So check that out! There's an old miner's cabin
right there at the base of the hill. So let's go check that out.
Well, here's an old miner's cabin that's seen better days. The roof is sagging there on the left
and over here on the right they got a support timber down there propping up part of the wall!
But what's unique about this cabin -- Oh look! There's a a lizard! See him?
Anyway, what's unique about this cabin is that there's a mine tunnel inside of it right there!
See? You got a wooden door here and some wooden steps going down into the cabin.
This may have not been a cabin, but this may have been
a lab for the mine. See all this shelving? I think this was a maybe an assay lab,
but they built it right up against the mine portal which I've never seen before.
Let me get down in here and check this all out.
So they got a vent pipe in the ceiling. There must have been maybe a stove here or a heater
or a kiln. And this is kind of unusual -- there's a little square-shaped chute. That's interesting!
A center pole here holding everything up. There's the roof. It's got some holes in it especially on
this side where it's caving-in. And then here's are the work tables where like I mentioned they
probably did a lot of assay work. And there's a screen there. I'm not sure what that was for.
Maybe there was a window there at one point. I don't know. If there was, it's all caved-in.
So let's check out this tunnel! I see some pipes in there or something
and a big barrel right there at the entrance. Let's go check it out!
I have no idea how deep this is going to be. I do see footprints down there where my light is, so
people do go in here probably with some frequency because this mine is not very hard to get to.
Let me get down here and take a look in. Oh, you know what? That might be it right
there -- a dead end. This might just be a prospect. Okay, I can't stand up in here.
I have to pretty much be bent over at the waist. Yes, I think this is a dead end.
I'm not sure what this is right here -- this big cylinder.
Let's get some light back there. Let me zoom-in.
Yes, it's just a prospect tunnel.
That's as far as they went.
This cylinder is -- I don't know what that would have been used for. There is some piping
in here -- there's a small silver pipe. They must have had plans for this but they gave up.
I can sort of stand up here. So there's looking back at the portal.
So I was just standing here looking at the portal, and I happened to look up right above me
and you'll never guess what I saw!
Here is a raise that goes up to the outside.
I think i saw on the hillside a chimney -- a metal stove pipe -- so that might
have been used for ventilation. That just goes up to the hillside. Very interesting!
Maybe somebody was living in here and this was part of the cabin. That's
they maybe built the cabin right in front of the portal. Maybe this was part of the
the living quarters. I don't know, but whoever lived here hasn't lived here in a long time and
it's all abandoned. But this barrel here is interesting. It's got some white stuff in it.
It's got a hole down there on the bottom of the barrel.
Don't know what that would have been used for, but that's pretty much it.
Lots of debris under these workbenches: pipe fittings, plastic containers, beer cans, pieces
of rubber hose. Up on top are some valve fittings. There's a valve, a cigarette box, a can of
Plas-T-Cote roof coating. And there's a pipe hanging down from the ceiling.
I don't know why. Maybe that was to hang hang tools on like they did right there with that hoop.
It looks like a pretty enterprising little operation whenever it was in operation, but
it isn't that way anymore. And there's a final shot of the portal, so let's get out of here.
Outside here there's a foundation for another building maybe, so I don't know....
Something was here at one point but, like the rest of the desert, it's now nothing but desolation.
So here's an old car just sitting out here near this abandoned mine and just rusting away.
Check that out!
I don't know what kind of car that is or was, but it's definitely old. I'd say 1940s? I don't know.
Here's looking into the windshield to the front seat,
and let's try and get a shot of the dashboard.
There's a shot of the dashboard.
And then you have a back seat
which is right there and then a pretty spacious trunk here in the rear of the vehicle.
I think that right there might have been part of the trunk. Yes, you're looking at what was
the lid of the trunk which would have been right on there. Over here is part of the car.
I'm not very good with car parts. I don't know what that would be. A muffler? But somebody's been
shooting at it. And then you've got more springs probably for the seats which I think were missing.
So, yes, just an old car left out here in the desert. It makes you wonder who drove it here
and why they left it. What happened? Did it break down or what? But we have got a long hike to go...
So let's get a move on. Okay, check out this cactus. You see that white fluffy stuff
that I guess might have been part of the cactus flower blooms? Well,
make a note of that because we're going to see it later inside an abandoned mine put to good use.
So over there is an abandoned mine.
You can see the portal there. They drove it right into that
vein you see right above the portal coming down the hillside there, and that's how they did it.
So here at the portal I believe this is the vein they were following --
this light-colored vein. It's about a foot and a half across right to there,
and you can see it's pretty uniform all the way up, and they dug the tunnel right into it.
So like I said, I'm not getting my hopes up on this one but you don't know until
you actually check them out. So at least I can stand up in here pretty much upright.
I see a few footprints in here, so it's not totally off the beaten path. This plastic
piping right here -- I don't know if that was used for ventilation or something else but
there are remnants of it here and there. Yes, I think we're approaching the end up here.
There's a lot of rockfall which isn't a good sign, but this i think is going to end right up
here. Now here are some old bed springs. I see these a lot in abandoned mines. Well, not a lot
but often, and I think someone told me that they might have used them to drag out the blasted rock.
I don't know. I guess that would make sense.
Look at that little pack rat's nest, and I think there's a big pack rat's nest down there.
This is the end. Boy, there are a lot of rodent droppings in here too.
So, yes, that's all she wrote. There are probably 10 or 15 pack rats watching me right now but
I can't see them. Anyway, that's the mine tunnel. Here's looking back towards the portal.
So we're making our way back out to the portal. This was a short one.
It was just a little bit too long of a tunnel to be a prospect but pretty darn near close!
You can see the timber here at the portico or the portal. It's a timbered arch.
And that's it!