Flooded Gold Mine Insanity in Northern California!
Flooded Gold Mine Insanity in Northern California!
Where do you take a person who has NEVER explored an abandoned mine before but really wants to? You take them to a flooded, abandoned gold mine, of course!
Drew, who is totally new to abandoned mine exploration, joined me for a day of underground exploration and documentation in northern California. We hit-up two big abandoned gold mines that were major producers back in the late 1800s and since. The first mine in the video crushed over 9000 tons of ore during its first year of operation! That’s a lot of ore! The second mine in the video was reported as having nearly 10 miles of tunnels and was actually two large mines connected by a single tunnel. Nowadays these two large gold mines are abandoned and flooded with cold water. This is our hike to and exploration of the accessible workings of these two fascinating abandoned mines. Enjoy!
Also, drop by Drew’s YouTube channel, watch a few vids, subscribe, and give him a shout-out. Drew’s channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOPuqnscdVfduH-8Mk3ISJQ
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Those ‘fingers’ of spoil are absolutely characteristic of underground workings.
In England the official national mapping is done by the ‘Ordnance Survey’ qango. They produce absolutely top quality terrain maps and have done so for coming up on 200 years. In this country they are the gold standard for serious walkers and explorers, even now despite the various online services. The closest scale you can easily get hold of are the ‘Explorer’ 1:25K series which give pretty good definition. They do others at similar and much closer scale but they are not generally available from shops. Better still there is an amazingly good client for the PC which hosts a full set of both these resolutions along with several other like road atlases and A-Z’s for very easy viewing. To buy the entire kit and caboodle would be heart-stoppingly expensive, but when you have them you get the entire country at your finger tips–like ‘google maps’ except done professionally and with far better consistency. You can in some newer versions of the client integrate publicly available satellite photographs with the map to produce a 3D terrain view.
Once you have an OS map of a chosen area and are looking for old shafts and pits the best way I have found is to look specifically for these splayed out fingers of spoil on the moorlands. They act like huge road signs once you get used to looking for them.
Not sure why you didn’t have waders, but still cool nonetheless lol
4:55 is that
I think a small raft is a good way to explore this old mine. This is near Oakhurst, my old stomping grounds…beware, a lot of rattlers in that area!
Aparentemente sou o único Brasileiro aqui 😂😂😂
I have a 300+yr old gold mine 30 minutes north of me here in new england
I think that Western "Compressor" may actually be the engine to drive the I-R compressor.
Western made big engines that looked like that, and it has a clutch handle on the flywheel pulley.
If you have any pictures of the head area, (the opposite end of the cylinder from the flywheel), and any other valve linkage or other fittings on the head it should be possible to tell if it’s an engine or a compressor.
If that’s an engine, I would guess it would be between 20 and 30 horsepower.
I’m with you.let you know. between Reno NV and Truckee Ca.if your going toward CA.little before Truckee on left side on I-80 there man made wood bridge going up the mountain to a mine.i don’t know if it been explored.the bridge hang on side of the mountain.im not sure the name of the mine.just find out what it call it the donner summet train tunnels near Truckee ca.it been abandoned.and there old gold mine.close to it.donner gold mines./let’s go got my water boots on.man water little high.i can emagine that water is cold.it given me the chills.Hey look for fish.watch for water moccasin snakes.Hey Drew happy to meet you.dont get into quicksand.
I wonder if using a RV boat, or a small drone, with a camera would be a viable way to see behind the door.
Two dudes being bros. Pretty cool
This guy is the nicest explorer ever
There was something behind the door and the door was moving
Crazy to think of the work involved day in an out an man power love to have some of the old equipment as yard decoration cool stuff as always be safe
Dam glad to see you back.
isnt that a steam engine?
Sure you know this already, but the presence of frogs is a good indicator for clean water, as amphibians are particularly sensitive to pollution.. What a great video. Very interesting. Cheers
I really enjoy your videos. May I suggest that you leave the texts-notes a little longer? I never have time to entirely read most of them and need to stop the video often times so that I can catch what’s written while not missing anything in the video. Merci 🙂
Is there an update , on this mine with a rafter ??
Shout out to the gold Rush 💯👊
You should of spent 30 minutes with a shovel at the opening. Bet you could have drained that water down quite a bit.
I down know your background so ill give you the benefit of the doubt, but i work in an underground mine in canada and i can tell you mines are dangerous especially abandoned ones with no support whatsoever. The ceiling on this one, from what i could see, look surprisingly solid but even that can be deceiving. Truth is you dont know what part is solid until you do at least sone rudimentary scanning. Basically there is not enough money in the world for me to go in there so i really hope you guys know what you are doing but earring you talk i dont think you do and i dont like that (btw sorry for my writing english is my 2nd language)
Should have taken a gold pan down to that little stream in that mine!!!
Frank, we are hitting up locations big time up here in the Sierra area in Tuolumne county in Sonora, CA right by Jamestown where it all hit in 1849. We will be exploring under Washington street mines that travel all the way to the cowboy town Columbia several miles worth. Also massive Caverns atleast 150 ft of lime rock gutted out and an emerald green lagoon, plus swiss cheese of holes everywhere. message me if you want or I can give my new channel name if you want to see what were up to lately.
So a couple of months back. Me and a couple others were in France. And we were exploring a ww2 cave and it was quite big. You probably haven’t heard about it https://images.app.goo.gl/gh9PRawZ4xuFZtb78 <= one of the cave entrances
Maybe something like snowshoes would keep you on top of the silt.
If you found gold in there, would you have taken some of it?
Hi Drew
What im wondering watching all these videos of yours is: do you sometimes have the urge to take old stuff with you? Or do you keep everything as is and just explore. Wondering because some stuff you find in there is pretty cool.
You are a long way from Northern California.🤔
may have been fun with a small kayak!
The history of the Pine Tree/Josephine Mine and its founder John C. Freemont is now up!
Very interesting videos. Really kool to watch. What is the head room in these mines?
The compressor(s) and wench were steam powered then?
Arent there also dangerous chemicals in that water?
Have you found any flooded mines in California that you can possible dive?
I work on a US aircraft carrier, and Ingersoll Rand makes our compressors, too.
Bushwhack, haha! I was not gonna comment.. 10:19 what striped the bark here? I feel like I am stalking you, but these mines are fascinating! do you see how some mountains can be made by men? That massive waste piles you speak of and show is the proof.
Yall need Frank the crazy Canadian dude, he would have dug out a channel and drained the mine lol
Y did u not grab some gold
I have this dream every year where my mom drives me to this mountain with my friends at night and we explore these abandoned sewer tunnels that leads to a giant gave and this looks exactly like it
Anyone else here looking for ghosts?
White stuff was probably bacteria
Like to mention all the poison oak around the opening.
How often do you guys run into rattlesnakes in these mines? Just found your channel. 😁
At the entrance, that looks like poison oak. I explode when exposed. That’s why I love Nevada.
Who came here from tiktok
Looking down the flooded tunnel gives me horror movie vibes
How do you find these mines? I want to begin responsibly exploring them but am having a hard time finding them.
I would have brought a small shovel with me or a dredge just sucked all the group out
Wow.. that’s awesome. Where is this at??