I hope that you’ve been enjoying watching the Lost Worlds Project as much as we have enjoyed exploring this abandoned mine complex. This really is the best that mine exploring delivers: seeing the wonders underground that no living person has ever laid eyes upon… The graffiti dating back to the 1800s from longdead miners, the candle stubs and egg shells where the miners took a break, the newspapers from the 1800s and the countless other sights and artifacts all combine to make this a truly unspoiled historical treasure.

In prior videos, some commenters have questioned my description of some of the chambers that I described as caves. However, the identification of some of these as caves is not speculation on my part. I am basing these statements on the detailed maps created by the miners themselves. The miners often dumped waste rock into these caves, which can give them an unnatural appearance and, I suspect, that this may be the source of the confusion for those questioning the cave scenario.
Of the caves we’ve seen so far, my favorite is, unquestionably, the massive one in this video with the curious trail running through it. The break area or staging area with the newspapers and candles at the end of the trail was the perfect addition to the cave.

So, that potentially lethal ride I took down that hole that opened up in the drift? The miners obviously noticed that vein I was checking out as well… They either mined it down and made a stope there or ran an ore pass down to drop ore to levels below. Either way, there was a large void left behind. Rock sloughing off from the side loosely plugged the top of the void and a layer of dirt and smaller rock fell on top of that. So, when I came cruising along more than a century after the miners worked there, I saw a level surface with some slight groundfall on the right side. The middle of a drift is not where one would expect a big hole to be. We’ve seen it before, but it is rare. Fortunately, as I fell, more rock tumbled into the void and loosely plugged it again, which arrested my fall. After I was extricated with some help from Jeremy, we could hear bits of rock and gravel falling into the space below and they fell for quite a way.

Even a nonfatal injury, such as a broken leg, becomes potentially fatal in this environment. With the danger and complexity of reaching this point in the mine, absolutely no one is coming in to rescue us if anything goes wrong. I see a lot of ignorant comments about rescues in abandoned mines, but, really, unless it is something easily accessible from the surface, abandoned mine rescues do not happen. The responders do not have the experience or risk tolerance to take on a rescue mission (and certainly not a recovery mission). There is more than one abandoned mine in Nevada with bodies still inside of it… So, if we can’t make it out on our own when something goes wrong, we’re almost certainly not ever coming out of this mine. And unless the injury gets you with shock or blood loss, it isn’t dehydration or anything like that which kills one in this situation. It is hypothermia. When you stop moving underground, it is almost impossible to stay warm after a few minutes.

However, enough with the downsides of mine exploring… We can’t wait to get back to this mine and to try running out more options to get to the lower levels. The maps show some very, very interesting looking features farther down!

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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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