Mines Like This Aren't Supposed To Be In California

Mines Like This Aren't Supposed To Be In California

The title of this video is a nod to those that say that all of the abandoned mines in Southern California have been sealed up by the government or plundered by “collectors” to the point that they are just featureless holes in the ground… They have not. And the impressive mine in this video is proof of that, despite abandoned mines like this not supposedly not existing in Southern California anymore. These abandoned mines are not unicorns. They are still out there. Yes, one must work much harder to find them now in such places, but they are still out there. We can only marvel at the golden age of mine exploring in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when such abandoned mines were everywhere…

For a mine of this size, there is surprisingly little information available on it. Part of this is due to the fact that, unlike states such as Nevada or Arizona that have digitized their archives and made them available to the public, California has done nothing with their historical archives other than make them extremely difficult to access. Many of them are in Sacramento, but others are scattered across the state and one must be credentialed to simply review them in many instances. Naturally, even if any of them have been digitized, none of these have been made widely accessible to the public. It’s California. What can I say?

However, even with the obstacles presented by the Golden State taken into account, there is still surprisingly little information available on this mine. Once you’ve seen how large and impressive this mine is, I think you’ll agree that that is somewhat odd.

What I have uncovered seems to indicate that this was primarily a lead and silver mine, with copper, gold and zinc also being present in small, but rich quantities. Works appears to have started in the early 1900s and continued into the 1950s.

Credit for the discovery of this site goes to Mine Explorers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxhNU-gNyPq2lXA7JhLB90Q)

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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. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind… These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.

So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

#ExploringAbandonedMines
#MineExploring
#AbandonedMines
#UndergroundMineExploring

50 Comments

  1. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    stop the video at 30.05 where he says a stope here and shows the little cut out hole see that brown tree structure looks just like wood dont it

  2. danmbogosian on October 7, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    What was that thing moving across the wall at around :43?

  3. Nathaniel Anderson on October 7, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    If I was with you, I would have a metal detector and some digging tools. I would try to come out of there with something.

  4. Ginger Bread on October 7, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    Love all of your videos. How is the mine coming along. Thank you

  5. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    everything unnatural died in the great flood and turned to stone if you would have told me that 5 years ago i would have thought you were crazy but the evidence way outweighs all the lies

  6. James Coburn on October 7, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    That’s a very cool riveted drum.

  7. Steven Church on October 7, 2021 at 12:18 pm

    Looked like a lot of gold bearing ore in there

  8. Tarro Jones on October 7, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    Dude you need to check any pairs of pants you see if they are levi jeans they can go for 10s to over 100 thousand if they are in good condition. And btw They would have been a spare pair of pants they had to change into.. well worth checking tho and the pockets too.. I wish I was in 🇺🇸 to go looking in mines like this ours are all wet or even most are floaded cuz it rains so much in the 🇬🇧

  9. ontheedge33371 on October 7, 2021 at 12:19 pm

    Great mine and I always enjoy your videos .

    I wonder if someday trees used to make the huge beams and other woodworkings will be so rare people will start dragging the wood out of mines to actually use in building ? Seems like some of it is in perfect condition. 🤷🏻‍♂️
    Oh and that United States Geological Survey (USGS) gravity was done in the year I was born 🙂
    Thanks again for showing us these cool places !

  10. Nathaniel Anderson on October 7, 2021 at 12:20 pm

    It looks like they filled up the back of that tunnel to prevent people from going any further.

  11. Carlos Castaneda on October 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    is this over in Julian Ca?

  12. Autumn Underwood on October 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    BLUE RIBBON QUARTZ gold bearing rock in California. Are you any where by Mariposa?

  13. Michelle G on October 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    Frightful to say the least!

  14. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    and notice the end when you look down in the pit all that is wood structure petrified wood alot of it retains the brown wood color

  15. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:23 pm

    watch my uuuuuuuuuu video play list and telll me giant trees dont exist

  16. Cocky-Harry on October 7, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    I have no idea how the hell you don’t get lost . I can’t do this at all I’m a sun person and I need sun to be happy lol

  17. Moon Cabbage on October 7, 2021 at 12:25 pm

    Vericose veins, just what I always wanted

  18. Jane Prescott on October 7, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    I wonder if that is the tunnel for cero gordo silver union mine, in California, the new owner is looking for it

  19. Ridgecrest Wack on October 7, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    You obviously haven’t been in a lot of california mines, not to disrespect but i could show you at least 8 mines right around where i live that are just as extensive as that

  20. D H on October 7, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    Its cool and i say it better you than me but i wouldn’t go in there without a canary and some type of filtering for my breaths of air !!! 🎭🦜

  21. Mike Bettencourt on October 7, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    Amazing. Hauled that tank in the mine

  22. greenspiraldragon on October 7, 2021 at 12:31 pm

    California was gold rush central there are mines all over california. 32:01 sump full of water.

  23. Ricardo García on October 7, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    Qué clase de minerales producía esa mina.

  24. LShax on October 7, 2021 at 12:32 pm

    Curious how you avoid/watch out for gasses while exploring mines? Do you have tricks or things to look for?

  25. Johnson Doe on October 7, 2021 at 12:35 pm

    What do you guys look for?

  26. Steven Church on October 7, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    Did it drop to the waterline down there?

  27. Derek Mccollum on October 7, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    Mines like that re all over California

  28. Ryan Kiemele on October 7, 2021 at 12:40 pm

    Can we get a city? I ride dirt bikes in the deserts of SoCal. Constantly looking for some

  29. Nathaniel Anderson on October 7, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    There is gold in that black rock.

  30. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:43 pm

    notices the white on the walls thats what they follow

  31. joe Doyle on October 7, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    Growing up in California gold country I’ve explored a few mines over the years but nothing as vast as this. Thanks for sharing 👍

  32. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    they figured out the earth was really covered with giant petrified trees like myself recently so they mined the shit out of them . turn to stone

  33. robinandjenn owens on October 7, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    Dude, those pants could have been a vintage pair of Levi’s worth a lot of money. I was watching a different YouTube channel of mine explorer’s that came across several pair of vintage Levi’s from late 1800’s that where a shit ton of money!! 100s of thousands.

  34. Steven Gill on October 7, 2021 at 12:50 pm

    Brings back so many memories….used to explore mines all over the southwest
    This one looks a little like one of the Darwin mines, but could be anywhere.
    I started at Candelaria, NV in 1969 and kept it up until the early 80s. My friends were climbers, so we’d happily use ropes and Jumars to tackle vertical shafts. No digi cameras in those days, too bad. But those guys that bought the Cerro Gordo property? We hit the upper levels of that place in 1974 – nice Smithsonite! Speaking of which, you might throw the rockhounds a few seconds on the minerals involved, they’d love it. Cheers…

  35. Rembrandt Shadows on October 7, 2021 at 12:50 pm

    Strange Adventures of a Girl Tramp was published in True Confessions magazine, 1925.

  36. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:54 pm

    this cave you can see some one went back in and chipped the walls looking for something? gold modern two by fours

  37. Lazlo on October 7, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    January 1925 Issue of True Confessions magazine had this Girl Tramp article in it. Anyone who says it’s from 1914, Googled it up and took the first result which references a book called, "The Adventures of a Female Tramp" which isn’t the same title nor the same format that this article is in. No doubt back in the day it would have been considered taboo or racy reading material because the stories usually involved women, $ex, and other clandestine activities.

  38. JOHN on October 7, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    is mine gta 5

  39. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:56 pm

    lets get a few things straight giant petrified trees cover the earth to many facts now to dispute . fact erbody they all still want gold and its higher than ever ever

  40. Shogun9hr Jeffrey Allen on October 7, 2021 at 12:57 pm

    Hell yeah! This is a Crazy mine. But they are in California. You every come up to French Gulch I would love to explore a mine with you..

  41. Tom Stanley on October 7, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    all the different colors you see in the caves is from leaching minerals of giant petrified trees minerals make clear, white stone of many colors and coal and gold the gold is always near the clear and white

  42. Jane Prescott on October 7, 2021 at 12:59 pm

    The omega is supposed to bring direct access to mine

  43. David Weast on October 7, 2021 at 1:00 pm

    Is there a way to look this mine up or find it’s coordinates on a map?

  44. Antonious Autodidacticasaurus on October 7, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    Did you notice the split through that pillar at 7:32

  45. Ed Two on October 7, 2021 at 1:04 pm

    Am I the only one who’s upset that he didn’t take the pants some of those minor clothes like the jeans and the pants especially sell for thousands of dollars

  46. 8armdevil on October 7, 2021 at 1:07 pm

    Dude the gimble is really paying off. Its so nice to see everything so smoothly and without excess shake/noise. Thanks for the great video!

  47. denyse jeanville on October 7, 2021 at 1:09 pm

    uuuhhmmm….at 6:48 there is what looks like a skull center bottom of screen, do you see it?

  48. Nathaniel Anderson on October 7, 2021 at 1:09 pm

    The green in the rock suggests that there is copper ore in this mine.

  49. Rusty The Raver on October 7, 2021 at 1:10 pm

    Who ever did this mine did some really good construction! not falling apart like most i see….

  50. Yoel Quevedo on October 7, 2021 at 1:11 pm

    anyone knows where this is ive only been to big horn mine

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