It’s been a while since we’ve visited an underground placer mine and so we’re back with a video of our beloved ancient rivers of gold… It was quite a trek in through the adit to reach the zone where the ancient river channel was located. And, as you saw, there were veins of quartz that the miners intercepted along the run into the placer material. I didn’t see any evidence that these were actually mined, but they obviously tested them.

I always receive a lot of questions about the ancient river channels and the placer material that we have in this area… So, allow me to explain: The placer you see here is made up of the compressed remains of giant ancient rivers that used to run through where the Sierra Nevada mountains of California are now. Just as modern creeks and rivers in “gold country” fill up with gold over time, these ancient rivers did as well. However, there were no miners around back then to pick the gold out of them. Over time, volcanic eruptions and other geologic activity buried these ancient rivers and shifted them around. Now, one can find these ancient river channels at the top of a mountain. And, of course, even there they still contain the gold that tumbled down into them so many millions of years ago. So, gold miners will eagerly tunnel in through even thousands of feet of rock after them. No one knows who first discovered that there were ancient rivers full of gold buried in California, but can you imagine what went through their mind when they made that discovery?

I believe the finest example of an underground gold mine tapping into the ancient river channels remains this video:

   • Mining The Corpse Of A Mighty Ancient...  

Given the unique nature of these types of placer gold mines, I have always had a certain fondness for them (something about walking through a river that dinosaurs drank out of). However, they are perhaps even more structurally unstable than the serpentine veins in many of the lode mines and the underground placer mines can produce some horrible, neckdeep orange mud. So, they are not without their downsides, to be sure!

Nevertheless, I hope that you find them interesting. Thank you for watching.

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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.

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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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