Blowing Up Dynamite To Get Into An Abandoned Mine

did a wrong just give out yes i've seen the damage thus far johnny no johnny i've come to the realization that we're going to go back i mean it's the only way to do we were 50 feet from knowing definitively if the buoyant does connect to the union entering the union mine at cerro gordo the union mine here at cerro gordo is the reason saragoro is what it is it's the 900 foot vertical shaft with 30 miles of mines off of it it's the mind that they pulled something like 500 million dollars with the minerals out of and so getting into the union mine is very exciting for me the only way that i know of right now to get in is to take the coist from 1865 down the shaft and stop at the different levels and the the issue there is it takes a team and it's just a production to go down there i've always been curious about other ways to get into it and i heard rumors you know the first whisper that i heard was of this thing called the omega tunnel this is it the treasure map for who knows how many adventures but today's adventure is all about the omega tunnel and if you can read here it says in later years razors and windsors connected the cerro gordo 900 level with the omega tunnel providing a required second mine exit the omega tunnel was connected with the main cerro goro 200 level when i read that it's crazy it connects to the 900 and to the 200. those are probably two of the most famous levels of the union mine so that is the portal to the omega tunnel and after looking at the map that is what potentially connects to the 200 level the 200 for more unfortunate reasons it's the level of the mine where in the 1870s somewhere around 30 miners lost their lives in a collapse and were never recovered so that mine was sealed up and the 900 level i mean that's the bottom of the hoist that's as deep as it gets that's the deep unknown and so over the past month or so i have been doing everything in my power to try to get into the omega tunnel which includes using the loader going to try to open up the omega tunnel with the loader use that first try to get it open as we can then use dynamite beyond that so headed down to the back side of the property now with the loader i was using the loader to dig out this potential portal or entrance into the omega all right that's what we're trying to get to gotta get rid of all this rock trying to use this loader see basically what i'm trying to do is just get the bucket up on the rock and pull it down just keep pulling it down then i'll scoop it and bring it away so i gotta raise the bucket up as high as i can and then just kind of drive up as high as i can you know put it at an angle like this and then just let gravity drag back down the rock the problem with that is it feels like you're gonna flip over backwards when you're doing that so i'll show you a little bit of what i mean well progress is halted because we have encountered a bfr a big freaking rock getting closer and i spent probably a good week straight on a loader trying to get in look at this not that much more stands between me and the omega tomorrow we have to get a backhoe for the hotel site so i'll have a backhoe at my disposal oh today we in the big boy vehicle got the backhoe i'm ready to get into the omega there's something about driving these big trucks all right time to switch it in and get to the task at hand of getting into this damn omega we got the extendo arm today too ready fancy and then with the backhoe i got the arm i was able to reach out remove rocks and each time i'm getting more and more excited because it's like you almost feel the levi's back there or something if you can't tell it's after dark still trying to get into this omega i really want to get in i don't know if it's going to happen today but i saw a little hole in the rock that almost looked like an entrance so getting there so i keep breaking it down with the with the backhoe and loading it out all that dirt i've made today as i was dealing with the backhoe the rock shelf above it became very precarious it was overhanging and my fear was that i would touch it with the backhoe the rocks would collapse into the loader or into the backhoe shatter the window and potentially hurt me and so i convinced robert who's the former caretaker up here who hasn't been up here in quite a while to come back up because he's a certified dynamite blaster he is certified to use dynamite for mining purposes and that is exactly what i wanted to do because my thinking was we were close if we could just blast some of the rock out of the way then i could clean it up with the loader and the backhoe get that out of there and get into the omega yesterday robert came up want to make sure that you probe it put your cap close to halfway down crimp the cap of course and i like to tape the sticks together so that you have a little more control oh god yeah touch him don't touch him i got some water and attracting to wash your hands off no is that for the nitroglycerin yeah if you get nitro on you some people are really affected by it other people are not that can give you one really bad headache i've had several nitro headaches that were excruciating i could have brought duct tape i should have but this works just fine yeah so on the old dynamite i used to see on the box is like a percentage 30 40. yeah this is uh 60. so that's what percentage of nitroglycerin glycerin this was a 60 percent trim the end i cut this at a 45 so that i've got a lot of powder showing on here okay so it lights easier i like this in the wind is really a pain in the ass now let's go see if we can dig ourselves a spot to set this okay i was able to even light some of the dynamite myself in areas where robert couldn't get to i'm gonna really pack it in there fire in the hole didn't quite get in there blasted again and we did four total blasts and we didn't get into the portal but the important thing is we removed that shelf rock that i was concerned about for the loader and when we did one blast it was very visible that the rock instead of going out just went straight down which led us to believe that there was the portal there and it just fell into the portal that was still there so now i'm not a lot of dig out to do it's give me quite a bit of work with the loader and the backhoe so in the spirit of getting into the union before the new year i'm going back to the bouyon boleon whatever i took speech class as a kid it didn't stick so if i mispronounced words i don't know what to say you have to deal with it and so tomorrow johnny and i are going back into the bullion so the last time we went into the bouyon tunnel it was probably the scariest mine exploration i've ever done there was all sorts of gear problems johnny the rope was wrong my harness came off at one point it was all borrowed gear combined with a new mine that i'd never been into very old ladders that hadn't been touched for a while it was just generally a pretty terrifying experience and so i think this time before going in there i really try to make sure that i could take every precaution that i could and prepare as much as possible before entering two lights big boy light uv light just in case we can use a uv light i have head lamps of course full body harness the other one i was wearing i wasn't comfortable with so i got a new one got the other stuff gloves brand new rope before i was using rope that was here from the last owners got the helmet which i had last time but this is like a reflective vest i'm gonna go tell johnny that he has to wear you all packed up yeah i'm just kidding you want me to do the helmet yeah you have to wear the helm and then unfortunately i gotta have you wear this too what is this the reflective vest no i'm not yeah i mean if you get injured people know where you are at least i feel like this is really appropriate okay so i'll wear one if you're wearing one but i already look like an idiot so look okay maybe this will maybe this one oh it's pretty fly i like that maybe this will no dude i go all black i'm not wearing this with a helmet and my stupid clear glasses i look like a total door what do you think about the youtube comments that think that you're a little reckless um i think i love them actually they motivate me they those comments are the most motivating because i want to prove them wrong so i'm going to do even more reckless to cancel it out good well you said how much a day i always have a helmet i just don't wear it in there all right we're back today's the day johnny we get into the union we were so close today we're properly prepared johnny's wearing a helmet for the first time in his life uh he has a gopro today we have extra rope i got a new harness i'm wearing my helmet too i'm gonna be reckless johnny's gonna be reckless and we're gonna find some jeans the research tells me that if there's any place that cereal with jeans this is the place with jeans so hold your breath we're going in all right take two sweet one tunnel johnny what do you think is gonna happen today uh i think i think i'm gonna fall when i think i'm gonna get hurt and i think we're gonna find some stuff and you're gonna come up with it all by yourself i'm gonna find some jeans we're leaving johnny behind somebody's gonna find those capri pants he's wearing about 100 years there was less exploration this time we pretty much went immediately back to the tunnel that we had the ladder break on us last time we're back to our favorite ladder ladders why did it have to be ladders as you can see we left the rope from last time we are going to take a different way down that we discovered on the way up when we got back in there this time we can make pretty quick work getting back to the main tunnels but there's no getting around the main shaft area the main ladder that went 300 feet straight down and that's the one that as i was standing on last time it broke and there was slack in the line and i essentially thought that i was in free fall headed back down a little safer this time look at that johnny's even wearing a mask did you just fart or something doesn't smell so bad headed down while you're back there obviously there's a there's excitement and there's the hope that this is a historic discovery but there's also just the primal basic fear that's involved in being an extremely dark place with an extremely long drop right below you and just a lot of unknowns and so you'll never fully shake that i don't think it just you have to find a way to manage it and so for me for managing it i try not to look down on the ladders because i'm a bit afraid of heights but if i look straight down that's a problem i take it as rung by wrong you know one small step for brent and johnny one giant leap for cerro gordo history and denim oh good we're back to the part where the ladder broke it's my favorite part of the whole day so that's the rope that we tied up last time when we thought we were stuck now we're gonna go to the great beyond i was not happy last time i was around here yep there's the broken left step careful what was that something just fell good thing you're wearing that helmet just take it take it slow this mine is not friendly today yikes whoa careful sorry bro i just don't want to have the false impression that that was a real step on the way back up yeah i get that that's where your pipe ends so you're gonna make a c-shape whoa are you on a level yes i am uh so write down more runs below me yes there are they come back right out right underneath you just that little part's not too fun right there it's not but you just i don't uh what we're gonna definitely have to use the jewmars to go back up so going down a rope is pretty easy you use a descender and i use a petzl descender that i like a lot it has different locking mechanisms in case you let go of it and when you go back up a rope you need a jumar or an ascender to go back up through open basically it lets you climb up the rope with these handles that slide up but don't slide down so that way you can get yourself back up a rope if you have a section where you don't have ladder or any other way to kind of raise yourself up we've made it to where we never were before we ran our ropes we're re-tying and we are not that far to the bottom of this thing how far is that 40 feet so we all know soon enough whether we're there or not how you feeling but this level is cool too this minor is massive there's track got the classic track and we went all the way almost to the bottom and we stopped down on a ledge that was as far as we've ever been and there's this whole level of mind that we didn't know existed there wow that's super cool this is something this is a the end of a shovel and you wonder why they cut off the ends of shovels but think about it you're in the narrow space like this these can't go up that far without hitting the shovel so it's soft end of it i remember when i first see stuff like that i think it's dynamite some type of label vinegar it's weird see what's going on back here on a dynamite wick this is a really substantial part of the mind they put a lot of track in here it gives me more confidence i mean this seems more like the makings of the big mine than the small mines so maybe as they were getting closer to the union they were putting in better stuff oh so freaking gross just what i want to see petrified rat this is cool back here it is um that's what's a wrong surprise you should keep going yep um it's kind of sketchy though i wouldn't go i'm gonna go up use your hand it's true uh i don't know if you come over here i'll check but i'm using it down from this first but there is think about if you were gonna hide some jeans or would you hide jeans yeah that's a good idea someone should do that anything good uh no not yet not yet yeah there seems to be a lot of dynamic in this level that's pretty cool should i walk on it there's another small space for me to crawl into perfect lucy oh yeah you're right that's it's weird that space is just big enough for you to crawl into it when too small for me unfortunately so yeah you know how it goes well i have a reputation for this it's called recklessness as long as i only endanger myself careful dude talk about gas masks come here that's cool old school gas mask that's awesome score got a bunch of dynamite to bring back boxes don't wake up that bat slowly should we go in there i mean we got the ladder now hey you got the time i got the time all these boxes all right this is cool looks like there are ladders that go back up there's a big there's a big bag right there i know i saw that but i don't want to touch it because those rocks look like they're ready to come down cool look at this ladders hold up he says no it just stops here it looks like this was a dynamite's bolt oh look at all those so there's levels up there those so but that's the level we just came from i think so i'm gonna go up it all right and check it out and then uh i'll let you know what i find i mean this big piece of rock definitely fell from the ceiling oh yeah no that's super scary those rungs are in set so they should be all right yeah that's the main one so that's where we were already yeah yep man i never thought i'd see the day johnny saying be careful you can edit you can edit that out please edit it out you have like a reckless nature to uphold yeah all right ladies and gentlemen the moment we've all been waiting for all right guys we're probably 20 feet from oh so there's the bottom what do you put as odds 50 50. 50 50. anyone taking those down goes fearless leader and i'm up next i changed those odds 70 30. 70 yes 30 no 70s okay i'm not going to tell you what's down here yet oh boy i need to know hold on let me get off the rope is it even worth it me going down there it's 100 worth coming down here yes okay i'm not gonna get on the rope i'm just gonna freak out too much but it takes so long this is a chosen race johnny yeah get your ass on here we got things to celebrate we're at the bottom of the bouillon and lookie what we have here oh boy look at that oh boy guys this is it i think that over there so that's the bottom of the shaft that was our nightmare shaft that we didn't know if we could get down or not that's where the ladder broke and looks a lot like the union mine tracks welcome johnny i have good news this looks a lot like the union mine tracks lead the way go time if there's ever a moment for denim it's now i mean you have to think nobody's been down here a very long time your meter's on right yes just gotta check low oxygen gas concentration hey we have the miners classic the prince prince albert can we got a can inside a can uh-oh oh no say it ain't so say it ain't so no bomber the hell are these tracks going then they're it's me but no all that for this folks it's not looking good nothing nothing just no oh man that's disappointing we know now we know that it does not connect and leave a little present for the next folks down what do you think what are your feelings right now i'm pretty bummed but at least i know where this goes now you know yeah content with that and guess what what there's still the omega we went back to the main shaft and i think the adrenaline the excitement had worn off because you know the bubble was popped and then you have to scale this 300 foot ladder and so you start back up and take it the same way you went down you know run by rung so i started climbing back up yeah it's kind of like it's nothing all right i'm done you're safe here how do you feel good i'm done for this chapter of mine exploration what do you feel about today's exploration uh successful in retrieving the glove kind of disappointment that it didn't connect but all in all i'm happy that we well we know we know that yeah that's what i'm happy about that we know where it goes that's all i care about yep let's pack it up and as they say what did they say out of here jtfo yeah and after all that we come back above ground night time well just back from the expedition haven't taken off the harness or the jumars or anything yet but the bouyon tunnel does not connect to the union mine at sarah gordo i can say that definitively now it probably did in the past but collapse 150 years it doesn't anymore that's not the last of the union mine that's not the last of trying to get into it from a different place the omega tunnel is still out there and i think this if anything just makes me more excited to dig that out the backhoe and see where that leads i thank you guys for following along on this adventure i think you guys love following along on all the adventures you know it really means a lot to me i just can't express that enough that i love sharing sarah gordo with everybody and i love the feedback they've gotten and the people i've been able to meet and the community that's kind of developing around it and so thank you very much i'm gonna take off i'm gonna try to clean up as much as i can without running water go to bed and uh i will see you all next week you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 1,123,232

Rating: 4.9561329 out of 5

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Id: iV77JGhDVqk

Length: 33min 26sec (2006 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020