How Deep is 'Deep Enough'? Unearthing a Silver Mine’s Past

Описание: This was a silver and lead mine and the discovery date for the rich ore deposit was 1875. Mining commenced immediately and continued into the 1890s. The ore body at this now abandoned mine was alluring enough to entice the famed mining investor and father of William Randolph Hearst, George Hearst, into buying in to the operation. This mine was the principal mine in the district, but not the only one. When other silver deposits were discovered nearby, an entire town sprang up to support the mining operations.

The adit we explored in this video is reported to have punched back for 1800 feet and there are supposed to be 2000 feet of drifts on this level. The vertical raise we saw (the one lined with wood) is said to run up for 560 feet to connect to the level above.

I’ll discuss the upper workings more when I publish the next video in this series (probably sometime in the spring or summer). It is not often that we find levels in a mine that are untouched and unseen since the 1800s, but this mine delivered to an extreme! And, thankfully, the extremely dry conditions preserved everything perfectly...

The book I referenced at the end of the video are the memoirs of Frank Crampton and they can be found here:

https://amzn.to/3DSlawu

Born into a wealthy New York family, Crampton ran away from home in 1904 at the age of sixteen and, as one does, he headed west… What followed was a lifetime of adventures that took him through all of the key mining camps and mines of California, Nevada, Arizona and others where Crampton worked as everything from a miner to an assayer to an engineer. Frank Crampton was a great writer and, fortunately for us, was present for many significant historical events, such as the great earthquake in San Francisco. It is fascinating to read his take on these events. The book reads like a novel and one doesn’t need to know anything about mining to thoroughly enjoy the adventures and great stories packed into the pages of the book. It remains one of the all-time favorite books of every member of the TVR crew and I strongly recommend you pick up a copy for yourself.

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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

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, we're 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 the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mines 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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