JeepAndrew’s Abandoned Mines Thread

Here’s a few teasers for now, from Utah

 

cool

 

Do you ever come across wildlife when your down there? I would imagine this place being filled with creepy crawlies lol

 

Ive has a few run-ins truth be told; Javelina, snakes, bobcats, owls mostly. Those encounters have been within 100 feet of the surface, but once you get deeper in, the only wildlife I’ve ever seen was bats and cave crickets.

 

At a lesser-known site southwest of Salt Lake City, Dan and I crawled through a mostly collapsed portal and into a hidden adit. After 800 feet of walking through the dead-straight adit, we broke into a huge stope complex that wormholed 400 feet into the mountain at a gentle downward slope. Below, you get an idea of scale, as the ore car tracks on the lower left are 18” apart!

As we hiked down through these endless stopes, we encountered our first ore car, long since fallen through collapsed rotted tinbers above.


As we went along, Dan recorded footage for his YouTube channel; Mine Explorers!


Another ore car! Right off the tracks in the stope. This one had a wooden frame, indicating that it was pre-1900s.


Another ore car!! Dan climbs in as he takes pics..


Down at the 450 level, 2 more ore cars still on the tracks!




And another!!


Another shot of the marooned ore car in the stope as we hiked back up to the surface.


Dan holds his fist up in triumph for an explore well done!

 

Sub'd!

 

Here’s Dan’s video of us exploring the mine I posted about above, enjoy!

https://youtu.be/guWa79pjNus

 

The Russian Mine

This incredible site sits in Utah’s west desert, not too far from the Nevada border, and produced lead, silver and copper, last operating in 1944. It’s a large mine, extending down to 1600 feet deep, and consisting of two shaft complexes (east and west) connected together internally by a 450ft inclined winze. We logged 12 hours underground in this mine and only accessed down to the 850 level! After making a site assessment, we opted to enter the west side through a stope at the surface, due to very unstable and dangerous conditions in the main shaft.

Looking down the west complex shaft from the 200 level. See all those loose timbers? Not rappelling this one...

200 level, Lots of very old timber work in this mine..

Matt holds up a pristine Hercules dynamite box!


A very old compressed air hoist for the inclined winze on the 400 level!


Myself posing with the hoist..


Random artifacts on the 400 level!


We began the long descent down the winze to the 850 level. I paused to snap this pic looking back up at the top, 60 feet above.






Looking down.


That would be old dynamite.... lots of nope.


On the 850 level, we find an old wheel barrow, still right where the miners left it when the mine closed!


Artifacts on the 850!


One of several ore chutes in a stope...


This was the winze down to the 950 level. Due to time constraints, we had to turn back at this point, but would return to continue. 9 hours and counting so far in this mine!


Ore car on the 950!


Some carbide graffiti..


Another team member emerges from a shallow winze.


Old whisky bottle!!


Mine selfie!


Time to head back up.




Near the top, I paused to snap a couple pics of the incline skip still in place..

 

Very cool, can’t wait for more updates

 

Good morning fellas! I’m currently in route to Utah for explore number two of the Russian mine! Stay tuned!

 

Driving home from Utah right now, I’ll have some pics in-bound later! For now, here’s a teaser pic

 

You sure have an interesting hobby: one that my claustrophobic self could not possibly share (at least as a voluntary tag-a-long). I do enjoy your sharing of your adventures and the photos are great.

Some of them remind me of model railroad scenes; especially the ones showing people in the distance. Thanks for sharing. John M

 

OMG if this was in New Jersey crazy people would be living down there. Very cool interesting stuff .

 

In one of the pics there is a spool for cable. It says Roebling on it. I'm from Trenton New Jersey and Roebling was the largest cable and steel producer in New Jersey years ago.They supplied the cable for the Brooklyn bridge in new York. That is definitely from the Roebling plant. Cool stuff

 

Hey everybody! Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been busy with work and other things. I’ll try to get some pics posted here in the next few days!

Oh, and a teaser. This coming weekend, myself and the exploring group with be gaining legal access to the mines in Tombstone AZ! Pics to follow, but for now here’s an underground map of the mines we will be visiting there! To give you an idea of scale, each of the squares in the grid pattern is 100ftx100ft.



Another below, showing the streets of the town of Tombstone. As you can see, some of the tunnels actually go out under the town itself!



With over 200 miles of mapped workings, most of which have been abandoned for over 100 years, it’s going to be a great explore. Stay tuned!

 

Fantastic thread. I would **** the **** to be able to participate in some of this. As a lover of anything old and abandoned, and a professional photographer, I am hugely envious of your opportunities, and appreciative of your posting. Thank-you too for doing this in a responsible and respectful manner!

 

Anything new on this?

 

@JeepAndrew found One Eyed Willy's treasure & will never resurface

 

The “Russian” Mine Pt 2

More pics from our journey into this huge complex, this time we travelled all the way down to the 1100 level! It tool over 3 hours to make it down this deep.

The fellas posing with numerous intact wooden dynamite boxes




The hoist for the 500 level winze, which connects the two mine complexes together.






We found this unmarked can full of odd material, similar to wood. Turns out it was 80 year old chewing tobacco!




Just below the 500 level, this small compressed air hoist sits marooned on a sub level.