I Found 100 Year Old Levi's Down An Abandoned Mine (Finally!)

all right i'm just i'm just going for it so yeah see ya i think that level down there will be the union mine if it is anywhere so that's the next step but then this might also go down into the union [Music] and just like this we made our way it's wild [Music] it's pretty terrifying [Music] hello there today my quest to go deeper to the unknown parts of sarawak's union mine continues [Music] right now i am sitting at saraguru california once upon a time this was the largest silver mine in california's history and the main mine here is called the union mine and the union mine was created to get access to two different chimneys and chimneys in this case means an ore body that goes up and down and so on the north side there's a chimney called the union chimney and on the south side there's a chimney called the jefferson chimney and these are rich ore bodies of silver lead now exploring the union mine has become by far one of my favorite activities in the world you know down there there's untouched history from the 1800s that by understanding and learning i'm able to paint a more clear picture of sarawak's past for my time here and for all future generations that come here and each piece of artifact that's found on there is just collectively creating a more clear picture of everything that happened at cerro gordo and currently the only way to enter the union mine is using a hoist an original cage from the 1800s that slowly lowers you down into the mine the problem with that is it requires a team and requires a whole production to explore and so over the past 18 months living here i've been searching almost every day for another entrance another way into this mine that would open it up so i could explore it further after months of searching i found the jefferson chimney you know the first time that we did the exploration of the jefferson chimney we brought 300 foot of rope and it barely got us to the 86 level because you have to imagine the chimney starts far above the zero level of the mine so you're starting above zero so it took us 300 foot of rope to get to the 86 and the next level after the 86 is the 200 so in that case we need to bring at least 450 foot of rope so that's exactly what we did we're bringing a rope this time there's 150 feet in there there's another 150 feet here another 100 feet out there we're getting there today the goal today is to get to the 200th level like i said on the second trip down there's this excitement you know we had just opened up this for the very first time and who knows how long you know nobody had explored this side of the union mine in 100 years maybe and so there's this this excitement of the unknown you know this excitement of discovery that we were going to go down there and piece together a more clear picture of ceregro's past we're back to the belly of the beast you ready for this time yeah we're headed back down today we have an additional 450 feet of rope so it's down right to the 200 level hopefully maybe beyond so we shall see [Music] all right we're back that is the pit we are at the 86 which we now know as you didn't know last time and there's a hole here that runs parallel to the pit of death that we're going to try to rope down it seems like they put an eyelid in years and years and years ago i'm also going to avoid walking on this because one of these almost broke last time and so when it came time to go i went first johnny stayed back to play guard and i just started rappelling down about 40 feet down i started to see a bottom you know i started to see rocks collected these massive boulders and i thought maybe that was a place where the chimney kind of moved directions so so what's up i explored around for a while and i realized that this pit that we thought went all the way down to 1100 foot level had collapsed you know there was no way to pass it it was blocked at the 86 level at this point in time you know who knows what has happened over the past 150 years since they mined it but the earth has moved and there's no longer to get past from the main pit of death i tweaked my back pretty good that's all right we'll make it yeah it's just got a very sketchy way up there i gotta admit i was pretty bummed out you know at first it was like you know what this is something that we built up you know we planned for weeks to get down there and it was over basically as quickly as it started but then we both remember that there's this manhole you know as our way down there's this little hole that seemingly kind of went down and followed the main stop so that could be our second ticket to the way into the union mine so the first pit was a bust but that hole that rope may be our ticket down to the next level we look down this pit and it was just another pit where you would throw the glow sticks down and see nothing after it fell so once again i decided to go first you know i would say after about 50 feet i found myself on this little platform on the platform i looked down and i could finally see my glow sticks 50 feet further below me and suddenly i was stoked again you know suddenly it seemed like i was finding my way back in to a level of the union my wow after all that i got some news it seems that you may recognize this level because what i did is it just repelled further down to where i already was unfortunately this wasn't a new hole this is just a different way to get back to the giant pit oh damn it so unfortunately that might be it for the jefferson chimney route in just doesn't seem like huh can get past this big collapse which is frustrating there must be another way in i think that i just haven't found it quite yet but fortunately the quest down jefferson chimney died right there i gotta say it was very bummed you know i was expecting that to be a much bigger exploration you know the the crawl back up that time was much less joyous than our first experience down there when we discovered it connected to the 86 and we got back up we started debriefing you know and that night i just started pouring over these old reports of cerro gordo you know on these maps of these mines because in my mind there's no way that it's collapsed for 1100 feet you know that just doesn't seem like it's possible i think it's collapsed in a very small section and beyond that it could clear up and once again give me access to all these unexplored levels of the union mind as i started flipping through this book there was a ton of information about the 400 level and the 550 level it seems that at the 400 level the level actually goes beyond the jefferson chimney by quite a bit which intrigues me it must mean there's some types of two or three ways to get into the chimney at that point and then if you read further at the 550 level it says that the jefferson chimney changes direction when it changes direction down to 550 it could very well be clear beyond that just the way the kind of the rocks collapse or at the 400 level you know there could be multiple ways to get into the jefferson chimney from there so the plan as it stands is this is later today i'm gonna take the cage unfortunately i have to take the cage down to the 400 and the 550 and explore every single inch of those two levels you know no leave no rock unturned all right just getting packed up for today's excursion i got my maps got my book we're gonna find this jefferson chimney got my gear i might just bring my lightweight harness today bring a bunch of rope gonna bring a shovel we're gonna get into this mine [Music] all right well the point of this exercise was to not use this cage but you know here we are using the cage again tim brian brian make sure we don't die okay if you start to free fall i'll catch the cable i appreciate that all right now we get to be close friends for an amount of time 30 minutes okay [Music] all right rapidly approaching the first half of the day this is the 550 this is hopefully a new connection tada all right and here we are at the uh 550. if i refer to my map you will see the yellow is the 550 that they highlighted and so you can see right now we'd be going back that way also to the left and we need to go kind of back and then around to the right to get to the jefferson chimney so that is a plan of action a bunch of ore samples some core samples and we will just continue on our way jefferson chimney okay you see that exit look at all these old names they do all that with carbide [Applause] and the 550 level is a lot wetter than any other level that i could remember you know a lot of the timbers down there just soaked through and i would say for the first little bit we weren't finding too much you know it was kind of leading to a lot of dead ends and then eventually we turned this corner oh let's do it is this a wind so just a room good thing about rope in front of us there is a called a 100 foot hole but the tunnel continues over there and you look there's all sorts of dynamite boxes core samples i might see levi jeans you know so we want to get across but the span is maybe 15 20 feet so uh tim and i got very resourceful we ended up finding a rail laying it across the side of this hole and then i tied in a rope dude i don't think i can do it uh what's your last one i might try to just scoot my butt across yeah it's more dangerous you know what i'm saying put your weight on and see you locked i'm locked here and i kind of crab shimmied across this while looking down at just this hundred foot hit to get to the other side if you fall tuck your head down so your helmet hits first [Laughter] there's a seam over there huh how does it seem yeah it looks good how does it look down it's pretty terrifying cool yeah so we're all good i think when i met you you're afraid of a 20-foot ladder yeah i'm across okay you survived defeated that hole now we're on the side i don't imagine many people have explored in quite a while and i'm rewarded immediately with jeans maybe once upon a time oh dynamite box shovel end of the road well that was which i was hoping for but now i know at least we went back we're exploring and we turned this corner and there's a powder room oh a little power room and just inside the door to the left there's this leather bag hello you don't be scared oh man because of how wet it is in here look what's inside and inside the leather bag was sticks of dining room i'm talking like tons of full sticks and typically old dynamite can be extraordinarily dangerous and i talked to a guy that works in the bomb squad for a police department and he told me that it can be so sensitive at times that you could be walking even 20 feet away and a step could potentially set it off in this case tim decided to dump the bag of dynamite on the ground to save the leather bag that i was in jesus christ what do you want the bag do you want i guess now we have the bag yeah i normally wouldn't do that but it's so wet in here right figure all the jelly knives or whatever it is washed away all right well that happened and we didn't die exploring with tim because it was so wet you know you were you didn't see that crystallization that you would have seen and now you know if you come here to cerrogordo you can find the exact leather dynamite bag that we found down there back in the museum this is all an ore shoot we're heading back towards where the jefferson chimney would be it would be back this way this ore shoots crazy so it's been tracked down here what they do is they would put the oar in there slide on down here into the track and the gooses continue in early banksy being down in the mines is probably my favorite place at cerro gordo each of the trip satisfies this very basic human need just to be curious you know and that surface level joy that comes with discovering new things i just love the thrill of roping down a mine shaft climbing over an old collapse or finding an artifact from a century ago but beyond the adventures trips down the mind satisfy this deeper desire to better understand the unknown you know to fill in the gaps that the history books leave behind to better see a picture of the day-to-day existence of these people who called sarah gordo home before i did you know it draws me even closer to this town and helps me feel connected to the past here each of the items i find came from somebody who lived here before me and each item reflects on their existence here you know a dynamite box an old glove a pair of jeans they're all tangible evidence of history and they all tell a story about who was their last it's like one archaeologist said it's not what you find it's what you find out i think that's what drives me deeper and deeper into this mind you know it just gives me this level of excitement and satisfaction i don't get anywhere else you know a feeling that i've never really experienced anywhere else in my life and maybe that's what keeps me here you know month after month seeking out a better understanding of this world around me damn and unfortunately after you know a couple hours of exploring around it seems that the 550 level or at least the 550 level that's accessible from the hoist is a no-go well no luck on this level connecting but uh did get this nice you know nitroglycerin soaked bag which you know will dry out it'll be nice be my new exploration bag now we're not done yet still got the 400 to go check out and so we got back in the cage and we went up to the 400 hello there 400 level [Music] all right yep so we're gonna go it looks like it goes over there not too far and then over and we want to go right if we can go right back there over to the jefferson chimney let's see what this level has in store now for some reason i've always breezed over the 400 level you know it's never seemed interesting to me it's always one that i've passed by and never stopped at it says exit this way again so i'm wondering if all those exits were leaving to the the union chimney was over this way the jefferson was behind us so maybe they were all leading to that so i think like where the union shaft is there must be like a vein of soft rock that just runs the whole depth of the mountain okay and that's where we keep getting to right oh we got a little treasure chest over here and a bunch of old dynamite boxes carbide you know miners lamp a bunch of carbide a bunch of dynamite 1934 1934. they're probably come back here to use the restroom unfortunately amongst all these dynamite boxes and that's why that might be 90 year old toilet paper so we'll move on there's all sorts of stuff in this level you know there's dynamite boxes there is shoes look at this holy cow oh man there was this old hoist up on this platform that you had to rock climb up to for no reason i don't know where the hoist was there unless they put back in a false floor that i was walking on it's still greasy that guy did a good job and so tim and i really started having a ball on the floor level you know there's a lot to explore there's a lot of different like nooks and crannies did you go around this yet no i was like all right nice look more these exit signs whoa better drill towards the end we were running out of time you know we had told the guys up top that we had a certain time date you know some of the guys that were helping had to go back home you know to see their wives and have dinner and stuff and i remember thinking we've only explored half of the 400 level you know we haven't even explored the south side of the 400 level and the south side of the 400 level is the level that potentially leads into the jefferson chimney so tim and i decided hey you know what let's go take a quick sprint let's just run through there see if anything's there you know and as we started going on the south part of the 400 level we realized how much more we had to explore this thing branched just a hundred different ways and right as we were about to turn around you know right as we our alarms were going off that we needed to make our way back to the hoist i saw blue and i gotta say every time that i see blue my heart skips a little bit because if you've been watching this channel for a while you know that one of my borderline obsessions we'll call it is finding levi jeans down in the mine i think i might have found them i don't get too excited see the buttons oh my god they said they say levi strauss what the guys you oh i it guys it happened tim i found levi strauss dude all the buttons levi strauss levi strauss levi strauss look look at the button see the strauss [Music] c-s-t-r-a-u-s-s yeah that's apparently ha ha damn yes two questions why are levi's interesting and why are there be levi's down in the mind first levi's invented the first pair of blue jeans ever in the world not denim that was already created but blue jeans for california silver miners in the 1870s and this cerro gordo is a california silver mine that was active in the 1870s and the reason these jeans are so interesting is their collector's item i mean imagine how iconic the blue jeans are and levi's invented the very first pair that was worn by miners and so for that reason they can be really attractive to denim collectors you know people that are really into that piece of clothing will pay upwards of a hundred thousand dollars sometimes for these jeans and for me it's never about the hundred thousand dollars you know that's not the point of finding these jeans but i think the hundred thousand dollars shows the scarcity and the rarity of these levi jeans now what keeps me going is just rumors from the past you know there's always been rumors that cerro gordo that levi's were found here you know i've heard rumors that they're pulled out of a mine over there i've heard rumors that they're pulled out of the hoist house they were put out of the change room next to the hoist house that somebody stole five pairs from the union mine itself but i've never seen any with my own eyes you know it makes sense this was a massive mine in the 1870s but i had never found any so all i was going on were these rumors to fuel this wild goose chase you know wild blue goose chase that i've been on for the last 18 months i was stoked this is something i was looking for for 18 months and these jeans were in terrible condition you know they're falling apart but immediately what it did for me it wasn't about you know this is the perfect pair that i would sell for a hundred thousand dollars or even the perfect pair for the museum it was the rumors are true you know these levi jeans do exist and they are at cerro gordo now these jeans you know i've waited a very long time to be able to put a pair of levi jeans in this museum i don't think i'm done yet obviously this pair is uh seen some better days i'm gonna let it dry out see how it turns out you know if you look you can definitely see a lot of the seams uh there's even the logo over here that i don't want to touch too much right now before they dry out [Music] but one day there'll be a beautiful pair standing right there and this is why i love exploring the mines you know because everything that you see in here i found in the different adventures and it reminds me of you know the 700 foot level and getting that dave sparks when we found that and the different dynamite boxes 32 bottles over there one i found those with the backhoe you know and everything else and it just makes me excited for the future you know to keep exploring keep finding things you know when i do one day find an intact pair of levi's i can continue telling people the story of you know levi's history and their history within mining camps i'm excited about all that and so this week i have to thank you know the union mind for changing my mood changing my spirit making me a lot more excited you know a lot more excited to share things that are exciting news and not just you know controversial news necessarily and so that was the couple days i'm really excited about what you know the future holds i'm excited to finally find that pair of levi jeans i'm excited to find the next pair of levi jeans now a more intact pair but as always i just want to say thank you guys so much for supporting the channel you know i i try to broadcast the restoration process up here the highs and the lows the stresses and the you know ceremonies and everything in between and these last few weeks have been pretty uh tumultuous for me you know it's taken a toll but the thought of sharing more um excites me you know it gets me excited to to get back out there and adventure so i thank each and every one of you that checks out these videos you know you're you're keeping me going you know whether you know it or not i hope one day that a lot of you can come up here experience zero glory for yourself check out the levi jeans that i found and all the other things i mean even today i found this sign but anyways until next time i'm signing out i hope you guys have a great week and i will see you next week you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 1,362,772

Keywords: 100 year old levis, abandoned mine, brent underwood, brent underwood ghost town, brentwunderwood, cerro gordo, cerro gordo ghost town, denim hunter, ghost town, ghost town living, ghost town living cerro gordo, ghost town living exposed, living in a ghost town, mine, old levis found in mine, デニムハンター

Id: QUvLJ4larbQ

Length: 30min 18sec (1818 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021