Finding a Water Pump and Rescuing a Snake in an Abandoned Mine
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- čas přidán 23. 01. 2021
- In this video, we rappel 200 feet into an abandoned gold mine located in the Mojave Desert. The mine featured an awesome water pump and a number of other interesting relics. On the 200 ft. level, we found a live snake that we decided to rescue. The snake seemed very cold and there was no way it could get back up on its own. Hopefully he doesn’t make the same mistake twice, as there are many shafts in the area to fall into.
This mine was originally prospected around the turn of the century, however, no paying ore was found. In 1922, a prospector reworked an old pit and discovered high-grade gold ore about 5 feet below where the original prospectors stopped. Soon, a company was formed to develop this mine and a 300 foot inclined shaft was dug. This discovery also revived an interest in the surrounding area, and in the following years new discoveries were made. This mine was most extensively worked in the 1920s up to the early 1930s. It was then worked on and off into the 1950s.
The geology of this mine is also very fascinating. Rather than being hosted in quartz, the gold was found in a calcite vein. There were calcite crystals everywhere, but unfortunately the camera did a poor job of picking up the beauty of them.
Thank you for rescuing the snake.
Thanks for rescuing the snake.
Thank you & for taking care of Charley.
I reckon Charlie is extremely grateful to feel the sun on his back again. Great work guys.
Good on you guy's for helping Charlie 👌
Thanks for the great video & saving the snake. Regards from Ody Slim
Thanks for watching and commenting Ody!
I'd say I subscribed because you rescued the snake but it was also the fact that I finally found someone who explores mines that actually knows what the hell they are talking about.
Thanks for the sub!
Great video, and so nice to see you rescued the poor snake. ALL lives matter :) Greetings from Norway
Thanks for watching, Asle!
Really appreciated taking time on crystals and minerals as a rockhound. Thanks
I feel very close to the snake now. Have a great day Chuck! 🐍
I gonna miss that snake. He was a good friend.
Thank you for saving Charlie! He needed to warm up his cold blooded body so that he would be able to hunt warm blooded prey.
Great explore! Good job bringing the snake out.
👍👊😎
You really did a bang up job on this tour thru the many levels showing all the spectacular mineral deposits. Simply breath taking. Thank you for your effort.
Great job. Thanks for posting
To speak geologically, this was a very gneiss explore! Rare to find gold in calcite, but I thought I saw some quartzite in there too. Once saw a sample of gold in red sandstone , so I guess about anything is possible. Thanks, guys!
Hi, at 8:11 it really looks like a skull in amongst the rocks, it probably isn't but at a glance it really does. Awww it was good to see you guys rescue Charlie, lets hope he doesn't decide to go mine exploring again lol. Thank you for sharing, much love. xx 🙏💖
Yep, I hope he stays out of mines from now on!
@@forgottenmininghistory Was that a skull I saw ???. x
It is winter gets,way cold mojave at night, if he can hunt pakrat snaje will be fine, otherwise lack of water would be the end of any animal down there. I agree with rescue.
“Old Quaker” is an old whiskey
that Old Quaker pint flask is from 1935-early 1940s
That's awesome. Thanks for taking us along, and congrats on 3,500 subscribers!
Thanks for the watch and the comment!
About 15 years back, I found a cool drift mine cabin remains in the gabriels but returned to show a friend and it had a big slide over the opening. for years I have meant to dig it open but never got around to it. I went into it today for the 1st time in those 15 years. I exited and went up river 10 miles to camp and fish. when I returned past it on the way to my truck, some prospector dude was working it. Digging and taking the dirt to the river with a sluice and working it. Didn't take long :-) Those crystals reminded of both a star trek episode and Marshal Will and Holly, on a routine expedition.
Sounds awesome! I need to watch the video
Xavier seems to be in almost every abandoned mine channel that I watch. Hello Xavier!
This reminds me of the time I found a water snake and rescued a pump
Lol!
Appreciate your efforts at filming these mines.
Looks like Charlie was trying to get back down. Good mice in that mine!
Old mines are like time machines, everything in them preserves even the energy of the people who worked in them
The piece of wood you found when entering proves boom boxes have been around for a much longer time than thought lol.
The pump is a Gould’s they are still in business
Smith-Booth-Usher Co., established 1893, donated some of their papers to UCSD. They list numerous affiliate companies (Principal Agencies) including The Goulds Manufacturing Company - Triplex Power Pumps. The triangular identification label is the shape of SBU’s logo. A very cool find!
You are getting better at geology in the years you‘ve been up to this - maybe you could end with a (longer) slideshow than usual with some shots of interesting mineralisation in any form.
But: Definitely will receive a like for anything released, I am very thankful as I can‘t go where you can anymore.
Thanks! I'm always learning more. I'll try to include more mineralogy in future videos.
Thank you - just my two cents, you‘re already doing great!
Awesome you saved the snake ..
We couldn't leave Charlie behind!
Excellent video, thanks again....!
Thanks for watching!
Great explore! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Great video. I love it! Keep up the good work. Thanks for showing the gopher snake some love! Also thanks for not stealing anything out of there like another popular channel does.
I leave the artifacts for others to see. Thanks for watching!
Looks like they were using the old drill bits to keep the air/water lines in place...
I watched all your videos from the beginning to the end I'll be waiting for your next one
great explore guys with some nice artifacts thrown in have a nice life, Charlie
Glad you liked the explore! I imagine charlie is living the dream right now, if he didn't fall into another shaft lol.
@@forgottenmininghistory lets hope not lol
Such a cool yet scary place! 😍
Old Quaker was a brand of whiskey. Crystalline calcite is usually fairly homogenous but it readily dissolves in common acids including vinegar whereas gold does not so it'd be worth a shot to bring some home since it's so easy and cheap to process.
So I looked up Paul Morris, according to CA census records lived @ 16021/2 Sac Street, Honey Lake, Lassen, California. The street is no longer a street. I couldn't find anything on the woman but they seemed to have lived near Susanville. Paul was in his 30's at the time of them writing this on the wall. I could be wrong but maybe he was the same guy.
It may very well be the same person. Thank you for doing that research!
Excellent as always. Thank you for your work.
You are correct that is Pituophis melanoleucus.Also known as a Gopher snake or Bull snake.
For its apparent length it looks thin from lack of nourishment.
You probably helped ‘em out.
Glossy snakes are often confused for Gopher snakes
Yes I think it is in fact a glossy snake rather then a gopher snake. Either way, we definately gave him a better life up top.
Ouch!!! Ya got me.
I now see that it probably is a glossy snake.(Arizona elegant)
Thanks
@@kramnevets8712 After looking more closely and after another comment I think I am wrong and it is in fact a Night snake which has a distinctive mark just behind the head. I caught one last year down near Ajo Az.
Ok....I sure would like to see more clearly.
This is fun.Herp forever.
Nice explore
the shovel that you found is a midwest design shovel, circa 1907, not many were made because they were too thin for the mining era, do to hard rock, .. the water pump are pre ww1 watering pumps, manuel small flow mostly for personal use, . im a history nut for old tools in mining.
Old Quaker is whiskey mate 😂
Just found you guys and subscribed! Great channel! If you go back to that mine - take a UV light with you. That calcite will light up like a christmas tree!! Be safe! Jim in Phoenix.
Yeah, that would be interesting to see. I recently got a small UV light and brought it to a tungsten mine. The colors were fantastic!
@@forgottenmininghistory The various zinc minerals also light up with awesome colors. Go on eBay and look up Franklinite from New Jersey. I'll look up tungsten. T/Y.
2:05 sent me down a rabbit hole; the broken bottom text is "THE GIANT POWDER COMPANY" and this is mid to late 1920s to the 1930s manufacture. "I.C.C.-14" was compelling, but it turns out that it's specification 14 from the Interstate Commerce Commission regarding how the wooden box is designed and assembled. Nothing to do with the contents at all, save for being the generic "explosives box" spec.
Thanks for the incredible info!
I'd love to disassemble, clean and rebuild that pump. The broken parts could be welded and ground to look like new. That'd be a cool thing to have in your man cave along with other things found in the mines before the BLM caves them in.
I thought mayb the pump had the axel on it to wheel it along the track as it would be heavy. Then when it broke down they took wheels off an left it
Hi Thanks for going where I can't go. I'm 6 foot 7 inches and very stiff. I've never been flexible but I like going to lost places - above ground! - have you ever found a place with bad air? Do you carry a small oxygen tank? I've read so many stories about bad air, that to me is the worst part. The 1st big pice of machinery was the stand to support the left side of the crankshaft- it was missing from the pump. What powered it? Can you recover it? It looks like an interesting restoration project. Thanks for your videos.
I don't carry an oxygen tank, but I do carry an o2 meter. I've only had it go off once, but I wasn't in any danger. Generally, hardrock mines have decent air.
The pump was most likely powered by an electric motor. It likely used to sit much lower down in the mine, probably below the current water level, as pumps are better at pushing water up than sucking water up. I imagine it may have been damaged as they were removing it, so they just left it on the 100 level.
25:10 Liggett and Myers Velvet pipe tobacco pocket tin, 1910s-1920s as far as I can gather. it's the company shield in blue, in that little remnant of paint left.
That's some excellent detective work!
Looks like a giant staple of some sorts. Maybe for wood or something?
Me: oh hell thats going home with me.
Playing with fire guys ..... from a guy who has spent 20 yrs working underground.
I gotta learn rope skills like this
4:11 I don't know if it's a legit warning, someone's just being clever, or there's an accidental resemblance, but someone's drawn the astrological symbol for Mercury on the wall there, upper left.
Interesting observation!
Hahaa The Snake Whisperer! I'm from the Mojave and ask what County is this Mine located in, just so I can get a reference to see how far down the water is / was . I'm from NE> Kern Co. Thanks again great show!
Thanks for watching! Sorry, but I don't want to give out any information about this one, even the county.
I was eating a bowl of cereal and you showed me a dead owl 🤣🦉. How many dead things are gunna be in this video 😖trying to eat my Weetabix. The snake floor is full of mice I kept hearing them squeak
Very cool, this is sorta local to me, so where do you get your data on the history of these mines?
Nice video and glad it didn't end with letting the snake go and a predator getting it..ha ha
I was thinking the same thing lol. Thankfully a hawk didn't get him. That would really suck.
Are you guys excepting new recruits? I would love to be part of this..off camera. And do a little mineral collection. You guys come across some nice specimens in those mines
What were they doing with crisco ! lol
Goulds. Still a dependable water pump manufacturer.
Smith Booth and Usher was just a machinery dealer, mining equipment, machine shop equipment, if it was heavy iron they had it.
The gray mud covering everything leads me to believe all that was flooded for awhile at least
Water seems to flow in whenever it rains
Did the miners ever put in escape tunnels or air tunnels?
Could the food chain start at fungus on damp wood. Eaten by mice who are then eaten by snakes ? Being isolated could the mice & snake have evolved into unique sub species ?
Whats the name of that mine?
I don't give out that information
looks like a small High Pressure Pump
Add 1 more subscription for the snake save.
Clearly the snake was eating the mice. I wonder if any light ever gets in there.
Most likely not. It was cold in there and the snake was hardly moving. He may have gone in after the mice, but it was a poor choice that would have killed him if we didn't bring him up top.
You should go to governs mine in acton ca its sickk
Have you been able to get inside?
@@forgottenmininghistory no we go on top though
it seems like you have the camera on your head, then you can not screw your head as fast as you do, take it a little calmer
I understand that the snake eats the mice, but what do the mice eat?
Maybe spiders?
The pump wasn't repaired. It looks like they installed an axle to aid in transport around the mine...
Snakes were probably there to eat the rats, but I have no idea what the rats could be eating.
I bet that thing would still work if you put some grease on it they don't make stuff like that anymore
Do you ever find gold
Old Quaker 1940's whiskey bottle
It's a good bet that wasn't a "rescue". These caves are full of packrats, bats, mice etc. He had a plentiful food supply in a good shelter with no predatory hawks etc.
There was no way the snake could climb out the mine or hunt for food in the state we found him. He was very cold, and he was hardly moving. When we picked him up he would wrap himself around our hands to get whatever warmth he could and would not want to get off. It wasn't until we brought him up to the surface that he started to act normal. Considering mines stay at a constant temperature, the snake would have definitely died down there.
@@forgottenmininghistory
Snakes thrive very well year round to 65 degrees. Does the temp in that mine during summer not get above 65? Most do.
THE US GOV'T CLOSED ALL MINING DOWN IN 1940 DUE TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR!! I WOULD BRING ME A PIN POINTER OR A GARRET METAL DETECTOR DOWN THERE!!?? THERE'S GOLD STILL IN THOSE MINES!
Hi
Garret is beter than Minelab????
I hate snakes
Ok Indiana
Me too
The automatic police histomorphometrically challenge because smell canonically empty pace a curvy freon. placid, teeny deposit