So further in the mine there's a little inclined ladder system here with just
two ladders going down there to a drift tunnel.
Nick has already gone down there, so we're going to go check that out.
So Traci is making her way down this ladder.
TRACI: "Maybe!" And then we're going -- wow, there's a lot of gobbing right here where the
miners stack the rock. They call this gobbing. It was easier to stack the rock than haul it outside.
We are going to continue down the tunnel this way. So you can see more gobbing here and everywhere!
The tunnel continues that way with more gobbing,
but I think Nick went this way. TRACI: "He's been doing that rule of right."
There are more ladders here, and they look pretty decent.
Yeah, you are looking down into an ore chute. There's the chute on the left and
then the ladder on the right like they usually are. So they would toss the rocks down there.
There is a chute gate at the bottom, and there are probably ore cart tracks down there, too.
So here's the ladder system we're all coming down. Here's that chute.
See how it's covered? They've got a wooden covering over it.
Just like I said, that chute drops out here to the tunnel. There would have been an ore cart
waiting right there, and they would haul the ore away. NICK: "You're doing great, Traci!
You're on the home stretch!" Yeah, this last ladder here you can see the rungs are broken,
so we had to climb down the gobbing like Traci's doing.
I've never climbed down gobbing before, so that was the first. NICK: "Yeah, I'm kind of curious.
I wonder if it will still light?" Yeah, so here's some old fuse cord just laying on the rocks. We're
going to continue down this way, though, past that chute and down that drift tunnel.
Oh, what's up here? An ore cart!
It's very rare to find these in in Nevada and California. People who explore mines up in
Oregon say ore carts are a dime a dozen. They find them all the time! That's not the case down here.
These are rare to find inside the mines. Look at that! It's an old metal ore cart.
Behind it is another ore chute coming down from above, and the tunnel keeps going.
So here's that ore cart from the back side.
And we just came from back there.
This cart is pretty nice! It still has the wheels on it,
and the wheels are what's usually missing. It still moves on the tracks! See that?
Someone put a wedge there. We probably could push it all the way up but we're not going to
do that because we don't want to derail it. It still moves and still operates. Pretty cool!
So we're headed this way. So continuing on past the ore cart track -- I mean poast the ore cart
on the ore cart tracks -- the tunnel is making a slight
bend to the left here. Here on the right is another fault line -- a
smooth surface. A contact zone I guess they call it. That another long straight shot.
So here's a chain next to this chute.
And a tire is there.
Yeah, that goes up. There probably used to be a ladder in here but not anymore.
Another ore chute.
Are we coming to the end here?
This is one of those.... This is for the drills, right? It looks like that. I think
it's a drill stand of some sort. There's nothing behind it but an alcove. That's pretty cool!
And that is the end.
NICK: "I like to keep my feet spread apart so they're not in the center.
I don't know if that's smart or stupid but it makes sense to me, so that's what I do."
We keep seeing lots of copper deposits in this mine. Right there's one of them. It's kind of a
turquoise bluish green color. We believe that's copper. Further in the mine we saw this strange
kind of odd-looking fitting right here at the end of this pipe. There's the valve on the left
but then there's some kind of unusual fitting. I've never seen that before in an abandoned mine.
Okay, we're back at the main junction. There's looking to the portal.
So we just spent over an hour going down this tunnel and descending those ladder systems to
the lower levels and then climbing up to an upper level in that one stope. So now we're
going to continue down the main tunnel this way over this collapse and see where this goes.
So there's an ore chute here on the left,
and it looks like a lot of debris came out of the chute and is blocking the tunnel here partially.
Well, we came down here and there's a dead end and some barrel fragments.
There's the collapse we just came over and you can see the portal kind of
straight ahead there around the corner. So down there is a ventilation....
Like part of a motor for a ventilation fan or blower. I'm zooming into it.
That would have been outside the mine pumping air through the ventilation tubing that we see
hanging up inside the mine or laying next to the tracks. That's a really old piece of equipment!
Outside the portal somebody left some rock specimens here. Check that out! It's like it's
fused together. There's some kind of crystal on top and then a regular rock underneath.
I don't know what that is. And then here's more copper ore.