Remarkable Discovery Underground At Abandoned Hydraulic Mine

so we are back at a large hydraulic mine site that we visited a couple of years ago and at that time mr. MacBride found a large drainage tunnel that we said that we would come back and finish and it's been a couple of years but we don't like unfinished business so we are back to finish exploring that large drain tunnel and to share what we find with you we're starting now in the middle of the mine here I want to give you a view the Sierra Nevada mountain range where so many of the mines that we visit are located this is a view of a team part of the Sierras the area you see in front of you is the leading edge of this hydraulic mine the historic hydraulic mine is used what are essentially water cannons called water monitors to wash away whole mountains the foreground is where a mountain used to be and the whitish background is where they were last working on washing a mountain away the gold here is placer gold mixed in with a sand and gravel of an ancient river channel the idea is to wash it down into a sluice where the gold is shaken loose from the mud and gravel as in rivers today big rocks were also in the ancient river channels and these would get in the way of the miners when they were washed down under the force of the water monitors so they would be stacked to the side an enormous pile such as these this area were flying over now and you can see more rock piles down there is where a mountain used to be before it was washed away the method in which the material was washed down from the mountains and channeled to separate out the gold is essentially the focus of this video and a key part of this process is found down in that ravine coming into view now last time we were out here I don't think that I filmed this cabin and I want to be sure to get that for you guys now very unique as you can see or maybe you can't see Bobo you'll see in a minute it is covered entirely in sheet metal that's been pounded out probably from hydraulic pipes given there right at large hydraulic mine and you can see the rivets and such in it has a look of hydraulic pipe and then they put this piping I'm assuming I'll call my I think it is I'm assuming what it is over a base frame of wood and made it very sturdy and secure little cabin here go check out inside so as you can see there's wood on the inside as I said and the metal isn't a great job of protecting it you can see that despite its age and the seriously harsh winters that are out here it's actually quite quite decent in shape you know you can see the plaster gravel on the fourth of mine and there's a little bit of a problem you know with this area here that creeks running next to the cabin has washed out but if it weren't for that this would be absolutely livable it's in I got a shape so there's that cabin there and then we are dropping off the side over here to hit that drain tunnel that mr. McBride found definitely a bit more washed out than last time just a tad say is just about to say I don't remember it being quite like this after you Mike right [Applause] stand on top of a big waste rock pile now and the dream is just back there show you guys a quick view of the creek and such yeah that's a big pile that creeks down there a ways yeah yeah this is pretty big all right now he's a hundred feet down that's a ways down and that's looking down the canyon and the dream right there and there it is that's where we're going you see some modern mining equipment down here imagine somebody was trying to replicate the slough scene that they did in the old days and then some of these really old boards down here are probably the remains of some of the old sluices so let's see how this looks [Applause] this back as far as I can see yeah I got a kitten it definitely is a tighter squeeze this time and interesting this is about as far as I went last time yes cool okay light sides of that trail mark right there that's only timbers that's a suit yeah that's awesome [Applause] so who's not here you can see all these tumors and such and those are actually the remains of a sluice boxes that were in here to process the material being washed down from above and in front of us there what we thought were Timbers are actually one of the remaining sluices which I have never seen before that's inside the mine really cool I mean inside the drinks on the mine but I think you knew it I meant yeah this is one I'm not you're walking through now it's been kind of ripped up but this one is still intact it's really rare I think wow that is cool [Music] [Music] [Applause] okay well I think you guys know how to cease this work for quickly recap for those that don't the ancient plasters we're going to wash down from above give the hydraulic monitors and what have been sent and running down this channel here and there would have been riffles lining it inside of this channel that would have caught a gold and such behind them and the lighter material would have kept going right over the top and out the tunnel so you can see from the size of this thing is meant to handle a lot of material because they were certainly washing it with water that's real young and probably recover and east amount of gold yeah it's basically exact it's just like a flim except it's inside the tunnel you can even see the remains of some of the the ripples but the base and obviously the miners when they were cleaning these out they would have walked down on the sides there don't worry your banker to wallet I don't know a little tricky walking on these but they probably see better here where the Meijer they were gonna walk along the sides here and just reached in to clean out these these riffles sorry this is I'm not commenting very much some of you might like but it's a queer and a fair amount of concentration to stay balanced you yeah you can see this list yes but it's not the best shape anymore it was the design of the wall that was where I'm walking right now that's where the watering stuff needs to run and those boards they're probably a platform that the miners would walk on their spaces definitely getting more cramped in here now honestly a fair amount agreed let's kill them at it looking at curves up here actually to some of the big river rocks that were washed down [Music] that right there is what they wanted kind of old ancient river gravel a lot of waste in this area okay well we have something significant above us here [Applause] okay that has capped you guys you see we've got a metal plate on it so that would have one of the places where water my classroom we're going to wash down here into the tunnel [Applause] and then obviously there are more up ahead that way opens up again a bit more in here let's go pass all the degree of team demo from that shaft we just saw and it's just going far away that's what I've been easier to walk through my side skin or they would have walked right as you can see since this - filled in a bit step over the crossbeams here rather than skate along the top of them never coming through now because you see fairly recently that was spilled in to the top there that's about that's above my stomach so elephant falling at this point this had recently washed out this would probably be grateful to the heavy winter we just had until that plaster us is doctor repair after all that was carved out from the hillsides above with the large monitors wash down Here I am back down and I'm looking again okay now I assume for that rock but crashed down from the top of the atom but it didn't that means that rock washed down here that is unbelievable that I cannot imagine of course I was taken that rock is easily 5 feet long 3 feet high probably three four feet wide I mean usually it weighs a ton I cannot imagine how they could have gotten washed out here and have it seen obviously it plugged up the sluice here unreal alright ass keep going half okay is much harder to get you here now [Applause] as I can't walk on that squeeze up on the side here which probably was easy to do in the past but not in there [Applause] you just see the faint remnants of the side of a sluice here which is uh not doing anything at all to hold this stuff back it's only being held back by just having been there for a while sort of clumped in place but obviously that fails here where this material came down and the bouts of sale mirtha bulging out right there ok looks like we've got another shaft here on my left alright this has an indication it being a big one and yes it is you see the metal cap up there Marshall even wanna think about what's on the other side cuz there's a fair amount of water coming down from this one did you see the sides I've been scoured smooth by all that rock and gravel tumbling down here and there the remains of some dirt on the floor I'm not sure how they would have got missing to the scooter since this is a little off-center everybody had some kind of shoot or something like that but we're gonna continue on who is this tricky here we care about stuff on the worst sections Stella Stanton see the layers sand and material that built up here it's not going to pan that out it'd probably be a worthwhile okay looks like we might have something else in the left of here looks like it cuts off over there in a minute no case let's ensure so and Stan pillar we've got something leading off that way and [Music] a large volume of water in here back into that way I think this is just I think this is a pillar here I think that cuts around over there so I'm gonna cram her over this and confirm that is the case before I try and squeeze it up through there okay well unfortunately it is not connect there to scramble up and team without exactly it running up they're starting again pretty tight first I'll check this out I could lay you some knee pads so I can't get my head up look okay that that just goes back there and stops and it doesn't there's nothing to dropping down from above is no shaft and jumping up from above just goes better and stops so maybe they made a mistake or maybe they started down this way then changed their minds or who knows so I'll continue down the main as far as I can was completely over now even tighter up here so I got what you guys want to can but fall so far you so high the level of the ceaseless back near the entrance you can see how much material has filled in based on what you remember how high it was before so you can see what happens I flinched down so much [Music] I hear loud roaring sound ahead there must be a pretty serious shaft draining in up there I'll try squeeze along the side there and see if I can get to it really hot and humid not here now I gotta say okay I don't know if this is the back but I assume it is a really large during some size of it anyway sorry I gotta sweat it dripped on me even though watch is gonna keep going starting right here you can see the remains you know call up there so how'd you can see bigger way out now and you couldn't see what I was doing before but mr. McBride has demonstrated the difficulty in navigating through this rotten sluice here another everything else is extremely slippery building dancing around a little bit sliding around on these are my pride let's see you dance yeah walking around up above just to show you guys how big these piles are I mean I know you saw them from the drone but I don't know if that captures the full size and scale of the workings here but that pile there is probably 40 feet high mr McBride is not petite but that is a large pile yeah he's not he's not a spy the way is to make him look fat he's not fat yes that's just one pile of many out here so like you said that's a big pile of rock man yeah those piles are huge they keep going forever back there yeah we are standing on rock piles you just have a little bit more dirt and stuff on them look at this concrete's in here man that is big there's some of that quartz yeah yeah that's a big boy yeah that's a chunk the hard as hell but the waste rock just keeps going up there - man just a little bit more green but I keep going up there more examples of all the work that are doing back here along with a little bit of equipment those piles are huge they may not look huge on the camera but trust me they're huge those are probably like I said 40 feet high and they keep you standing back that way for quite a ways okay so you've got a lot of water flowing into this spot there's a stream up there flowing in and then there's some water flowing in from over on this side as well and actually down to my feet as well and it all drains this little pool here and then just stops and so I always say that obviously one of those shafts is directly under here and the water is slowly bringing down into the shaft and out the tunnel that we found that's scared the hell out of there a couple interesting things here first of all look how far away and how high that mountain of debris is up there this is a big site and also quite interesting is that is draining the drain tunnel right there in other words that shaft that we looked up at the end that was all plated the waste rock that's it draining down from above now obviously that tank is a bit newer somebody probably puts out there as a safety device or something but you know big rocks aren't going to fit down there but that is the drain from above right there so now you've seen both sides hopefully you understand it better now got some more stuff here just want to point out get the remains of a building right there obviously and more the waste rock piles big pipe right there and then it looks like track here in front of me not high percent certain but it looks like track so I'm not sure what that would have been for the hydraulic mine maybe that's a drift coming off of it put your cable right here and then down to that goalie right behind me I found this which I believe is the there's a drill bit so maybe there's some drifting down here I'm not sure but as far as I know this is primarily a hydraulic mine

Channel: TVR Exploring

Views: 495,236

Rating: 4.7839885 out of 5

Keywords: Remarkable Discovery Underground At Abandoned Hydraulic Mine, Exploring Abandoned Mines, Mine Exploring, Abandoned Mines, Underground Mine Exploring, Exploring Drain Tunnel, Sluicing, Hydraulicking, Hydraulic Mining, Sluice Box, Placer Mining, Hydraulic Sluicing, Gold Mine Sluice Tunnel, Mine Tunnel, Mining History, Exploring, Adventure, Caving, UrbEx, Miner’s Cabin, Hydraulic Monitor, Placer Gold Mining, Placer, Ancient River Channels, Geology, Abandoned, Secret Underground, Gold

Id: f8XS0BJVec8

Length: 27min 25sec (1645 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019