expensive group of geologists drew up our maps) being wrong on the layout of this mine, but there is a lesson there. The lesson is to not trust the experts... Coming from a foreign policy background and with more than a decade of experience in war reporting, I have seen countless times the damage done by people listening to the "experts". Ha, and as an expert myself in foreign policy and the news media, you should listen to my warning!
In this video, you see the aftermath of the blasting and, hopefully, get a sense of the repetition of it. We’re essentially following the same routine every day – blast, muck and then drill to blast again. In the coming videos, I’ll touch on that theme now and then if it is relevant, but I mainly want to show you the interesting things that happen along the way. The things that go wrong, the things that go right, etc.
*****
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: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: 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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
We’re not just bringing this mine back to life to look for gold, but because we thought that its untapped exploring potential was very high… I’m talking virgin mine workings that no human has laid eyes on for a century. The gold standard of mine exploring, in other words.
The maps we were provided show the three levels of our mine (accessed through three separate portals), but they are incomplete. A jagged line cuts across many drifts and adits on the three levels, indicating that the workings are caved and the space beyond is an unknown blank. The impression one is given from the workings shown on the map is that there are just a few thousand feet of drifts in our gold mine. However, the waste rock pile just for the level you see in this video (level three since it is on the bottom) extends for six hundred feet down the mountain! Six hundred feet! It is mostly obscured by brush and so one doesn’t realize the full extent of it unless they take a hike down through the brush, but it is massive. The other two waste rock piles at levels one and two are likewise obscured by brush.
My point with all of this is that our experience tells us that the underground workings are far more extensive than what is suggested by the maps… So, aside from the gold, of course, a big focus of ours is getting into every nook and cranny of this mine to see if we can find ways into the other workings. If we have to spend months clearing out caved sections (as we did to get to where we are now), we will do what we have to do. However, we want to scout out the most promising areas and also see if we can find any passages that we can scramble through to reach the implied workings.
THIS is what led me to belly crawl through the 1660 collapse (you’ll see a much better view of that area in a future video – as I said, this was just an initial recon run)… The maps we have show that the adit runs for several hundred feet past the 1660 section. The actual distance? About 75 feet. And I verified without any doubt that what you saw in this video was well and truly the end. That was not caved. That was solid rock. The end.
Now, you may think that we were duped in some form. However, as you’ll see in a future video, further investigation has only made us more certain of the massive workings above (and their potential). I’ll expand on this idea also as the scale of this mine has been underestimated by many people. There is no one alive today that has been deeper in this mine than us and we’ve just barely scratched the surface.
There's no harm done yet by the experts (an expensive group of geologists drew up our maps) being wrong on the layout of this mine, but there is a lesson there. The lesson is to not trust the experts... Coming from a foreign policy background and with more than a decade of experience in war reporting, I have seen countless times the damage done by people listening to the "experts". Ha, and as an expert myself in foreign policy and the news media, you should listen to my warning!
In this video, you see the aftermath of the blasting and, hopefully, get a sense of the repetition of it. We’re essentially following the same routine every day – blast, muck and then drill to blast again. In the coming videos, I’ll touch on that theme now and then if it is relevant, but I mainly want to show you the interesting things that happen along the way. The things that go wrong, the things that go right, etc.
*****
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: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: 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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
