Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This area had burned over a year or two prior to our visit. That made the hike in to the abandoned mine easier as much of the brush had been cleared out. However, the fire also deleted any remaining structures right around the mine, which is unfortunate. Given what was still intact of that aerial tramway, there must have been a good amount of infrastructure present at one time to support it. And, of course, those workshops and other buildings that we passed on the way in seemed like they had high potential to be interesting as well!
This was rather an unusual mine for us as they mined for aluminum ore here and I can’t think of any other aluminum mines that we have visited. If the ground that we encountered here is any indication though, I doubt that we’ll be getting underground at too many aluminum mines because almost all of it was in terrible shape (collapsed).
The history of aluminum itself is interesting to me – how it was once immensely valuable and as the techniques for processing it improved, the prices dropped to the low levels that we are familiar with today. I was unable to locate historical information on this particular mine, but it was obviously an older one. I’d love to be able to tell you with some specificity when the mine operated as a chart of the declining prices of aluminum would give us a good idea of what their costs were and what pain point on the prices forced them to cease operations. It’s kind of neat to think of the possibility of aluminum from this mine in the remote deserts of Nevada going into the frames of aircraft and flying all over the world.
It was pretty cool to spend the night inside of the cabin at the mining camp. We’ve spent the night at plenty of abandoned mines and mining camps before, but that was the first time that one of the buildings was clean enough to sleep in. Usually, the rodents have done enough to make them so disgusting that sleeping outside is preferable. However, aside from the Mormon crickets swarming everywhere, this cabin was still in pretty good shape. Haha, the Mormon crickets were bad enough though that, in the end, we had to sleep inside of a tent inside of the cabin. For those that haven’t seen Mormon crickets firsthand, trust me, you do not want them crawling all over you.
*****
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: 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!
*****
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
This area had burned over a year or two prior to our visit. That made the hike in to the abandoned mine easier as much of the brush had been cleared out. However, the fire also deleted any remaining structures right around the mine, which is unfortunate. Given what was still intact of that aerial tramway, there must have been a good amount of infrastructure present at one time to support it. And, of course, those workshops and other buildings that we passed on the way in seemed like they had high potential to be interesting as well!
This was rather an unusual mine for us as they mined for aluminum ore here and I can’t think of any other aluminum mines that we have visited. If the ground that we encountered here is any indication though, I doubt that we’ll be getting underground at too many aluminum mines because almost all of it was in terrible shape (collapsed).
The history of aluminum itself is interesting to me – how it was once immensely valuable and as the techniques for processing it improved, the prices dropped to the low levels that we are familiar with today. I was unable to locate historical information on this particular mine, but it was obviously an older one. I’d love to be able to tell you with some specificity when the mine operated as a chart of the declining prices of aluminum would give us a good idea of what their costs were and what pain point on the prices forced them to cease operations. It’s kind of neat to think of the possibility of aluminum from this mine in the remote deserts of Nevada going into the frames of aircraft and flying all over the world.
It was pretty cool to spend the night inside of the cabin at the mining camp. We’ve spent the night at plenty of abandoned mines and mining camps before, but that was the first time that one of the buildings was clean enough to sleep in. Usually, the rodents have done enough to make them so disgusting that sleeping outside is preferable. However, aside from the Mormon crickets swarming everywhere, this cabin was still in pretty good shape. Haha, the Mormon crickets were bad enough though that, in the end, we had to sleep inside of a tent inside of the cabin. For those that haven’t seen Mormon crickets firsthand, trust me, you do not want them crawling all over you.
*****
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: goo.gl/TEKq9L
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: 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!
*****
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
