I Got A 5 Ton Military Truck For My Ghost Town!

hello there welcome to cerro gordo my name is brent and just about a week ago i thought i was going to have a casual friday you know clean up a cabin site maybe go on a hike instead i ended up with this five-ton military truck and going 900 feet underground all thanks to a surprise visit and that's what this video is all about holy sh no way this is awesome best adventure yet today so we're stuck [Music] at the 700 there's no damage i'm on top of the cart and everything looks fine we're just around that tight spot [Music] so last friday i was working on this week in the life video you know living up here in this abandoned ghost town for the last year and a half my life's a lot different than it was you know when i moved here and so i was trying to put together this video to show the day-to-day activities up here how i occupy my time and last friday i had done my sunrise hike you know i had made breakfast i made coffee and my plan for the day was to go to this old cabin site and continue cleaning it up in the anticipation of rebuilding it and that is where the day took a very interesting turn back to work time to clean up that big mess that i created yesterday but it's okay it was a mess that led to artifacts and i'll make that trade all day long artifacts for a mess easy you know i was up here i was working on this cabin site my plan was just to clean up this road a little bit get this cabin site ready for some volunteers that were gonna come and help me move the wood off to the side and i was documenting the whole thing you know setting up time lapses and all this trying to do this week in the life video and i remember i was in the backhoe sitting just about here and out of the corner of my eye i saw some type of commotion happening down in town and i turned and my brain kind of put two and two together and i was like dave i think dave sparks just came to surprise me uh i'm cutting in a road yeah that's hot tub it was dave sparks and just a massive five-ton military truck holy sh no way dude no way holy the whole crew you know guys that i work so much with pouring the footings i just changed my day immediately you know it was so exciting to see them i thought they were on a trip somewhere else you know somewhere in the area and they happen to be coming through with this truck i didn't put it together that this truck had been brought here for me you know this didn't enter my mind and then when dave told me it was just crazy i was like no way you know i've been looking for this for so long yeah that's wow i do i do look i know you needed you needed a truck so we thought what better thing to do than to go see brent on a friday give him his new five ton bring some beef have a little barbecue and just hang out did you have any idea zero literally zero clue i i literally thought you were doing that three four things that's awesome yeah yeah today i was like well i go cut in the road and then when i saw you guys i was like smiling oh yeah that's nice zero clue at all that's awesome so i didn't actually get to use this bad boy till the next day you know day one dave and hunter and his team just kind of took me through the ropes and showed me how to use it yep run this switch here like that back and forth but immediately you know on saturday i took my first water run down the hill with this thing all right so as you can see construction has once again begun on the american hotel we're putting out some block but block needs concrete and if we know anything concrete needs water so i'm gonna go down and get some water but that's gonna give me an opportunity to use this bad boy five ton that mr dave sparks brought up the other day for the first time time for the inaugural trip if you've been watching this channel for a long time you know that my main goal my purpose beyond anything else is to rebuild the american hotel here at cerro gordo the american hotel was this hotel built in the 1800s that tragically we lost last year in a fire and since then it's just been a battle against a lot of things but one of the biggest hurdles in the rebuilding is transportation you know this town's just 8 500 feet at the end of a seven mile dirt road so getting anything up here is hard and getting anything heavy up here is even harder you know that's why i think three months ago dave came up and we had this whole production to pour 81 yards of concrete and get the footings finally down and then after that i've just been scrambling to try to figure out how to get the block up how to get the lumber up to start framing out this thing and i texted dave a couple weeks ago i was like hey dave you know we're getting those five tons you know they're fairly hard to get these days and he didn't just recommend somewhere he uh showed up and surprised me with one to keep for myself [Music] all right i'm filled back up but now is the real test now to try to take about 600 gallons back up the hill [Music] so all that to say you know this truck is just an amazing addition to the town it not only looks incredibly cool it's incredibly useful and it's going to be put to use immediately for the rebuilding of the american hotel so after dave showed me how to use it you know this whole crew was down to just hang out you know i was clearing this cabin site anyways so everybody just chipped in and we cleaned up this site in no time welcome back dave hey guys thanks for being here hey no problem it's good to see you jim what's going on 100 minutes the whole cruise back look at this [Music] and what i thought was gonna take me the entire day took an hour maybe today's added to our china collection what'd you find here we've got a nice little teapot here it is there we go and we'll be there forever yes and dave came not just with a truck but he also came with steaks which i'd never have for lunch steaks from a cow that he actually raised himself which is insane these are our cows jim and i raised these cows up in the mountains of utah they're all grass-fed beef originally montana cows and it's going to be well you'll see some of the best beef you'll ever have so we all went down there we got to catch up over lunch hunter wants to take people into a tornado hunter is trying to build a tour bus that can withstand tornadoes drive in hunker it down and let people experience being inside of tornadoes not just for him you know some fans came that knew both of us which was fun and i was thinking during lunch i was like man you know dave did all this for me you know it came all this way we gotta do something fun we gotta do something exciting when i do something epic i just called the hoist operator the guy that can operate the hoist i'm gonna try to take uh dave and dave down into the union mine for the very first time they haven't been there before and i asked which where they wanted to go and they said let's take it all the way to 900. i got some news for both the days uh voice operator is a go oh yeah so we're going down in the mine today hold on this will only be the second time you've ever been to 900 right if we make it if we if we make it damn if we make it all right so we're getting geared up we're gonna go down in the hole brian's gonna take us down this is dave's gift from earlier and what better way to repay someone than take him 900 feet down into the ground on a hoist built in the 1800s and just like that there's a crew this is the hoist house at cerro gordo this is the reason the town is what it is because just behind the camera over there is the union shaft and the union shaft is a hole that goes 900 feet straight down with levels every 100 feet or so on this channel it shows me going down in the union mine a lot and at that point it might feel a bit casual or without risk that's not the case you know every trip down the union mine is dangerous every trip has its own set of problems and they're never quite the same and so going down there you're always very cautious of who you go with but with dave and dave they're about as good as exploration partners as you can hope for you know they're adventurous they're fearless they're resourceful to get out of situations but they also have a good head on their shoulder where they're not gonna push their luck and on this day we ran into issues and we needed that calm level-headedness to get us out of there so we're just doing all the pre-trip checks right now running it down a little bit oiling up everything everything's good ready to go we're not gonna die no not today not on my watch full cage full cage we got a full cage and i kept on i was pushing for a fourth full cage for a good uh good hour so yeah buckle up one hour man we actually buckle up no there's no buckle there's actually there's not only no buckles there's no side to two of the different uh ends of the cage so all right let's it oh good news is we've got this so um this is this is the rescue plan if you guys remember last time i went down there uh we actually did have to use this oh yeah it's kind of sticky you know if we get caught what has to happen is somebody has to clip in somebody has to go below the cage and cut our way out so uh yeah yeah i love it i remember my first time down on the hoist is terrifying you know you're thinking that you're using this piece of equipment from the 1800s and your life is literally on the line and as we started going down there was this kind of conversation around how many people could we bring down you know was it going to be too many bringing all three of us at the same time down there which is uh laughable considering what we ended up taking out of the 900 foot levels this is going to be it for a while guys i love it how do they dig out a shop like this that's too deep i think dynamite and then from my stand they just put like a rock on this string you know to make sure it's dead straight and then just just go straight all the water at cerro gordo comes from right there that's red you guys hang that fly yeah yeah and we signed it the guys that put the water back and signed it that's so cool [Applause] try sticking your antenna in the hole okay so it gets a little sticky here just past the 700 just it just holds you from here loosen up later on now if i remember correctly yeah we should grease up the yeah we cut out a piece right there last time what did you really that's where you used that yeah sounds well and the trip down was relatively smooth you know we got down there without too many problems you know there's a bit of communication problems with the radios but other than that we're good to go wow that's the bottom of the union mine holy look at it go that's a damn song oh my goodness well guys if you look on the back side of your cage oh yeah the 900 foot level of the ceiling you need mine wow this is it and we're here that's cool and as soon as we arrived i had that excitement that i normally have whenever i get into mines but i could see that excitement in both dave and dave so it's cool to be down there almost like kids in a candy store and although i had been to the 900 foot level i never really explored it thoroughly you know i wasn't climbing over any collapses a lot first time i was down there i was down there just to put my plaque down there and get out but this time we started going to every corner it's so much more roomy down here let's get some room look at this guy not bad huh you drew that guy i don't know it probably wasn't a collapse this was probably stuff they mucked and never hauled out you know or they they backfilled it in there because they don't take it out right take it all imagine having to take waste rock 900 feet back up yeah that was sucks to try to think that we're like 900 feet underground that is pretty wild it's an old uh powder room like dynamite room because of the the door they would have put that on there to keep people out of there yeah i love it i love a good adventure this is definitely a good adventure yeah i think that's the end of the road damn uh no no no there's track below it's like it was keep going you know there's truck there some good specimens nice i figured i couldn't go home with just one for me i do one for my friends lots of uh unexploded dynamite and are you going to touch it that's what the people want to know i know it's that's why in your comments below should he touch it [Laughter] is this kalina they're really heavy kinda let me see what we've got going on here i don't know what this is no that's what this whole thing is full of yeah tall guys 1889 damn wow corby that's cool you know i enjoyed watching them experience what i'd seen before and then i think i enjoyed it just equally amount when we started finding new areas you know new collapses to climb over heavy d is basically afraid of nothing down in the mines so he started climbing over collapses and we all followed i remember in one of them we were going up this chute you know they're obviously following a galena pocket up and up and up this one's real loose right okay yep as we get to the top we first saw this pickaxe this is some acrobatics an old pickaxe really yeah that's what i'm talking about and it was just deteriorated to all you know there was nothing left of the handle the head was rusted through but it was still cool to find this pickaxe from you know the 1800s down in the mine and just behind the pickaxe we found this pocket of galena and galena is the main order they're mining here you know it's silver lead and so we had the great idea that we needed to take this galena with us back up top so suddenly dave and dave turned into miners you know they were taking the pickaxe head hammering out the gleam out of the wall oh dude dana miner sucks [Laughter] right here there you go big piece just fell down dang we should have brought the rock hammer right now okay got some big old pieces out of there huh you don't look like i want the strip club with those glitter on my beard guys it's gonna be like yo sure you guys went to sarah gordo again like i said we took some good pieces out you know we took some beautiful specimens back up to the top but as we kept going through the mine we kept finding more things that were just impossible for me to take out previously falling off small cliffs yeah well falling off small classes better than five big clubs yes it is daytona yeah that's at least a gallon or two yeah and then a prince albert can which we have plenty of classic yeah see better days huh yeah it has see that tip that's how they would drill under the rock that's cool you want me you know i was taking out myself last can't time have the muscle so the jack used to be put in place right up against the face of the mine to put the drills in you know so they could keep drilling and then blast and continue the mine backwards think about it so far on the strip you've already got a mine galena and now you're moving a jack so you're getting a sense of what life might have been like [Music] maybe more yes and as we got there i think that the spirit of let's take stuff that was impossible to take before took over and so the idea came up to take this ore bucket and the difficulty was the oar cart was here and the hoist doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the shaft so you got a 400 pound ore cart down here that needs to get into this hoist up here that we're not exactly sure if it'll even fit perfectly [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the sign sorry about your sign brand now it's all good dave and dave started just creating this jenga system they put a block underneath the front part then a block underneath the back and a block on this and i'll block on that we can put one more in the front so before you know we had the leaning tower of our cart but to their credit pulled it off beautifully yeah baby okay now we gotta clear those wheels [Music] that's awesome that's so cool well we still got to get the jack in here now [Laughter] so what do you think this was awesome best adventure yet today heck yeah we're coming home with some uh decent treasure actually great treasures it's probably the first time an ore bucket's ridden up on this hoist in 100 years hey dave how's it going up there hey here we are just right now it's nice up here i'll tell you that right now you know the the cage was so packed that heavy d had to stand on the roof so he's on the roof of the cage and as we got up towards the 700 foot level it started creeping you know the movement went from smooth to very jerky so we knew that two things were happening one the hoist is struggling with the weight and two that's a part where the guide rails are in so it's getting tighter and given all the extra weight the hoist is having a really hard time pulling up this bucket so we're stuck [Music] 700 there's no damage i'm on top of the cart and everything looks fine we're just around that tight spot by the 700 level or anything yes yeah we have more cars that's scary you know when you think that you're 700 feet underground with a hundred and something year old cable that's having a hard time pulling you out you think about a lot of things you know you think about the cable braking you think about even if the cable doesn't break how are you gonna get out of here are you gonna walk up a 700 foot ladder with no rope you know so all these things are kind of going through our minds and we made a decision to get out you know it was about 10 feet above this was a 700 foot level that was a really lucky thing and so he climbed out of the cage climbed up kind of scaffolding around the shaft itself found our way into the 700 foot level and from there we were just a little bit more comfortable with them really gunning it you know trying to get it because if it were to break at least we weren't in it okay we are all off the cart so you're good to give it a shot again one more time we are all off the cart standing on level 700 so go ahead and try it again the only thing hanging tight right now is the elevator hanging very tight and so we're having a ton of communication problem during the whole time looking over the hole looking at the cage trying to tell them to go up go down go up go down we are currently on level 700 the elevator is about 10 feet below us so bring it up another 10 feet or so bring the hoist up another 10 feet can you hear me [Music] go ahead and bring the hoist up another 10 or 15 feet because we are not on it yet it's below us as we're standing on level 700. and finally they broke free you know finally we got past that tight spot we jumped in without stopping the hoist at all and just rode it all the way back up all right we're moving again they had to add additional braces on the far side oh yeah hello there we're almost home it was amazing you know it was an experience that i'll remember for a very long time i hope that you know dave and dave also remember for a very long time and i gotta say this is by far the biggest treasure i've all ever hauled out of the union mine so we had that going for us and then we all got topside you know we had all sorts of other plans i think we planned on being there down there for two hours maybe i imagine it was about four or five in total so by that point the sun was setting you know we all just were able to say our goodbyes and uh what started off as a day where i was going to clean up some cabin site turned into you know one of my most memorable days up here at cerro gordo today i started off i thought i was going to clear a cabin site yeah and then i remember i was out of the corner i was like it's a big truck i thought nothing of it then i thought that might be dave sparks and not only that it's gone from clearing cabin site another five ton here we've gone down to the 900 level yeah have an orc we have a jack we also have a treasure as i said thank you yeah every time you come it seems like it's a crazy surprise yeah and uh man this is this is going to help us so much you know with the rebuilding the hotel excited about it after spending some time up here and realizing what your logistics challenges are i happen to have this truck this is one of the first five times i ever bought actually um we just weren't using it yeah i was parked there in my building and uh so i went out looking for five ton i was i was trying to help you find it and i thought you know what we've got this guy right here this is an m813 this is one of the coolest army trucks ever built um difference between this and some of our other five tons is this is a five-speed manual so brent's gonna be a man here driving this thing but uh we were very pleasantly surprised coming up the hill trucks get hot every truck that comes up and down this hill gets a little bit warm this is the coolest running truck we've yet to bring up here 180 degrees all the way up this truck was stoked uh big shout out to my guys hunter all my guys at the shop uh for hustling getting this thing done and ready and now this is going to become a piece of american mining history as you can see with the logo on the doors of mines this is yours man you see a lot more of this truck in the upcoming videos as we rebuild the american hotel so dave and dave thank you guys so much always appreciate it thank you buddy thank you thanks for taking us down the mind yeah man and don't when you see some ads running the brent's videos because it's making this town better so i don't want to hear you complaining because we finally talked him into it rebuilt good yep [Music] you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 791,003

Rating: 4.9752121 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: laDllIpLs2s

Length: 27min 5sec (1625 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Level9TraumaCenter]

The unsung hero in this episode is your hoist operator.

Where does one even find a steely-eyed missile man type like that in the boonies?

[u/BRJH1303]

I was feeling perticularly down today until I saw this episode. Damn I love seeing him happy, his face when he saw the Cerro gordo written on the side of the truck was heartwarming. I really want to go meet him one day.