My notes tell me that this abandoned mine we explored was a lead mine. I don’t recall how that information found its way into my research notes though. So, do not take that as being set in stone. Perhaps someone better versed in geology than me can verify if this was a lead mine or not… I wouldn’t have recorded it as a lead mine in my notes if I hadn’t come across something solid to indicate that it was, but I can’t recall what that was now. Regardless of what sort of abandoned mine this was, it is interesting to me for the era it captures... Nevada has gone through several mining boom and bust cycles. This mine obviously dates from one of the earlier cycles and it is, regrettably, becoming increasingly difficult to locate mines from these earlier booms. So, I enjoyed the primitive “old school” nature of the mining methods and the glimpse of how things were in Nevada’s mining past all the more because of that.
Almost everything says this was an old mine – the crude stone buildings, the raw timber supports, the mere shadow of a trail leading up to the mine… The only thing that doesn’t quite fit is the truck frame, which suggests activity even up until the 1930s. I would guess that the original mining operations date back to the 1800s and that the truck is evidence of a resurgence of activity in the early 1900s. In other words, the original activity dates back to a Nevada mining boom from the 1800s. World War I generated strong demand for industrial commodities, such as copper and lead, which, as always happens, would have sent a flood of miners and prospectors out into the desert to take a fresh look at old abandoned mines and ore deposits. It doesn’t look like a lot was accomplished, but there was, obviously, some activity then.
Another alternative is simply that this was a shoestring operation, pinching pennies on materials and equipment. Small lead mines are not exactly renowned for their generation of vast wealth for owner/operators. So, it may have been an operation from the early 1900s that used local stone and wood to stay on a tight budget. I still lean toward the former theory of this being an old mine that was briefly reworked as being the most likely option though.
It is difficult to say because this mine does not have a name on any maps I have seen (and I have a large collection) and it only appears as a symbol on a single old topo map I have. Therefore, I have been unable to research the history of this abandoned mine.
Whatever its story, the rodents certainly approve of it now.
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You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here:
And a small gear update here:
You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here:
Thanks for watching!
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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.
These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.
So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!
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