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
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.
You guys gotta grab some samples . There has to be something in that quartz squeezed overhead along that sloped fault..
Those bones look very similar to a human clavicle, part of the scapula and a rib, all adult.
This seems like a very substantial mine to be completely undocumented. Great find!
If this mine is as old as you think it is…and as old as it looks from the flow stone over that drawing…the early crew may have been Welsh miners.
@36:10 is a pretty classic tommyknocker drawing.
Lots of minerals showing – find out who owns the claim – try to work out a deal and then start a new gold mining company – you can raise money on the Over the Counter Board – Pink Sheets = then you have to start Diamond Drilling to map what is hidden . Trust the Plan – I worked underground drilling/blasting from 1968- 2010 . This old mine has great potential = GOOD LUCK
Yes it did assa out good I have a piece of Quarts with a half inch thick piece of gold all the way through it
incredible, beautiful mine just forgotten like that, congrats on finding it!
No wonder there were fires all over out there li$tento the crunch in those leaves …do not strike. Not even 1 match .
That was a huge bolt…. the question is …what kind of force bent it….?
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.
Ever. Use. A. Gold. Detector
thats not fault on the right its still the same color as the tree was you are in
The mine looks as if it could be thousands of years old, with dry stone walls and roads everywhere something ancient is going on here when you look past the stuff the last miners left behind.
I bet there is still a lot of gold left in there
note that very big bolt is bent!
No signs of wood, just rock and steel. Maybe a fire went through that area?
Hey Guy Could u of found Lost Dutchman ?
It was hidden in the Sierra no one couldn’t find it had massive veins of Quartz Stone just curious would be cool if it was??
29:44 thats a doorway to the underground city where the inner earth earth beings live
Absolutely insane find! 👍👍👍
giant tree structure i can tell by just the colors alone at the very entrance
What A Awesome Find
Please explain what a whinz is? Im no miner, but I love this stuff.
wow when yall keep looking up into the stopes and i keep seeing these rounded pillars . did you ever look at fire wood where a limb comes out from tree that’s what those are pine trees especially
gold is what $1.775,6 ounce
i just wonder what the tons of gold would have been that came out of some of these . cha chiiiiiiing $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The word is "scat"…….lol
so do they have maps of these tunnels and do thy look like a tree ? some of them ?
what state is this in
its just alll quarts through here yeah yeah the s where the gold is was
31:25 Frank Ray Trunnels died January 11,1984. He was 78 years old. Born April 15, 1905. Buried in St.Angels Camp, CA. at Altaville Protestant cemetery.
I don’t know jack about mining, but you sure the hell have me interested & i don’t know any of your terminology that you are using, but you make it easy to understand you & what you are saying, i just subscribed to your channel & I’m a forever subscriber, i think that what you are doing is amazing & awesome & i will watch as many of your posts as i can & lean about what you’re doing, thanks for sharing
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
Wow! Now that is a great find!! Thank you for taking us along.
The water looks like it has copper in it. Maybe it’s silver.
It is the lost dutchman gold mine I know where it is and I am going to be there in July or August of 2021
At 30:20 I heard intense sniffing behind you and I thought it was your friend and then I saw the dog after that 😂🤣
Awesome
These old mines all the hard work has been done, gold is in these old mines .
Clutch plate
Amazing find!!! Thanks for leaving everything as is. Thanks for sharing!!
So apparently the bear does … 🙂
Hundreds of men who are long dead and forgotten worked in this mountain. And for what?
Jesus Christ is Lord
14:33 looks like something is hunched down looking at you
probably a fairly large level below, but now flooded .
GREAT GREAT VIDEO
ok the water is still down there watering the roots the bibles says that the water came from the ground .and it never rained before that
I don’t understand why you guys don’t do some sampling: you’ve got the water all you would need to do is pack in a pan and pan it out