I am here in what you might want to call a winter wonderland. We are checking out some
abandoned mines, and we're hiking up this old mining road that's now covered with snow. I'm
here with Justin, and he's from the Southern New Mexico Explorer channel on YouTube. There
will be a little slide-out card that will appear in the upper right hand corner of the
screen with a link to his channel, so head on over there! Justin has been exploring
mines for a few years and has a lot of good videos of mines in the southwest
United States. Check them out and subscribe! We are going to go up here and check out a flooded
mine that goes in at least a 1000 feet (304 m) if not more, so let's go check it out!
We are here at the mine's portal. Here is the water flowing out. You can see steam
coming off the water, so we're not sure if this mine broke into a
hot spring or some kind of geothermal source of water. The water is coming out of the portal
which is right there. It's very unique! They used a tank and put a door in it to access the mine.
Unfortunately we can't get the door open anymore because a little landslide.
Up on top, however, it is eroded open, so let's go check it out!
Here we' are on top of the tank and here is the eroded opening. The tank stops
right there. There is some of that classic mine timbering, and you can hear the water.
Here is a shot looking in the portal. You can see the water down there.
I'm not sure how deep that is -- maybe six inches or a foot at the most. Further beyond that you can
see the tracks -- the ore cart tracks -- and how they come out of the water. It looks to be dry.
Looking behind me is that tank
that was used as a makeshift entrance. It's got some standing water in it.
Right here inside the portal we think this is fluorite.
And then we noticed in the tunnel arch a lot of green color
and these hairs growing down. I think my camera is fogging up.
We are about 1500 feet (457 m) inside this tunnel. I had to wait until my camera
adjusted to the humidity in this tunnel. My lens was all fogged for the first thousand
feet or so which are behind us. I don't know if you can see in the video but you can barely make
out the light coming in through the portal. See that little dot right there? That's the
entrance! We're about 1500 feet in (457 m) and just climbed over this big collapse it's flooded
here with about three feet (1 m) of water. Justin has already gone down there. Now that
my camera is not fogging up anymore I am going to take you down there. Let's go check it out!
Yes, surprisingly this water is not as cold as other flooded mines that I've been in. It's
not warm but it's not ice cold either which is kind of unusual. That right there is a dead end.
Justin checked that out. You can see the water is almost up to my waist about three feet (1 m), and
it's kind of hard to see because the water is stirred up from Justin's passage.
I'm trying not to trip on these rocks. He is way down there, so let's go catch up!
It is amazing how fast the water cleared out after he walked through here. You can see the ore cart
tracks there. It's still about three feet deep (1 m). Here are remnants of the electrical wiring.
We saw many of these during the first one thousand feet.
You can also see two pipes under the water here. A larger pipe and a smaller pipe. They were probably
for air or water for the drills, and this modern pipe -- this black plastic or rubber pipe here
on the right -- was probably for a more modern enterprise that tried to make a go of this mine.
Here is some miner's graffiti! Check that out! I think that's miners graffiti. Yes, it's
a picture of a miner
and what looks like another guy with a hat. Two miners! I think that says
1885. Wow! It's hard to see that.
Anyway, that's a picture of two miners,
and you can see the collapse we climbed over. Just beyond that collapse you can see
a little speck of light down there about 1600 feet (487 m). That's the portal!
Here is
more miners' graffiti. That's a face.
You can see the nose, the two eyes, and the mouth. He is wearing a pretty big hat.
It says something up there, but I can't make out what that says.
Okay, we just passed the 1400 foot mark (426 m). There is a lot of miners' graffiti here.
It looks like some names. I can't make out what they say. I had to take all the
stuff out of my pockets because the water is starting to come up to where my pockets are
on my jeans. I had to put everything in my camera bag like my iPhone and the walkie-talkie.
Hopefully it will get more shallow up here.
You can still see Justin's lights way up there. I tried calling him on the walkie-talkie but
he must have his turned off or I didn't do it right. I don't know.
Here's a little alcove.
Yes, it's definitely getting more shallow here so that's a good thing!
You can still see the ore cart tracks under the water.
Those pipes that used to be on the left hand side are still there -- at least the larger one is.
I just passed 1600 feet (487 m) and that's looking back where we just came from. We are going to keep
on going further into the tunnel. Yes, Justin was here not too long ago and he only came
in about 1200 feet (365 m) to where that collapse and where the water became really deep.
He wanted to come back to this mine, so he told me about it and I said, "Sure! Let's do it!" So
we're not sure where this tunnel goes. Some have suggested that it might be a drainage tunnel
but it does have a name and it's shown on topographic maps as a mine entrance,
so I don't know. They also have the pipes in here for air and water for the drills
as well as ore cart tracks, so it must have been a mine. I don't think it was a drainage tunnel.
Who knows? The water is coming from somewhere, that's for sure! Okay, so we're pretty much
out of that really deep flooded section and almost back on dry ground. Right here is
something cryptic: "M S Number 3 Position"
Here is a little symbol. I'm not sure what that would mean.
You can see the water flowing out of the mine. Here is another dam. Hopefully it's not three
feet deep (1 m). It doesn't look like it. That's just a big, dug-out alcove there.
So we just passed the 2000 feet point (609 m). Justin is on his way out.
He is headed back towards the portal that way. He is going to check out that miners' graffiti that
I found. He didn't see that. He said this tunnel goes another 890 feet (271 m) and there's a....