I'm here with Jeff from OTG Explorin, and we found this abandoned mine! Here’s the portal
and we're going to go in here and check this out. It’s a pretty big portal.
There are lots of tumbleweeds in here which are also prime rattlesnake
habitat. This time of the year, however, they're probably still hibernating
somewhat. In a couple months once March and April roll around they’ll start coming out.
There is some timbering up here — some stulls — right there in front of Jeff.
Here is some of the support timbers with wedges on top of it. It looks like we're
looking into a stope here that has a lot of debris. JEFF: “Those stulls are shattered.”
So check out that support timber there. Let me zoom-in on that. There’s really not much….
See that? It’s all splintered! It’s the same thing with the one right here which is a
little bit easier to see. I call these “slow motion collapses in progress,”
but one day they'll eventually all just come down for sure. We’re headed up that way.
A bunch of boulders like right there where my light is have come down.
Okay, we're still headed that way. Jeff is already up there. It looks like this stope collapsed.
See all those big boulders here? You you can see the smashed timbers right where my light
is. There are more of those wooden timbers. It looks like this big chunk here came right down
on top of those timbers. Yes, so the tunnel goes back that way up over these boulders.
It pretty much dead-ends back there. Jeff checked that out, but I'll go up there and take a quick
look so you can see it. Check out this large boulder right here that probably fell down
from up here. Yes, it's a huge boulder. There are a whole bunch of them here. It looks like right
here on the left is some gobbing. See all those rocks that are neatly stacked where my light is?
It’s kind of like… This is probably a wall of gobbing. The tunnel probably ran right through
here, but all these big boulders have come down since. That very looks like a wall of gobbing.
We are at this area where you see some big support timbers there. Those are probably almost a foot
wide on each side! There is one by Jeff to his right where my light is. See the wedges there
on top? They use those to fill the gap between the back of the mine — the ceiling — and the
timber itself. They stick those wedges in for extra support. Jeff and I think the tunnel
came in here — we came from that way — and it probably wrapped around here. It might have
made a turn right here and went between these two big timbers. I’m not exactly sure what this
yellow stuff is here. See this on this exposed face of the rock? It’s a really pale yellow
color. I don't think that is limonite. It’s not sulfur. It doesn't smell like sulfur. I believe
these were gold mines, but this doesn't look like limonite. It comes off in thin wafers, so I don't
think it's limonite. But anyway, let's go check this out! Jeff has already gone through that gap.
Okay, here is the backside of that big, square timber with the wedges. We came from over in
there. We came around behind those rocks and came down through here, and now we're
in this stope. See? It goes up there. Look at this timber here. There is a nail sticking out.
That might have been a place for a miner to hang a helmet or a carbide lamp or who knows what! That’s
really old. I believe these mines date back to the late 1800s so this is really old-school. Here are
some smashed support timbers, and you can see more over there in the distance. Let me zoom-in there.
Check that out! Right there it’s split almost in two! So we're
going to make our way up here into the stope. Let’s go check it out!
Check out this support timber! Totally split!
There’s the top of it, and it comes down here and is totally split all the way to the bottom!
Here is a retaining wall. Let me zoom-in on that.
You often see these in stopes. They put a wall in to prevent the rubble from coming
down from higher in the stope. That’s what you see right there where that dark wood
is. Check out that timber there. Smashed!
Let’s keep going over here to the right.
Here’s an old piece of fuse cord that’s
probably close to a century old. One hundred years old perhaps.
We just came up from down there, and we're in this stope. The retaining wall is right here
to the right, and this gap here doesn't really go anywhere. It’s just a dead-end area, but the
retaining wall does continue there on the right. You can sort of see it there where my light is.
The retaining wall continues over here.
Yes, these timbers are shot. They’re really not supporting too much anymore. Look at that! That
one is totally crushed! And then here's a little gap in the wall. The wall ends right over there.
Check out that timber! That support timber right there is
really crushed. That goes up in there.
Jeff went up in there, and it doesn't really go anywhere. There is just more collapse, and
there aren’t any other tunnels apparently. You can see a big support timber there where my light is.
This was definitely a major stope. It’s also on an angle like they usually are.
The ore was probably shoved through these gaps down into the ore carts that were waiting down
there where the tunnel is where we came in. The miners probably took it out that way.
This big rock you see here where my light is is being held up by this timber.
We are pretty certain that is the only thing holding up this huge boulder! See how
it's separated all the way around? See the crack here?
So that big slab is being propped up right there by that timber. Jeff pointed out that you can
see how the timber is cracking right there because that's where most of the weight is
pressing down. There is a crack right there towards the front of the timber.
JEFF: “Look at all the cracks up here.” Yes, oh yes, all of this is cracked here! JEFF: “It’s
ready to go.” Yes, it's coming apart. That’s where all this came from probably. JEFF: “Oh yeah.”
So we're headed back out to the exit there. Yes,
this mine has too much collapse in it, so we're going to check out some other stuff.