This abandoned mine had little trouble ending up on the “favorites” list. The setting was awesome. The layout of the underground workings was quite interesting. It delivered with the interesting artifacts left behind. I even loved the miner’s trail that I discovered on the way down. And great aesthetics on top of all that? Yes, I’m into it. Sign me up for more.

This was primarily a lead and zinc mine (we’ve had very good results with those types of mines over the years) with copper, silver and gold as bonus secondary minerals.

There is surprisingly little historical information on this mine in the public domain. What I did locate stated that the ore body was discovered in 1901. Apparently, a large amount of work was done in 1911 and again in 1919. However, there are no records available past 1919. What we saw inside of the mine though strongly suggests that work was done at this abandoned mine as recently as the 1950s. I am, of course, referring to the dates written with the carbide lamps, but also to the equipment that we found underground.

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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 and 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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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