Driving out to explore this iconic abandoned tungsten mine can put some hurt on your vehicle… However, it is a great mine and a great place to camp. So, what’s a little damage to a truck for a good cause, right? It’s just a truck.
In this video, we’re entering the adit at the 400 level and running beneath the shafts that I’ll show you later when we hike to the upper workings. In other words, the underground workings that you’re seeing in this video (and future videos) are the haulage level. If you’re not sure what that means, the miners would use gravity to drop the tungsten ore in the stopes overhead down to this level and then haul it out. Of course, some ore was lifted up to this haulage level as well, but that is more labor intensive and so, if they have the option, miners prefer to drop heavy ore down than to haul heavy ore up.
It would have been impressive to see the aerial tramway carrying the tungsten ore down the canyon to the mill. So, I’m sorry that the tramway is gone.
As I mentioned when we were flying around in the introduction, the majority of the mining activity at this mine was completed by the end of the 1930s, but production of tungsten ore continued under various operators all of the way until 1956 when the mine closed for good.
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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: [ Ссылка ]
You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: [ Ссылка ] and here: [ Ссылка ]
Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.
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.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
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