Hidden False Floors In A Flooded Mine? No Worries…
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Getting into this mine was a bit sporty as I had no idea if those rails were even still connected and for how long that deep pit below the false floor ran. Would the rotten boards in the false floor even support the rails I was carefully sliding my boots across on? That one took a lot of concentration and involved a lot of uncertainty…
The question of what happens if I were to fall into the freezing mine water with the waders and all of the heavy mine exploring gear remains unanswered. I have clung to the idea that I would, hopefully, be able to kick off the waders as they were filling with water and starting to drag me under the water. However, that is merely speculation on my part… Even if I didn’t drown, I would undoubtedly lose thousands of dollars of mine exploring gear - the camera, lights, gas meter, etc. So, perhaps needless to say, I am not keen to learn what happens should I take a plunge into the black waters.
I suppose I should continue with apologies… This footage is from a little over three years ago. For some reason, I was filling my speech gaps with “uhhh” at that time I was videoing and this was killing me when I was editing the video. So, I am sorry for that. I don’t know where I picked this up, but it seems like I was doing it for several months. At least you’ll know how old any videos where you hear me doing that are.
I apologize as well for not engaging as much with the comments recently. October really threw a lot at me and I can only hope that November is an easier month. I love all of you - well, most of you - and I don’t want you to think that my being distant in the comments recently is representative of a lack of interest in you or appreciation for you.
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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: bit.ly/2wqcBDD
As well as a small gear update here: bit.ly/2p6Jip6
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: 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, 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. 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
What always strikes me about mines like this, is the sheer depth of them, and the absolutely enormous amount of back breaking hard work that must have gone into clearing out so much stone. After blasting, every bit of that stone would need to be lifted into mine carts and shovelled up.
It is indeed an incredible amount of work...
In the old days a pick and big mussels no boom boom it wasn't a thing beck then 😂.
Ok very few did this but those are the truly unique ones to explore.
My first summer after high school I worked for the Barre Montpelier R R. One day a full time worker (1/4 ) brought in a small chunk of quartz with bits of gold in it a relative had purloined from a Canadian gold mine. My boss and I preceded to destroy every piece of quartz we found alongside the track which led us to go out in search of gold after hours. We panned a number of prime locations in some small creeks and never found even a tiny speck of gold. Years later I learned that panning with grease covered pans (from my bosses kitchen) would never yield anything! Great memories.
cuse the grease wont allow the gold to stick and will let it slide of along with the water ? big oof
@@ghostmarine3608 It doesn't really "stick" in the first place, it just doesn't come out as easily because it's much heavier. So I have no idea what the greasy pan are supposed to do (or not do).
@@Sibula it's a for of mechanical separation, I think the bigger issue would be all proper panning gear has small ridges to break up the movement of particles. it's not perfectly smooth. But in part it's also about knowing how to swish the slurry around in whatever pan you're using. I do have to wonder what shape this was though... a skillet or saucepan? yeah... no.. a wok might work Honestly a dinner plate is better than a skillet from what I heard.
Wear a chest belt over those waders.Most waders come with a belt. I've fallen by losing my footing in icy rivers while salmon fishing and only took a little bit of water past the belt.Sometimes its hard to regain your footing on slimy rocks and fast water but didn't get wet to my waist.The belt has to be tight to work.
Agreed however this requires immense concentration to then .... not fart.!😂😂
Good idea for gold panning in the winter as well in very cold water.
Belt or not, a safety knife is a absolute must to have at hand when wading. You allways have som air in the waders, so you can end up upside down and drown
@@Secret_Squirrel_Scottishgamer Farting in belted waders could help to inflate his waders so that he becomes buoyant and no longer has to fear sinking. 🤔
@@D4CR33P3R Hmm what fish would you catch if you used a human sized fart float!..hmm
Really do enjoy you dragging us along, thank you for the extra effort you go through doing it. All the best for your continued success.
Weekly dose of TVR! 40 minute episode on my morning off. Perfect
This is an incredible mine! Once again, kudos and many thanks for venturing deep into the bowels of these forgotten, watery caverns to document these exciting places. It's interesting to think that mines like this were once buzzing with men who had hopes and dreams like us. Back then the allure of wealth was the draw, and today it is the pursuit of beauty and discovery of the unknown.
That pile of dilapidated dynamite was a rare and interesting find, wow! Anyway, stay safe out there, and keep up the great work!
Before I start the video...
Justin - you don't have to apologize for anything. Life happens. We all know that. In addition, you don't owe us anything, so just don't worry about it. 👍
OK - on to the video! 😁
Thank you.
That orange slime on the walls could actually be alive - iron and sulfur bacteria both live in the mineral rich waters of old mines. If you put some of that limonite slime under a microscope, you'd see strands like filamentous algae....look up iron bacteria, or lithotrophic organisms (lide forms that eat rock?). Is it OK to post URLs here? I googled "what organisms grow in old abandoned mines", and holy kitty cats, where there's water there's lots!
There’s is the possibility of falling in the water and getting caught on something underneath not good, definitely better to stay dry. Another great video.
Thanks Justin I thought that was never gonna end. Ya know if you think back forty or fifty years and beyond they put a lot of effort in. The last mine I was in was in seventy 78-9 and it was cut spiral in a spiral 2.5 klms deep it lasted ten years. It was for Tin, Sync, and they reckoned they were pulling about an Once of Gold per 5 ton. Its now a compacted garbage tip. Stay safe my friend.👍
Thanks, once again, for taking us places we would otherwise never see [ or fail to tread ] Just stay safe guys. Best regards from Oz.
Uh, that was a wet, dark, slippery mine. Liked the iron oxides coming out of the bottom of the ribs. Nice job. Would be cool to drop a go pro down into the winzes to see how far they go. The poobic hair growth was fascinating on the timbers as well. It's funny when we're editing our videos and the repetitive words we say sometimes. So dark in those drifts swallowed the light right up. Great explore Justin.
Very nice explore thanks for taking me on the journey keep the excellent content coming
You can buy laser tape measures that would work for measuring the stopes, might be worth a shot
Regarding your comment about rail being removed - If you see rail missing at the far end of the mine, it was likely taken up by the miners for re-use elsewhere. Another clue is if the curved sections were left behind - you can't really straighten out the rail once it has been bent into a curve, so there is no use for it and it is left in place. The miners take the rail up from the furthest point and work their way back toward the entrance. That way they can pile the rail up on flat cars instead of having to carry it out by hand. If the rail is missing starting at the entrance but is still in place further in, that is the work of metal thieves.
A Pox on all Methbillies!!!
The public hair stuff and the vines growing in the deep water were very weird. Almost scarey movie weird. The faults are cool. You can sure see how earth quakes could happen ..thanks for taking us along
Lol That's funny... To all of you wondering Florida does not have mountains the only ones they do have are made of trash at the dump
Crazy! You just never know how big a mine is or what you will find. That glove was insane! Let alone, all of the crazy growths.
36:39 That drill steel is a one piece, factory made older type. The newer ones have threads so the actual cutting head can be removed and replaced in situ. Earlier miners used simple steel rods and kept sharpening them. Then came the cemented carbide cutters (like the picture). Carbide almost tripled the speed of drilling a hole, plus lasting much longer.
Makes you wonder how they even got all that heavy equipment there in the first place... that boiler and gear was huge.
Cool stuff ! 👍
Old photos have some mule teams hauling equipment with 40 plus teams pulling loads up the mountains really amazing history.
Block and tackle up mountains pop used them to lift staggering weights. Some were there's photos of the first auto crossing of the USA lowing and raising cars with block and tackle.
An Olympia beer can!
An OLD Olympia beer can... I would say that dates to the early 70s maybe even the late 60s.
One, the can is tin, not aluminum.
Two, it has the old tear-off style pull-tab. They cut so many feet, and there was rumors of people having swallowed them from putting them inside the can. They were outlawed and a new design was made.
The next design had push buttons. These were just two raises in the can with scoring cut around them... no lever.
Then as now, the government had a tendency to mandate things before they were perfected, and so the new push-button can Lids worked about as well as Generation 1 airbags....
As soon as they poped you got hit in the face with it.
Which brings us up to today's cans. So today when your can screws up, and the lever comes off before your can is completely open, just remember where we came from. Sprayed in the face, cutting our fingers on push-button rims, and our heels on pull tabs.
My dad drank Olympia (for the lumber jack in him, lol) & we had the lit up Olympia beer sign in our LR...not considered tacky at the time. Thanks for the flashback, I was just a kid & remember those things.
Does that make me old, that can' had to be (tin/steel) opened with a v shaped tool (bottles the other end of the tool) and it was pretty cool when you no longer needed that tool. In a pinch a screwdrive or knife, whitch was hard on the edge and maybe fingers.
@Trash Panda I have a old biermister sign in my home brewery I would be stoked to find a old Olympia sign
Thanks for the vid Justin. Always just happy to see the notification come up. That shot of the timber gallery reminds me of parts of your mine. Hope your November fairs better than your October. Stay safe.
Thank you very much. Yes, October was one of the worst months I've experienced in quite a long time. I lost several close family members. It's curious how death seems to come in waves...
They sure didn't like going in straight lines in that mine, lol.
It's amazing how the miners got such huge timbers so far into the mine!
Lot's of artifacts in this mine! The decomposing dynamite were beautiful and core samples that were wet which shows off the stone nicely. Thanks for the ride! And I was wondering where you were, but the Olympia Beer helped with the rough location.
Great video Thanks for another Mine searched and documented classic.
That humongous bag of degrading dynamite is a super cool find!
Very cool explore, like the formations on the core samples,how cool is that👍 thanks for sharing, always a full view🙂
You must feel beat after this adventure!
Thanks for documenting this adventure.
I did!
I love when caves/mines are in levels going up and/or down, my buddy and I explored one cave and on the way out we were looking at the entrance, but it was 50 feet above our heads, we had to back track and move up a level to be at the exit level.
If there was a medal for mine exploration, you'd win Gold!
Thank you.
You should take a handheld black light in mines. I bet you'll find some cool surprises. :)
That wagon-top boiler and steam wench are in really good shape! Ah, the benefits of a dry climate!
living here in Tumwater WA, its so sad Olympia beer is no longer made here. every time I drive past the brewery, it just seems to be more and more vandalized, full of broken windows and tagged up.
So true and brewing bear for like 100 years is over in Olympia. It is sad. Remember "It's the water from artesian wells that made it so good"
The serpentine is a giveaway to which part of Florida you are in.
Really Florida? I was under the misapprehension that the whole state was flat! Oh, and all limestone and Karst topography....maybe some swampy phosphate mines here and there....
Colorado
Indeed, it's the part of Florida that's about 2000 miles from the coast
Are the next pieces of kit to add to your gear an emergency floatation device and 15 min emergency air canister?
Where are your safety helmets??
You can get a spare air that lasts an hour, mine has saved me more than once.
Yes I buy emergency air Everytime we go to Colorado
@@donniecreasey7722 huh? both of the items I described literally exist. You remind me of the dumb privates we'd send to the supply NCO to get chem light batteries and a box of grid squares
@@LanceBeckman sure thing bro, it's me. It isn't the guy I was responding to nor is it you coming out of nowhere screeching like an ape in the forest as it drags its branch around and flings poop.
At least the water was clear! Good to see what you are stepping on, at least!
Always!
Bloody hell, false floors under waste deep water, dodgy as hell, fell through false floors in ankle deep water before. I love the fact that, unlike many usa based channels, you actually have my favourite type of mines.....wet :) No helmet and a handtorch for that guy? Seriously? Wow, core samples, that's rare
Flooded mines are where I started. I didn't have a choice because that's all we have in the mountains... Really, I'm glad I started on these and became comfortable with these. Now the dry mines just feel like a treat.
Well fancy seeing you here ,🤣👍
green plant life in the winze? Sketchy mine anyway, but plant life? That puzzles me. Otherwise, great video.
Life finds a way
Well it is Florida
fertiliser thats why
I dont know where it was but when the government started fixing old sewer systems they found ferns and plants that were thought to be extinct for hundreds of years.
I bet theres some funky stuff down these mines
That doesn’t seem right. How could it grow in zero light?
That giant glove is going to be in my nightmares forever. XD
I'm looking forward to the start of the Florida ski season. I reckon it's going to be a big powder year.
Yes, the signs are promising for a good year! Nothing like Florida skiing...
They have a laser distance measuring tool at Home Depot. It’s Milwaukee, 220 dollars and measures up to 330 feet. Others for around 60-100 dollars US measure 165 feet. Fancy ones measuring 650 feet are around 600 dollars. I found a dewalt 330 feet for 190 Home Depot.
I have a friend that has the complete steam motor with all the parts including the piston. It powered a saw mill, a rock crusher, and a stamp mill. He donated the stamp mill to the local museum. Thanks
I've been lied to all these years when people say Florida is flat :-)
Ah, the beautiful San Juan range of Miami-Dade County!
Whathe whathe?
Like energizer, it keeps going and going... Many interesting sights including the boiler! The hair and grass was bizarre. Thanks for the trip to FL for warm thoughts as the temps outside are sinking lower every day.
Oh yeah, filling waders with water will not make you sink. The other gear and boots your wearing will be a problem. Getting out of the water with full waders...fuhgetaboutit!
Add a wading belt or some kind of strap you can cinch down tight for those extra sketchy situations. That will seriously slow down or stop how fast your waders can fill...if it's tight.
I was joking about Florida. That was filmed at one of the highest points in the mainland US.
Regarding drowning, yes, we carry packs with up to 50 pounds of mine exploring gear sometimes.
@@TVRExploring I got the Florida joke, was playing along😉
@@markattardo Oh, gotcha. So many people DIDN'T get the joke...
@@TVRExploring I had a feeling people missed the joke. I should have done my usual 😂
Hello Justin. Great mine explore!
Keep up the good work!.
Thank you!
Very cool video. The Limonite areas are beautiful. That one with the core samples reminds me of Mammoth Hot Springs. Love e the quartz and stringers. Flow stone is beautiful against the very dark rock. VERY cool long core samples! Great video!
Thank you. Yes, there were definitely some interesting geological spots in this one!
I explored a few caves and really sketchy old industrial complexes in my youth. Would love to do some mines, but there's no way in hell I'd get even CLOSE to some of the shit I've watched you scramble, crawl or slither through. Some of the collapses and very VERY NEAR collapses you've been under just make my skin crawl. Be safe and keep up with the awesome vids. But please remember, no amount of views are worth your life.
Nice long video cool mine thanks for sharing 👍 🇬🇧
Thank you. Tomorrow's video will be even longer!
Many interesting curiosities in this one, glad you ended up posting it. I wonder what that sprawling underwater growth was down the winze, weird stuff.
I'm not thinking about that stuff growing down there without sunlight..
@@unh0lyav3ng3r8 I mean, most bacteria and fungi don't need light to grow. You likely wouldn't see that in running water, whereas mine water is perfectly still, constant temperature and probably peculiar in terms of what's dissolved in it. It wouldn't be a surprise to see bacterial megacolonies growing over the decades.
In the beginning that looks like a boiler from a really old locomotive was really cool to see and if that is what it is then it's very rare at that.
It looked rather prestined for being out in the weather like that.
Yes, I'm not sure where it came from, but it did have that appearance. It was big enough to have come from a smaller locomotive, to be sure.
We love it! Thank you!
Thank you, really enjoyed the adventure.
The condition of that machinery at the beginning of the video is amazing!
Beautiful scenery, reminds me of where I explore in Wales.
I love high country florida! Another great place is high country Ohio.
Where is high country Ohio?
@@sallycollins2445 exactly!
High country in OH is in the middle of the state. Haven't you heard? Ohio - round on the outside, "hi" in the middle.
high country idaho is something else the view from mines here is like no other
Yet another mine that would be awesome if we could see it in 3D! Quite enjoyed this explore, thanks for sharing.
the glove- 23:50 ish....the reason its so big is that the hand that was in it had rotted and the gases from it blew it up like a balloon! 😜😁😁
Here i am learning that florida looks a lot like Scotland in its hills
I also learned florida wasnt all flat today.
My initial thought was this looks like Scotland!
It is flat... I was joking about Florida. That was filmed at one of the highest points in the mainland US.
Wow neat old mine.. thank you.
It would be really cool to see all the underwater sections of this mine. It's too bad there isn't just like a drain plug in the bottom of mine you could pull
There are so many times I wish that that were an option!
That was actually done in the cripple creek mine area. Sometime in the late 1800's or early the next century, water was becoming a problem in that area. so all the miners pitched in and they drilled a drainage tunnel down below that have them access to much more material that otherwise would not have been accessible. There is actually a great book about the whole history of that area called " money mountain".
Time for 360 cams on RC submarines..
Dang man one wrong step in that mine and you're going swimming.
You're right about that!
Excellent work as always. Thank you.
damn!!! look at that beautiful boiler right off the bat!
Riveted accumulaters( air-tanks) yet the ore car and skip car show signs of electric welding....late 20's. Super cool exploring though. Thanks for bringing us along.
Abandoned mines are often worked off and on for a century or more... So, you see generations of equipment underground.
Yup, one of the things i love about old mines. Pretty common to see several generations of equipment, love looking at the older equipment and trying to guess when the original workings started.
Yes indeed was a great video! At the very end, were you standing on a false floor while filming the core samples? I saw planks underneath it all, lined up just like flooring. What was that alien plant life in the water I'm very curious, or is it even alive? Thanks keep safe!
Some algae can grows in very low lights.
Awesome mine, so many twists and turns. Maybe invest in some kayaks for some of these flooded mines, they're easy enough to carry on top of a vehicle and could come in handy just in case.
Birds are like... Wow, they built us a really over the top house this time! Thanks. 😂🏡🐦🐥🕊️
At 41:16 to 41:25 looks like lightning caught in a time freeze on the wall ,, very cool looking !
Absolutely love alpine tundra. beautiful place.
That was a big one! Plenty of sketchiness in there! Now I have a reason to visit Florida! 😂
Yeah, people just don't realize how much Florida has to offer, you know? This one was sketchy! Other than our most recent trip (when I went down that hidden winze), this was the only other time I have REALLY needed someone's help to unfuck myself. When I was crawling over those collapsed timbers, the pile shifted on me and a huge 8 x 8 pinned my leg against the others.
@@TVRExploring Definitely not cool just glad the Great Architect of the Universe was there and a few friends to keep an eye out for you.
A very big mine! Thanks for the effort! Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦
Question: the video was 42:50 ... what was the actual explore time? Tough to gauge on a long adit if you are walking 2 minutes or 10 between filming and commentary.
That's a good question. I cut out some long segments of me just walking down featureless drifts in this one... If you factor in time spent taking pictures, talking about stuff, eating lunch underground in big mines, etc. the length of the video can be 10% or less of the time spent exploring. In this particular mine, I think we were underground for about two hours.
Absolutely reminds me of mines in weardale- all the water and false floors waiting to disappear you lol
I don't know if anyone else mentioned it in the comments, but there is actually a device that measures distances by using sound. It's like sonar, though I don't know how well it would work in a mine where the sounds bounce off of everything.
I've experienced false floors in ice, lava, and limestone caves.
Which were made by nature. People did not hide them. Cave
ice was often a window into water-filled depths.
The rusty yellow mud really adds a nice accent to the muskiness of the mist.
B S stands for "back sight" in surveying.
Thank you.
Great vid. Those ladders in the beginning looked modern compared to the other features.
Man, David Lynch/Lewis Carroll collaborative works! More groovy, weird & wow than you can shake a stick at in this mine, and it might shake back! It's growing its own underwater ecosystem that embiggens gloves, so it maybe could. Watch your step tho, treacherous flooded false floors - those always give me the willies!
That boiler and winder mech is beautiful!
You are right - the green laser looks weird. Might be more informative if you gave us a demo against walls of known distances. That aside, another fantastic video. Don't worry about the speech mannerisms- we watch because we enjoy the content, not for elocution lessons.
Thank you.
Flooded false floors are easily my most hated part of mine exploration. It's not uncommon in the UK though.
Ha, yes, from what I've seen, you're quite familiar with them in the UK!
@@TVRExploring some of the vertical stuff in the Lake District is riddled with them. If you ever get over this way, and you want a wander in some false-floor free Slate mines, give me a prod, will happily play tour guide.
@@InSanCen Thank you. I will...
I don't know what kind of 'growth' you found in what could be termed 'The Pubic Shaft' part of that mine, but tis an apt description, wouldn't you say? Well, I guess you already did pretty much. That is some pretty weird stuff. Does anyone have any idea what that stuff is or why it grows there? The stringy stuff in the winze was really quite odd too. Thanks as always for sharing with all of us!
The Every Ready Bunny came to mind as that drift seemed to keep going on. Lots of water, false floors and winzes. Amazing huge and picturesque timber sets. Hope the coming months are as demanding as the last one.
WOW. That boiler at the start was sweet!
Another great video Justin! I liked all that quartz in there...very interesting mine. Also liked seeing the siding far as the rails..pretty cool to see that so carts can pass each other
Yes, the rail siding is clever. I wish we had something like that in our mine.
Can't believe how good that equipment looks--the boiler looks like it was set out yesterday.
That's true - especially considering the harsh weather at that elevation...
Wow I sure wish they still made metal like that today! I guess it's not that profitable to make something last a hundred years...
Thank you for this amazing Video
This mine is very extensiv it is very bad that all the lower parts got floodet .
Bur the other parts are very colourfull and interesting
Thank you for taking me with you
Take care stay safe
Yours Frank Galetzka
Thank you. Yes, I would love to know about those lower areas.
sweet old relics of their time!
biggest shock was that....wait....what did you say....you are in Florida.....w/mountain ranges??????!!! I never knew Florida was more than flat lands.....I'm blown away.....now I got to watch this was even greater anticipation & wonderment...!!!!!
I was joking about Florida... That was filmed at one of the highest points in the mainland U.S.
The knobby "popcorn" flowstone results from splash spatter from dripping water.
Walking hand in hand true a mine together with Mac Murphy, always nice when you get out safely :-) nice surprising mine tho..
I wouldn't walk in that water that deep without some kind of stick to make sure there's not an open down shaft in front of you
Need to redo this video with an underwater camera drone! That would be way cool to watch.
Florida doesn't have mountains that high?
They may not have anything more than trash piles that high but they definitely have some residents that get that high!! 😏
@@worldtraveler930 LOL!
From a few minutes of google searching my non expert opinion is that that black pube stuff and the underwater vines are rhizomorph basically bacteria or fungal roots very interesting
lol Florida must be around the keys somewhere.
21:45 would make a great black & white photo to frame up.
Found your channel a few weeks ago & have enjoyed each one. Starting to catch on to the nomenclature & wish the local mines were accessible. (Most are old - colonial era on up to civil war for most part although the Merrimac Anthracite mine endured into the early 1900's.) There was iron mining right in my 'front yard' but unsure where the mines were located.
Thank you. Yes, it takes a little while to pick up the lingo and different regions sometimes use different terms for the same thing, which confuses things even more.