Lost Gold Mines Of The Sierras
Lost Gold Mines Of The Sierras
The brief explanation in the introduction didn’t really do the process of our discovery of this lost gold mine justice… So, for those with longer attention spans that take the time to read the description, here is some more detail for you: This started out as what I would best describe as a “speculative” mine exploring day. We had no specific destination in mind, but wanted to revisit a very old mining district in California that has been kind to us in the past. We weren’t in a rush and were simply venturing down ravines and across old mine workings that we had not explored before. One can actually see a number of interesting things when looking around these historic mining districts – we saw old bottles, bits and pieces of antique mining equipment, the remains of old miner’s cabins…
We stopped for lunch beneath the shade of a thick overhang of trees and brush and, while we were eating, we noticed the remains of a rock wall covered by the brush. Well, naturally, this piqued our curiosity and so when we finished eating, we pushed through the thick brush and discovered that the “rock wall” was actually the support for a trail cut into the side of a cliff rising above us. The interesting thing about this trail is that one literally had to be on it before being able to properly see it and to follow it.
Well, naturally, we started following the trail, which twisted higher and higher up the steep cliffs. We could see that animals had been using the trail, but there was no sign of any recent human activity at all – no modern trash, no branches cut back, no signs of old campfires… Nothing. After a long, sweaty, strenuous climb up, the trail abruptly ended at a landing created out of carefully stacked boulders and leveled out with fine dirt. This landing is completely invisible from the valley below and, in hindsight, is likely the terminus for the tram system employed by the miners. At the time, however, we did not know this.
So, we continued in the general direction that the trail had been trending. After literally crawling through the thick brush, dodging a rattlesnake and struggling to maintain our balance on the steep cliffs for about fifteen minutes, we were about to call it when we happened to spot some quartz through the thick brush. We made our way over to this quartz and discovered that it was fractured and had tumbled down from above. Well, in our experience, fractured rock is often waste rock from a mine. This was enough to send us charging straight up the steep hillside that the quartz had tumbled down and, sure enough, before long, we were slipping and sliding on the loose rock of a massive waste rock pile.
It was an old waste rock pile and so it had trees and brush growing all over it, but it was undoubtedly a waste rock pile. We soon began to additional encouragement from the waste rock pile in the form of old riveted ventilation pipes, pieces of a stamp mill, pieces of rail and countless other bits of unidentifiable metal that had been tossed down it. Scrambling up a rock pile covered in loose leaves and pine needles that is on a step slope is very much a case of 2 steps forward and 1.99 back!
What can I tell you about this mine other than what you saw in this video? Absolutely nothing… It is a phantom that doesn’t exist according to every database and map resource I have examined (and I have been doing this for a while, so I am pretty good at digging things like this up). I went even deeper by asking very knowledgeable local historians and miners that I trust and they all indicated that no mines are in the area where this mine is located. The lost gold mine remains a mystery.
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All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically.
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L
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.
So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring
Amazing that there is no history available on this mine, it was a serious works when in production. It took a lot of capital and a lot of men to keep this mine going.
Hi Justin I just haven’t said much lately but I still can’t believe you’re luck lately with finding some great mines. You are going through some beautiful places. Can’t wait to see what you find next. Keep it up !
My guess (as a retired mining engineer and minerologist) is that the main quartz vein was too hi temp to have very good gold values. The gold will be found in the orange limonite and in the contact zone between the vein and the wall rock.
The pay was there but it took huge effort to get sufficient tonnage much of the time.
Thank you for stopping to talk about the actual stone and geology. So many mine explorers just skate by all the fascinating rocks and oxide stains. I love the slow pans you did there sometimes. I can’t wait to see one of you explorers discover the 360 camera rigs that shoot in 4k and catch all the action around your head from front to back. It’s good stuff.
At the 12:35 mark I began to wonder where they put all the dirt they dugout. The mountainside must surely have been covered with it in some manner, but vegetation probably made it invisible.
The screen studdering may be because of the framerate dropping from over compression. Or maybe the camera was overheating. Sometimes the older cameras would get hot and the A2D converters would drop frames. I also had it happen when I didn’t get Adobe’s settings just right and Youtube would screw up the import.
Your camera work is beautiful. It may just be me, but is there any chance that your camera his on some kind of hand held gyroscopic thingy? Because I feel the smoothness of panning as if by hand but then there are some like jerking as if a machine was adjusting. Sorry for long comment, easily my favorite mine explorer, especially your way of showing back where you came from. I cant explain how important that is for me. Thank you so much for your work.
Great video my friend. I enjoyed all of it!
The water in these old sulfide mines is usually sulfuric acid , that’s what causes wood to look black. In quartz deposits, arsenopyrite can make mine seepage a real problem.
Absolutely incredible find! gorgeous mine
One of the cast components you look at early on at the compressor mount is almost certainly part of a sliding valve assembly for a steam engine.
Astounding! What a surreptitious discovery. Thank you for the completely captivating and thorough exploration. Well done.
Is it claimable? Let’s be miners!
That was not just a couple of miners. That had to have been a good size crew to do that much in hard rock. Amazing that there is no record of it considering the number of people it would take to make something that large.
I love the look the dog gives you guys! Lol!
The workings of that site must be fairly extensive….given the amount of equipment and development of that location, there must certainly be more to find.
Did you ever find the lower portal to the flooded addit?
29:44 thats a doorway to the underground city where the inner earth earth beings live
Maybe get a laser rangefinder to shoot up into the stopes to see how high they go
Awesome mine!
did anyone search frank trunnel 1933?
Acorns in old mine shafts were used to burn for light and also Bengali very little smoke, but they burn a long time when they’re dried out when they’re green. I smoke like crazy. They use them for different things. To see which way the air was flowing they would burn green ones. 4 light they would burn dry ones the oil in them keeps on burning for a long time.
We had to watch this again. Very good video. Thank you. Hope you had a great thanksgiving. Thanks again.
Wow! Now that is a great find!! Thank you for taking us along.
Without a doubt, the best abandoned mine tour ever!
Gratitude.
The water looks like it has copper in it. Maybe it’s silver.
Granite and quartz could off been a diamond mine .
this mine still has money in the bank…who owns it and the mineral rights?
I keep expecting gollum to jump out saying "give us back the precious" 😂
1.09.30 at time in video is a jack leg
14:33 looks like something is hunched down looking at you
Maybe you found the Dutchman’s lost mine lol
Great Video Sir. the mine is cool
Just a note to the authors. There is a huge demand for pre-1945 steel or iron. No radioactive isotopes…. You could support your channel with scrap sales. just sayin’…..
Is there pyrite there too? I’m curious about the yellowish rocks in there and there’s apparently often pyrite (and some related minerals). But also could be some forms of organic material (lychen toes?). Damn I wish I could see for myself the minerals, rocks and biology in these places and take samples.
I love the mineral veins in this mine. What do you think of women coming in? I’d love to do this stuff. Some of the tighter squeezes I’d avoid though (not short ones but long passages, my claustrophobia can cope with shorter squeezes).
I’m sadly joking about inviting myself. I’m too far away and dunno anyone who’d take me in the UK. I’ll enjoy the videos and dream.
You need to find someone with a confined space diving cert to bring with for these, would be awesome to see what’s going on at the bottom.
You guys gotta grab some samples . There has to be something in that quartz squeezed overhead along that sloped fault..
Great find. Those old timers really work in that mine
Don’t walk across those shaky debris piles! Can’t watch. Have to leave!
You should create a documentary and write a book to preserve all this great history(unless you are already doing so)
Awesome find! One of your best videos.
In this group there’s always some one who has to get ahead of all the rest of every one else just so he can discover it first. Man that isn’t no one to take along the next time.
That thing grown into the tree is a carrage to bucket line. That means no tram. But a cable line system. Many mines used them.
Because where are the tailings? Did they crysh or haul.
All the water that is in all these mines makes you wonder where all the water would be if the mines weren’t around. That would really be a lot of water.
Cool video. I been down in many mines in Nevada County, California . Glad the bears did not eat you.
Do you think that ancient aliens left the writing on the walls?
1:09 sasquatch rt side. Hand above it’s head. 1:45 btm rt head in the brush pile
Many amazing features in this mine. My biggest curiosity is the fault line. They didn’t appear to be uncommon to you. Is this a common feature in these mines?
A dangerous place. But I did see drifts with drill holes for blasting. I was a hard rock uranium miner. That an old air powered drill. The drills were very heavy. Thus you would hang your drill with the anchors and drill your hole and blast away. You would also pump in fresh air or run your air hoses on the wall anchors. Brings back many memories.
If I can make a suggestion, you could really improve the things you try to point out if you had a laser pointer.
what state is this in
Pristine condition hope it stays that way thanks for the journey into the earth twas very interesting Cheers from Jacksonville Florida
Considering the size and shape of the iron/steel bits on the platforms, and knowing they were pulling quartz out of that mine, that’s probably the remains of a stamp mill, where the quartz was crushed into powder.