Going Deep In An Abandoned Mine For Priceless Minerals!

hello there behind me is one of the most famous mines in all of California this is Cerro Gordo's Union mine and back in the 1800s they pulled 500 million dollars worth of minerals out of this hole right behind me so in this video I'm gonna go 400 feet down that shaft in search of all these different minerals that might be left behind and I gotta say I've explored this mine a lot over the last few years but in this video I find an area of the mind that I've never seen before this is a very special priest I would say for me this is priceless this goes in a display cabinet [Music] all right so it has been a very long time since I have ventured down this hole behind me and this hole behind me is the union mine here at Cerro Gordo this hole behind me is part of the reason Los Angeles is what it is today you know every single building here at Cerro Gordo we're all created to service this mind and so that's why for the past three years now I've spent so much my time down there just documented and I go down there mainly to discover history that said there still is some very cool minerals down there you know and so this jury that I recently went on was really in three parts my first time down there I just wanted to go down and document the 400 level the 400 level of the Union mind is a very important level here you know that is where I found my one and Elusive pair of Levi jeans I have mine silver from down there and so the the first trip was to hopefully go down there document it and notice anything that I didn't see before so all right this first strip down to the 400 level was more of just a preliminary trip for a big project we're trying to do in the spring here we're going to try to 3D map every single level of the Union mine I've been talking to some really cool really Innovative companies about the process of doing that and in the end we will have a dimensional scale model of all the 30 miles of Mines that exist down below this cage so on this day I wanted to go down there just take a direct to camera you know quick walk around to send back to the company so we have an idea of kind of like some of the obstacles and some of the hurdles that we were looking for I didn't know at the time that that would lead to three separate trips needing two miners to go down there with me and hundreds of feet of rope and all sorts of new discoveries but some of the craziest Adventures start very small and this was definitely one of them [Music] [Music] and so we should be approaching the 400 level right about now so there you are this is as you can see the 400 level of the Union mine we'll see how close we have it up top to stop it right on the nose we should be good right about there let me see [Music] on this day I only had a one hour time limit so you know as I was sprinting around kind of glancing at all these things I started noticing more minerals that maybe I hadn't seen before I have a huge pocket of greens not a copper potentially malachite maybe Crystal Cola definitely a copper ore of some type wow here this might be the most valuable Rock find that I found in a long time this I believe is a giant piece of smithsonite there's two different types of Smiths tonight there's one that kind of they call Turkey fat that's white and crystalline and there's one that's blue my friend Tim that's up top loves smithsonite that's something that you know sometimes it takes a while to get an idea of where it is for now let's try to sneak through this a little bit more see if we can't see where they're talking about this 550 connection towards the end of it I saw all these signs pointing to what said the 550 level now the union mine itself is a vertical shaft now in between all these levels they would have created lenses and little kind of like shoot and Ladder mazes to get in between the two not having to use this Union mine main shaft suddenly maybe you have miles more of mine to explore so anytime I see a little marking you know a little exit sign I get excited out so this at one point in time led to the 550 level which is a level below us that could be the way the 550 or that could end right there but this is a really cool rocks up there it might just because I have a new light but oh whoa now that something that is very tempting it looks like that might drop off it's very narrow too but we'll squeeze down there I don't know if I can accurately depict how narrow this is but I don't have a bunch of room oh looks like it just ends oh it keeps going oh there's a ladder there oh we're going down further and further I do have a time limit I told Tim I'd be back up at the top but that looks just too too interesting to give up yet I mean this might go down all the way to the 550 through here you can see some huge borders being held up by some very precarious wood so if I don't want to touch any of the wood because I've already touched that and those would start falling but that's where I have to go back up now so every step down is commitment further that I can get back up so I really have to think that through so I see this in the rope that you want to be using but what this is is a guide just in case you get down there I'm finding it too slippery to get back up I have something you know attached to a rock and bring me back up oh all right so we're bringing our core down with us I'm finding more ladders so I am quite convinced that this might snake all the way down to the 550. but it looks like it's about to get extremely steep so this ahead of us it's not something I'm comfortable doing just with a small paracord but what it looks like I did find there's a connection down into the 550. we've already probably gone 50 feet below the 400 and so this drop below is not one that again I'm comfortable doing just on paracord if you can see it definitely goes much deeper right there and I believe it keeps going and at the 550 I've run into collapse many times and I couldn't keep going so this is the problem with exploring when you have time limits and exploring when you don't have all your gear um you know 50 of me wants to go down that I think that I could most likely scramble back up but again being down here by myself it's not worth it I know it exists now I was just trying to find a time to come back and get down to the 500 foot 550 level this way because this drop is at least 30 to 40 feet down at the very bottom and if I could go down there I think rock climbing but it's then ascending back up this is not a great idea so now let's go back up mark it on the map I'm actually very glad I brought this even small cable it is helping get back up on these slippery rocks oh this could be also just an enormous pocket of that Smith cement I was describing you can see it at the end here just that is that's a huge pocket of Smith tonight massive you never know what you're gonna get you know heraclita said that you never step in the same river twice you never explore the same mind twice even though I've been down here so many times we have a huge Pockets missing over here we have a pocket of Galena below me and we have a connection to 550 to an area that I've never been at before so beautiful smithsonite can be very valuable too they can be cut and Polished to become nice you know I've seen somebody that posted some Sarah Goro Smith tonight on eBay for a few thousand dollars it must have been before my time but it was way smaller than this but I have to be really careful of going back up you can see these two rotten beams are holding up all these rocks I have to straddle around these rocks there there there to not send these down because we need to go down there oh all right as you can see was a little bit of a core to get in here oh but that is so cool all right all right all right all right see if we made it up that now back to the Hoist oh hello so I came back up I knew that that thing went further I knew that it potentially got to the 550 and the important part of that is it probably got to the 550 Beyond a collapse I got into before but luckily I had some visitors coming in just a few days and these visitors of everybody could be the perfect people to bring down into the mine with you I had Jason from Mount Baker mining up in Washington coming and I had Dan heard of Dan heard prospecting so two legitimate miners were coming two days later and what they wanted to see is they want to see some fun or they maybe wanted to go under the mine and me selfishly I wanted to continue down my little rabbit hole that I had started on oh [Music] all right so we're getting packed up and it turns out that Dan is going to go down there with us so Dan heard Jason and myself are all headed down I'm gonna bring my rope and harness I'm gonna try to go down that Cliff that I couldn't the other day when nobody was down there so as you can see I'm packing up we have the harness at the helmet we got the rock drill but I think it's gonna be a huge day I think we're gonna find some amazing stuff down there I'm glad that Jason and Dan are able to come with me and uh stay tuned because it should be quite the adventure heading back down the hole all right we're here with kind of the mining dream team of Dan and Jason uh Jason you've been down here before Dan is your first time down in the union mine uh well how are you feeling a little nervous okay a little nervous only having one way in or out yes that's mechanical yes it's scary I am still nervous I told everybody when I got back I yeah I don't need to go down there again I've done it once and here I am going down again so yeah right yeah I just won't be able to say I've been in the mines of Sarah Gordo there you go so Dan Jason how you guys feeling we're halfway halfway there uh and I've sort of been counting the rungs of the ladder on the way down I do not want to climb up welcome to the 400 level welcome back what am I doing here again [Music] okay there's a little there's a little jog down here right A little yeah there's gonna you're gonna come to a cliff and you're gonna go right down you do have the support rope to hold on to if you want to feel a little more safe oh yeah but just past your next step it's going to be just straight horizontal but then remember we have to go down that or shoot yeah the Box shoe yeah the Box shoot yeah gonna go ahead sure I think I have to have to get the backpack off for yep yep hey Jason I yell when you're at that Landing he's in the landing [Music] it's a little tight it does get very dark backpack yeah [Music] along the way [Music] hello there hey you kind of took it the easy way I did it I slid down we got a nice Dynamite box though [Music] beautiful [Music] heavy [Music] hey there are some big green stuff right there's some cool greens in there all right I don't know what that is definitely copper yeah definitely dark vein there too oh yeah that's cool yeah that's what we gotta go down after this to get to maybe the sixth 550. yep are you with the wall I'm at the wall okay straight here oh there's that there's a hole Yeah that's where we gotta that's where I'm gonna try to go down after this okay with some rope but see how this is like bubbly ish yeah it's very very oxidized right everything's black Rusty and and there's like bubbles over here yeah look at that you get a really big pieces there you go where's that look like it looks bubbly it looks bubbly all go down further yeah I'll move you here sure that's fine to Chisel away okay and if I dial yell something okay let me know if you die yeah tell them that I said something cool okay I'll think about that all right so we're down there so down here and now this is the drop you can see potentially the 550 so we need to get down there I'm harnessed in let me give it a shot [Music] holy [ __ ] all right I'm going down this and it's actually much much deeper than I thought it was as you can tell we're going down some crazy crazy shaft and I hope I have enough rope I don't know that I will we're gonna go as far as I can go back up but this is insane okay [Music] I don't know if you guys can see up that but that's insane some big rocks tons of Galena down here huge pieces of Galena I don't know if that's a level or if that's a collapse down there but it looks like we have enough rope to get there so let's find out I don't know if you guys can tell but it's really tight down there it just keeps going I've been going down you know this rope I was gonna bring the longer rope but this rope was exactly 100 feet and so we're probably already 50 feet below the 500 when I started so the end of this rope you would figure be the 550. but if you look I mean I can't see for sure but does not look like we're at the end foreign well as you can see I'm now at the end of the 100 foot rope that I brought and so I'm at least 550 feet down and this thing just keeps going is this weird little like pocket they were following or something but if you throw a rock give me a rock he goes for a very long ways so I think I gotta go back up once again get more rope to see where this hole goes this journey back up it's gonna be long such a bummer laughs foreign yeah oh yeah just uh pretty insane little thing we're getting there as you're going down it's just like this pretty much the whole way down wow so they they thought they were on something hot yeah I mean this little piece too if y'all have this little guy is even that oh yeah that's like solid Galena for sure and there's like the whole you look down that weird rabbit hole that goes like I said more than 100 feet and you still can't see the bottom dangling from the end of the Rope Oh weird so unfortunately trip number two came to a stop with uh the end of my 100 foot rope and I promised myself to go back down there in the very near future the good part about that is Dan Jason and I were able to take just some beautiful samples of these rocks back up to the surface foreign [Music] well I think a lot of these will look really a lot better once we clean them up especially those uh celebrate if that's what they are because they're so Rusty I love the bugginess of the lid and some of them we actually saw crystals in yeah one of the crazy white crystals you like that stuff I did I actually I was really into collecting that yeah there's another big bug right yeah that first one I hope we I hope we put it in I handed it off I I found it still heavy enough there we go awesome did it that was fun yeah they were beautiful and I loved getting them but still to me as that completionist I still needed to get down further see it was at the bottom of that hole and luckily a couple days later Scotty was around and Scotty's always won that's excited to go on the rope with me all right so I'm outside of the Union mine back for the third time trying to go down that little hole that is at the 400 level that I think either connects into the 550 which would make sense or because it's going south it might Connect into the Jefferson chimney which would just be insane with that in mind let's get packed up let's oil the Hoist get down there and finally figure out what the heck's going down this little rabbit hole inside the 400. all right so you didn't see you take care of the cats will do yes [Music] all right so we're back down to the 400 level have a lot more rope with me a Scotty with me oh yeah and we are going to see what the bottom of that tunnel is all about we have enough rope to at this point to get halfway down to the 900. [Music] I feel like I'm gonna die now on behind the first landing and I wouldn't grab onto this log here okay because log it is supporting all those rocks that you're on oh yeah yeah come on down all right and so that's where it starts to see the cliff there oh yeah that's where it starts going vertical so I'm gonna start heading down that and then when it'll take me a little bit of time I don't want this to fall on me so let's bring this piece back up thank you all right so we're back to the end of the 100 foot rope and Scotty's coming on right now I hear some serious rocks getting thrown down past him I'm on a landing so I'm off the Rope right now because I need to leave the Rope secured for him so now we need to create another anchor here to continue going down there and so I'm thinking that we're going to drill into this rock put a bolt you know like they as they would use for rock climbing and we're going to continue on down but as you can tell it's very narrow very steep very sketchy down here I can't even turn around but I'll try to get some I'll try to get some of Scotty coming down [Music] I don't know what just happened up there but it's got rained on did I get anyways not a very easy descent how's it going up there pretty insane yeah they're just Galena everywhere I know good let's go over here uh you're good to stand there but now we have to do how's that that's easy and now see this [Music] oh my Lord and it just keeps snaking around how far did you go down that right here because the end of the roof right here oh is it and so so you haven't been down any of that no that is it 100 feet right here so I went to that and then that's the incline I was like oh maybe I can just walk down and I was like no if I walk down there's no way you're getting back up but I see what you mean it's like it's very convincing like I could just walk down it feels like you walk down and walk like that but if you can't walk back up you're just screwed yeah you're [ __ ] so I'm thinking you know like this truck doesn't look terrible Maybe because I got the Rope here pretty insane do you see some of those other shoes with ladders coming down yeah I did it's wild rocks yeah there's a lot of Galena down here I think they're just chasing a vein yeah I think so too let's say over here [Music] we're about probably 120 feet below the 400 level uh We've rolled some rocks down don't know how far it goes but now we're gonna go into the great unknown you know see what happens from here [Music] it was like yeah I would not have been able to get back up if I was free climbed no it just dude this is insane [Music] the excitement of going down these things is one that I don't know where I get that excitement anywhere else really my life you know it just like something is about to happen I'm about to find out a new part of this town that I love so much and sure enough you know not only I don't know uh five minutes in feet hit bottom listen I don't get ahead of ourselves but I just came down here and we are definitely on the 550 and we're on a level see the track they don't leave track unless they've seen a lot I've never seen this part of the 550. so we're on completely Uncharted Territory it's got it's come on down but folks this could just be like historic I mean this might support so many times I've been on here so many times I've never been in this part of the 550 there's tracks here there's what appears to be another shoot in front of us that because we have the Rope we could continue going down this could just be one of the biggest and most exciting Explorations yet okay get that nice butt shot yep nice I'm uh we are at a part of the 550 that I've never been into before how do you know we are at the 550s because there's track right right and then it goes both ways yeah so we've definitely have entered a whole world this is wild yeah all right we're on the 550 what we think is the 550. we're gonna do a little exploration let's say 55 yeah holy whoa is this the Jefferson this uh we're uh that might lead into the Jefferson because I'm making our way over here let's see how far the Rope will go you never brought that other rope and so Scotty and I walked over and sure enough we just saw this what appeared to be just an infinite pit you know just an insane pit all the way down of just void and once again we got into the situation of rope you know we were thinking we were going to need enough rope to go down another 100 feet maybe but now suddenly you know we're 100 feet off another Direction down there and we're potentially going into the Jefferson chimney it's a bit sketchy for Scotty's liking I totally understand that it was a bit sketchy for my own liking whoa no it's okay yeah I do actually no yeah I do you see me just uh yeah oh [ __ ] thank you I mean if we're already at 550 then we'll have to be going towards the 700. right the only way is down right no it looks sketchy the whole thing feels a little sketchy there's like a level right over here too so I got under this ledge that just felt like I don't know a three foot wide ledge would just drop on both sides and yes I'm attached to row but yes the human instinct to not want to fall off a ledge still exist even if you're on a rope I don't wanna like straight repel you know I want to like rock climb yeah but it is not looking like that's an option and I'm about to fall which I don't want to do [ __ ] love you prom getting back over this little ledge thing oh yeah [Music] that's nice all right collected some cool Galena down here it's crazy pit again it stops seems to be classed in different areas but see that there's more up above us to explore might need more rope anyone running out of time but I'm gonna head back up there with the Galena that I got and at least know what's down another pit now though if you get all the way up there God damn it that was that was hard to climb as it had foreign exploration that I wanted to do no unfortunately once again we had time limits we had rope issues and this is an exploration that's going to need a lot lot more planning this is one that is going to continue going but the thing that we did learn in this is a few things one that rabbit hole does leave down to the 552 there's a hole that leads deeper below the 550 potentially in the Jefferson chimney and three there is a ton of valuable minerals down in this part of the shaft alright so let's take a look all the brown of mine first you know my favorite we have Galena and again Galena lead silver Lewis sulfur some other stuff this is going to be turned into silver we have what I believe to be Smith's tonight and smithsonite is interesting for a few reasons there was it was first kind of named by a guy named James Smithson and James Smithson may be familiar because of the Smithsonian Institute in DC and so in the early 1800s he is the one that kind of puts smithsonite on the map these days as I said before like Sarah Gordo smithsonite goes for thousands of dollars on eBay I'm not the one selling it so if it's you where did you get it how did you get it other than that we have this other one which could be calcite I don't quite know yet we're gonna take a look when we get down there we have the very rare blue potential Smiths tonight I have another piece out there that I'm very very excited to cut because smithsonite is so interesting to me because it can be gray it can be blue it can be all these different colors so with that let's put all of our finds back into the bucket let's take my truck let's go to Lone Pine let's shine some of these up hopefully the president of the Lone Pine Mineral Society is there I believe secretary these days his name is Brian so I'm hoping that Brian can give us some more insights and confirm that these are smithsonite or are not but no matter what these are beautiful and stay tuned because after we shine them up I'm gonna give away some of these things and uh I think about a new hobby you know for the first three years I've just been interested in finding newspapers and finding Dynamite boxes but these are pretty dang cool and so uh if you're on the lookout for a lot more mineral hunting in the future so first let's get down there let's check these out [Music] foreign mineral compound but I believe it is this building over here so let's go in there bring our Hall maybe Brian can confirm that some of this is Smith's tonight for us we got Brian yeah hi everybody Mineral Society don't find Jim and mineral side I'm the acting secretary now but I've been with the society for a while since I've been down to Lone Pine we've got one of the best collections of local rock okay um in the Inyo and in the valley um ever yeah so I gotta say when I went down to the German Mineral Society I was thinking maybe we'd Identify some rocks maybe I'd be there for 10 20 minutes then be gone and I ended up staying there for four or five hours it was just such a cool Community to tap into you know Brian called some other people and before I knew it we had 10 people you know from around the community all there willing to pass on their knowledge of the rocks know give me tips on cutting rocks give me tips on you know exploration just admiring the rocks that we did find foreign [Music] [Music] you get the first reveal here all right boy or a girl oh it's a boy I didn't know it was a boy or a girl because it's not Hollow alright so we had kind of the Heavy Hitters of the Gem and Mineral Society stop by yeah we did and it feels like we found a lot more than maybe we thought we identified that as smithsonite correct yeah this is a dismiss a night uh it's missing nights in its really good form is uh aquamarine and in the blue this is the one that you're not going to find any a specimen like this you don't want to even like mess with this yeah when you can see the layers in here right and you got this in the middle of the Earth by the way in the middle of the enyo yeah uh it's they're saying this is copper here this blue is what was identified but there's also a gold streak through here this vein which we we do believe it's gold now we haven't put a gold finder on it yet and you see it up in here that uh the gold finder probably Screech when it hits this but it may pick up other me it may pick up other metal in here too but but if we have um gold and smithsonite in the same piece that's a pretty special piece this is a very special piece I would say for me this is prices this goes in a display cabinet yeah because this is a rare of all rares just because of all the different things that's in this this specimen here yeah um it's just really quite a piece um I told him not to sell it this is silver okay now Galena is lead and silver okay so you can find Galena just on some of these Foothills here and you just find it okay it's heavy Rock but you're actually seeing the silver in this so the specimens that uh Brent found deep within the mine on level four these are rare these are these are things that you're not just gonna get just like finding on the ground here in the Inyo range and so I really really enjoy my time down there and we were there far after dark and so I anticipate myself spending many many hours down there grinding away learning how to turn these beautiful specimens into something that you know maybe I could carry around with me every day but I just think one of the most special experiences I've had over the last few months was just kind of tapping into that Network foreign [Music] foreign so I am back with my Priceless minerals as Brian said down in the general Mineral Society so Cerro Gordo jewelry company I don't know probably coming pretty soon if you have any ideas about that do leave comments below but if you don't know all that I just have to say thank you thank you all so so much for checking out this video I know that the videos have been kind of few and far between over the last few months of the winter it has been a very cold winter up here there has been not a lot going on because of the amount of snow and to be a little bit more personal I've been dealing with just some mental health stuff you know related to it being so cold and for so long up here but the weather is much warmer out I am feeling much better and there are some very exciting things on the horizon the first floor of the American hotel is done an update about that coming very soon I am headed to get a bar from the 1800s that has some crazy history to it that we need to get up here that's gonna be very fun so all that to say thank you all for sticking with this channel if you're not already I do hope you subscribe this channel there's some really cool things coming up and let me know below yeah what I should do with all of these minerals because I do have a lot of them and I do want to make something cool oh yes if you stuck around this long I'm going to give away this rock you know I'm feeling pretty good this is just a absolute music Museum specimen of Galena with crystals inside of it and so if you want this rock I'll put a link below sign up there I'm gonna ship it out to somebody in a couple weeks and thank you thank you all so much for checking out this channel you know you guys are the reason that this town continues running and just to see the community community develop around it has been so inspiring so thank you all so much and until next time I hope you guys have a great week [Music] [Music]

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 1,021,935

Keywords: abandoned mine, cerro gordo, cerro gordo ghost town, cerro gordo ghost town living, ghost, ghost town, ghost town living, ghost town living cerro gordo, ghost towns, living in a ghost town, Journey, Underground, Rare Minerals, Explorations, Union Mine, Mineral Finds, Passion, Valuable Minerals, Adventure, Underground Exploration, Mineral Collecting, Hidden Gems, Geology, Exciting Discoveries, Mine Exploration, Historical Site, Treasure Hunting, Adventure Seekers

Id: mvmWGM3QqEU

Length: 44min 11sec (2651 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/MalignantLugnut]

That was an awesome premiere.
Dan Hurd was adorable, as usual. <3

[u/IndustrialDesignLife]

Usually the cave stuff doesn’t bother me but at least a couple times I felt a small panic attack when they were squeezing down the shaft. Holding my breath, clutching my pearls. Hell of a find. I’m also thankful for the hotel update. Brent rocks and I always get excited about new episodes.

[u/BuffaloRoota]

So great to see Brent again. And doing well. I really appreciate his openness about his experience. Top notch human being!!! Thanks Brent!!!

[u/OtmShanks55]

Was so excited to see the video. Amazing video! A new way to get to the 500 level!