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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You should bring a canoe next time, now that would be fun!
Yah there is a lot of mines here in mariposa. The copper mines are amazing in Raymond. Most mines here are not flooded but there are big drops
ola vengo de un video de dross :’u
White stuff was probably bacteria
There was something behind the door and the door was moving
If you found gold in there, would you have taken some of it?
isnt that a steam engine?
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.
I wonder if using a RV boat, or a small drone, with a camera would be a viable way to see behind the door.
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.
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)
Shout out to the gold Rush 💯👊
Dam glad to see you back.
I would have brought a small shovel with me or a dredge just sucked all the group out
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 🙂
Looking down the flooded tunnel gives me horror movie vibes
How often do you guys run into rattlesnakes in these mines? Just found your channel. 😁
Anyone else here looking for ghosts?
I work on a US aircraft carrier, and Ingersoll Rand makes our compressors, too.
You are a long way from Northern California.🤔
The compressor(s) and wench were steam powered then?
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
Yall need Frank the crazy Canadian dude, he would have dug out a channel and drained the mine lol
Aparentemente sou o único Brasileiro aqui 😂😂😂
Arent there also dangerous chemicals in that water?
How do you find these mines? I want to begin responsibly exploring them but am having a hard time finding them.
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.
Not sure why you didn’t have waders, but still cool nonetheless lol
Hi Drew
Very interesting videos. Really kool to watch. What is the head room in these mines?
Have you found any flooded mines in California that you can possible dive?
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.
At the entrance, that looks like poison oak. I explode when exposed. That’s why I love Nevada.
Maybe something like snowshoes would keep you on top of the silt.
Wow.. that’s awesome. Where is this at??
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
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
Who came here from tiktok
4:55 is that
You should of spent 30 minutes with a shovel at the opening. Bet you could have drained that water down quite a bit.
Two dudes being bros. Pretty cool
Should have taken a gold pan down to that little stream in that mine!!!
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’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 have a 300+yr old gold mine 30 minutes north of me here in new england
Y did u not grab some gold
This guy is the nicest explorer ever
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!
Is there an update , on this mine with a rafter ??