Going 700 Ft Down A Mineshaft For Treasure & Water

hello there my name is brent and in just a minute i'm going to take this cage from 1865 700 feet down into an abandoned silver mine why why would i risk my life going 700 feet down in an old silver mine well that's what this video is all about inside that building is the union mine and the union mine once upon a time was the largest mine in california's history something like 500 million dollars worth of silver was pulled out of that hole that i was just standing by but today i'm headed in there in search of water and treasures you see i live in an abandoned ghost town cerro gordo that's just below that hill and the only source of water is 700 feet down in that mine there water seeps from the mountain into a sump and from that sump and these get pumped up 700 feet up to here and then down into town unfortunately the pump keeps going out so today's adventure is to try to get water back and see if anything else is in there and this is the building that houses the union mine here and the union mine houses the only water source for this whole town and water has been a problem with this town since it was founded you know even when this place had 4 000 residents there's never a reliable source of water you know there's two springs in the history of cerro gordo and both of them dried up within two years so for the majority of the time they would bring up water with mules we're talking tens of thousands of gallons worth of water both to support the four thousand residents but also to support the mining you know mining is a very water intensive process so you need tons of it up here so they were just all day long coming and going down and up our road bringing water and for me i've owned serogoto for almost three years now and at first water was just a dream you know it's an illusion of the desert and i heard rumors of you know water down the union mine just over there 700 feet down but nobody had ever seen it with their own eyes and i was told that it was way too dangerous to go down and get it but then about nine months ago i met guys that were convinced that we could do it you know they were convinced that we could go back down there replace the original pump run 700 feet of new piping and serogordo would have water once again that's what happened six months ago we did all those steps and there was water flowing down in town once again but it lasted about a week and then it stopped and at that time it was winter you know i thought there was a lot of rumors of why it stopped uh there was cold air rushing through the pipe there was a burnt out pump there's electrical problems all these things so i decided you know what i can make it through the winter without running water let's punt on it until it's warmer well now it's warmer and there's a bigger task at play that requires a lot of water you know i hope to start construction on a new hotel here the new american hotel which is going to require a lot of concrete and because of our road we are going to make the concrete here on site and making concrete requires a lot of water so now it's not just about washing dishes and cleaning up it's about building the hotel when we're talking about building the hotel we're talking serious now so i have a strong strong desire to get back down to the 700 foot level of this mine get this pump going again and bring water back up so that's the task today the task is we're gonna take this pump down and if the pump needs replacing we'll replace the pump we'll do whatever we need to do to bring water 700 feet back up that old mine shaft to right there to back into town so i can have water for the american hotel i have three 2500 gallon tanks down there i hope to store water in all of them which give me 7 500 gallons of water to work with it's going to be a big task you know this task requires taking an original hoist from 1865 using a 150 year old piece of equipment to risk your life dangling over a hole going down 700 feet but when we're down there i hope it leads to new water and also i hope i get to explore a little bit you know the 700 level here at cerro gordo is a level i've always wanted to explore i look at the maps of the place and it looks huge looks like there's so much to explore so many treasures to find and anytime i've gone down there before it's all business you know we're there to replace a pump we're there to get in and get out today i hope to convince the guys to let me you know look around a little bit more and maybe find some different treasures that's my hope anyways that's what i'm getting into today no matter what it's gonna be an adventure so stay tuned as i try to get water back here to cerro gordo the plan was i'd go down with two other guys we'd diagnose what's going on with the pump hopefully be able to just flip a switch and start it over again and then come back up so we headed down you know with high hopes the pump had been turned off for a while we thought maybe if we turn it on you know it'll just get going again and maybe it was the cold that was creating the problems so this week when replacing the pump my biggest concern was the hoist you know this is an original piece of machinery from 1865 where you're dangling in a metal cage by a cable with a 900 foot drop below you hoisted failed in the past and unlike a brand new rope i don't have 100 confidence in the hoist structural integrity but once the hoist is going down the voice is going down you know worrying about the cable snapping isn't going to make it any more or less likely to happen so it's not even worth thinking about it [Music] [Applause] [Music] and as we got down there we quickly learned that the pump we had down there which was essentially new six months ago was kaput you know it wasn't working anymore it needed to be replaced and luckily we had another pump up on the surface so that this pump needed to come out and go back up let's go see what the sumps looking like you know where the actual water source is down here there's your water there's the ducks of cerro gordo 700 feet down this is what we're looking at and it doesn't make a ton of sense why it's not getting back up to the top but you know i'm not the expert here sauce craig so craig who was with me who's a electrician he took out the pump what was going on with this wasn't strong enough or something yeah we were getting zero pressure on the gauge so fill it with oil didn't help it's not even sucking water that's all that was in the pipe going up that one all the way up to and we're gonna go back up and each trip down to the 700 foot level takes about 45 minutes each way so you're thinking an hour and a half round trip and so as they're going up i thought to myself you know how many of us does it take just to bring a pump back up and bring a different pump down so i convinced the guys to leave me there all right you know i get a little peek down and so they left with the promise to return you know you never know and i started exploring well there's only about four ways to go so let's take path number one oh we got some crisp blue something i mean you're telling me that's not blue blue fabric oh what we got oh what's pants that's a pant leg of it you know to me people ask sometimes you know what would you do if you were to find levi's and the points never sell them i just think the fact that they sell for 100 000 is interesting it puts in perspective how rare they are you know the the rarity of these items but for me it's more about this became a quest you know just became something i'm searching for something to give me a little bit of excitement as i go back into these mines and if i find them my goal is to put them in the museum so i can continue telling people about the history of you know denim and blue jeans and mining and so more people can learn about it i mean if i do find an intact pair i'll probably have to beef up my security at the old museum but that's my plan for him you know it's just become like not an obsession that's too strong of word but a strong passion is under oh look at that the stream it's no listerine bottle this is definitely the dump this is definitely where there's through stuff they didn't want but yeah i think already you know i mean a lot of people watching this probably didn't know that the blue jean was invented for california silver miners and levi strauss created that first blue gene you know they didn't invent denim but they invented the blue gene as we know it and so that was in 1868 and so you're looking for mines they were active in 1868 this mine was peaking then this was like as big as it got then so if there's ever a mine where there would be you know the original levi's being worn it would be here at cerro gordo and they found him here before there's been a few different times where they've discovered them and that gives me hope you know that means it's happened before you know maybe it can happen again maybe it'll happen right now maybe i'll happen the next 10 minutes i'll be moving these rocks around and boom full pair of jeans these rags look very much like you would use if you're going to the bathroom so they got those gloves on and that's a beautiful color the more i'm over in this area the more i'm convinced it is their trash heap because they got extra pipes over here they got extra traffic over here all this extra tubing you know the clothes that are in here already so this is definitely their trash heap that doesn't mean that there's going to be any type of pants or jeans in it but given that i've already found all that clothing i feel like this is you know to be honest there's another one there's the buttonhole right there to be honest this is amongst the best leads i've ever had i think to find some jeans it's just there's so much dirt and rock over here for now i'm gonna go over there see it's back over that way oh that's a good start you know right off the bat boom we had clothes blue clothes even oh wow this goes aways for the carbide bin back in the day how the miners would have their headlamps is they had carbide and so carbide would come in big tins like this so if you look see how it says right there see it says this is a carbide tip the miners would dip in here [Music] fill up their head lamps and that's how they would get light back here well i think it's interesting that this light is 100 000 lumen so right now if i do this that's the brightest that this shaft has ever been you know carbide would never get it that bright well this looks welcoming doesn't it [Music] ah it looks like they backfilled this just threw stuff around wedges track oh boy [Music] get real hairy but an hour and a half what else am i gonna do with it oh [Music] oh wow i've never been back here fabric gloves another trash pit this place is stocked oh yeah oil bed ah yeah i remember how to get out of here i'm gonna follow the track first it's an ore shoot right there oh straight back first this is exciting to me oh man this level is huge [Music] oh there's trash there let's stay on the main track for now damn there's a lot to see here uh-oh another split i think i remember which way i'm going oh that's another trash heap oh where's up there watch that way all right [Music] uh in my excitement i'm getting turned around a little bit [Music] so what i'm going to do is i'll do this glow stick down this way so i know that's the way i came when i come back to this t and it keeps branching off so remember if i don't remember that weighs the weight out atlas powder look how cool that is bam yes i'm taking that taking that that's so doable damn it i feel like i have to go up there right nothing [Music] all the way got these probably the 10th trash heap so far another dynamite box and this level just i mean i've ignored like 10 different branches and trash heaps 30. it just keeps going finally that'll be quick there's a toilet maybe they're using jeans as their toilet paper which is gross but hey jeans or jeans that's interesting it says exit but i'm way back i wonder where that could have been from oh whoa the amount of toilet signs is concerning this this this level is massive i mean let's go to the toilet so there's so many freaking signs that way dynamite box boom look at that full dynamite box i'm actually kind of afraid because there's like 15 to toilet i almost feel like they're like with me there's a trash heap giant high instructions boom more just look this level is insane that i boxed giant taking that seven ton there's so much to see on this level where's this toilet they're talking about oh oh yeah this is it the powder room that's so cool this level is the coolest level i've ever been into so you see they would create a frame and a powder room and all the dyno would go back there as we see the sawdust on the ground and wrappers i'm not gonna go in there one because scary but two i'm running up against my hour and a half like i want to go up there look at that oh man look at that box that's beautiful holy cow this is my favorite explanation yet oh it takes it's ex oh my flashlight's dying oh come on not what you want to see this is it what is it all right glow stick that way so we got that way i mean this thing just goes forever it just keeps branching i had no idea this level was this big because i never walked back straight when i got off i never had time to explore because i was always on a mission you know to diagnose the pump now that i understand how big this thing is i'm going to play on a proper trip down here there's another exit sign i mean i got to see what this exits about there's a die high box look other trash you can see the diamond box buried in there there's four of them in there [Music] this level is probably miles oh look a ladder up now i feel like i ha that's the exit oh oh i gotta go up that that's another day though i'm here by myself right now i told them i'd be done look there's a cable though to pull yourself up whoopsies how many people have possibly ever walked up that ladder very few if any so if there's any jeans we've already found denim we've already found pants this is it i mean this level of any level is the most exciting one i've ever checked out probably walking for a couple miles now i need to get back because i told those guys 15 minutes or hour and 30 minutes i mean but it's rushing past me if i would just spend my time to look at the ground there's so much stuff here i'm backtracking now to where i left that box all right i got a few treasures uh there's so many more treasures back here that i can carry but i only have five minutes to get back to the guys they're supposed to be back down with a new pump so i'm gonna make my way back but i'll say this i didn't know what to expect today you know i didn't know the seminar was this big i'd only gone to the other ends of it this just excites me because down each of these there's so much more to see there's probably another mile two miles to see so i'm coming back but the main thing about today was the mission to replace the pump so let's get back over there let's replace this pump let's get water back to cerro gordo now let's leave a little bit for the next day you know they say that about writing sometimes stop when you're the hottest that way you pick up good tomorrow so maybe next time i come down here i'll pick it up good i will find a whole bunch of stuff [Music] all right looks like i beat the guys back got my treasures no pump see where they are hopefully they're soon oh but the thing is past the pump pass this up there's two more full tunnels and those are anywhere near the lit the size that i just went through i might need a month back here not just a day but for now except for a little bit of water maybe a little snack and review this treasure i got i think the guys are getting close again hello oh there they are oh well guess i don't need to spend the night down here after all look at these treasures though look how cool that is all sorts of fun things to put into the museum and that's a successful day if you can get things for the museum and water block on at cerro gordo and i can't think of a better day hello again did you miss us terribly make any friends a few found some treasure too which is always a good thing nice oh why were you moving around down here me there was loud thumps and thuds really yeah oh when we were going up it wasn't maybe he's going oh oh there you go all right we have arrived johnny's perfect give me a leg the guys came back and then the real work began you know we put in the new pump and what we learned pretty quickly is that it was not a self-priming pump meaning the pump sits about 40 yards away from the actual water source and so there's a a water line laying between the pump and the water source and in that 40 yards there's a collapse so this line goes up and over maybe a four foot pile of rock and because of that it's very difficult to prime the pump meaning put water in that section of piping so the pump can start and the pump is not self-priming meaning it's not going to suck the water out itself so we had this contraption that basically used a drill to prime a pump so it sucks water out of one end and pushes in the other but because we were having to go over that four foot hump of dirt it just wasn't priming the way it should meaning that portion of line was not getting the water needed to kind of create the suction and for the pump to work i'm not sure how we're going to solve this last little bit of the pump problem today and so we were concerned you know it seemed like all this was in vain but then after you know maybe 30 minutes of squeezing my hand around this freezing cold pipe in 40 degree water the pump started spitting out a little bit and that was exciting you know that's the we've gone down there for and so now i can happily report that water is running uh i can't promise how long water will run but my hope is that i can fill enough storage tanks during this time that it is running to be able to use in the construction of the american hotel you know i'm going to need a lot of water i have three separate 2500 gallon tanks that i could fill up ideally so ideally i could store 7 500 gallons of water up here which would go a long ways in this reconstruction effort so for now water is back but uh ask me again in a week or a month and we'll see how it's going and i think until then i'm gonna keep exploring this map of the 700 foot level and create a little bit of a game plan to go back down there probably with somebody else and explore some of these areas that i wasn't able to this time so there it is water is back to cerro gordo for the time being anyways brian a lot of fun you know if you would have told me at 15 the type of problems i would be solving would be going into an abandoned mine shaft 700 feet down to bring water back up to bring it into a ghost town that i own i might have believed you but i probably thought you were crazy but i love it you know these types of problems just get me firing on all cylinders and the types of problems that i had never experienced in my life but i think they bring out the best of me and i just love the support i've gotten to you know this project wouldn't have been possible without the guys from owens valley who are up here because they love history they want to see this town succeed and that's amazing you know it's amazing to feel that support both locally and for you guys you know from this channel it's just means the world to me that i can get on here every week and just feel supported in all these efforts so thank you thank you so much and also this week had me thinking a lot about water even down there 700 feet just sitting by that little sump of water brought me some peace you know i think as humans we love being around water no matter what size or what shape it even appears there's some water in these clouds behind me right now or there's definitely water but might be snowing tonight but that's a good thing you know because we need water to live and imagine if we were just repulsed by water about how terrible of life that would be and i try to think about that perspective a lot even with things like our eyes you know what if our eyes only showed us the dangers and the perils in this world but they don't you know they show us the beauty too they show me sunsets like this that i seemingly never get sick of and so i try to remember that perspective a lot especially this week you know try to see the good and the good that we're allowed to see that's what i hope for you guys this week i hope you have interesting projects to tackle i hope you find some time to spend it by some water i hope that you see the good things in this world and not just the peril and until next week i'm signing out i hope you guys have an amazing week i'll see you next time you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 601,479

Rating: 4.9713202 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 6c7MiqYdTEw

Length: 31min 58sec (1918 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Incandescent_Lass]

Ah, the return of the sketchy hoist videos! I love/hate it!

[u/ppolo99]

I got lost watching the video, scary but that bottom level looks amazing to explore. I can smell the Levis!

[u/Ben_dover_4u]

Is it still working?

[u/Shutlingsloe]

Great episode, so much to explore. Intrigued to find out where those exit signs will eventually send Brent.

[u/serjedder]

That was a really good one

[u/ketoLifestyleRecipes]

Mine exploring is the best part of Cerro Gordo. Wait till Frank dives in, he'll snift out the Levis for Brent.

[u/johnnycanuckman]

I wonder how much water Brent has in his tanks now

[u/lastdarknight]

wonder how feasible it would be to run a network cable (or optical run) down the shaft to be able to remote monitor the pump and water levels, along with live data on temp/air quilty and such. could even set up a remote NAS with the pump for record storage in the event of another fire or natural disaster takeing out the primary backups on the surface