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OP
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There are hundreds of abandoned mines nearby that I regularly explore. Many have not been entered for decades or longer. It is amazing what these miners left down in the twisting passages of solid rock and stones. A nearly collapsed adit. A few more years of erosion and this one will be lost. It appears as just a hole in the hillside but there are hundreds of yards of passages and workings just inside. Old tools of the trade Amazing mold and mineral deposits on a timber set from seeping water A hand cranked rock crusher to assay ore. This is a first for me, never found one before. Another adit with timbered entrance about to be lost to rock fall. Picture posted sideways for some reason. An abandoned mucker. Small dozer used to scoop ore into ore carts deep in the mine. Some mines have been gated by the DEQ. This one was easily breached by someone.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
3-7-77
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
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Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla!
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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A hand cranked rock crusher to assay ore. This is a first for me, never found one before. That looks like a Buffalo Forge.
If you put Taco Bell sauce in your ramen noodles it tastes just like poverty
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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Wow those are some great pictures,are those on privet prop or are they public access.
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Campfire Tracker
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[quote=Timbermaster] A hand cranked rock crusher to assay ore. This is a first for me, never found one before. That looks like a Buffalo Forge. Maybe that is what it is. I was assuming, looks like incorrectly! What is a buffalo forge?
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
3-7-77
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Joined: Feb 2015
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Campfire Tracker
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OP
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Wow those are some great pictures,are those on privet prop or are they public access. Mining claims on public land.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
3-7-77
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Joined: Jan 2012
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2012
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The last time I spelunked, I rolled in next to a lethargic 56 degree copperhead.
If I failed to mention it, that was the last I spelunked
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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WAY cool...! There’s an old dirt road that goes up from Idaho Springs to Central City, Colorado through Virginia Canyon and there’s a bunch of old mine entrances all through there, and they look like your first picture...exposure to the weather and time has just about erased em’. Hard-rock mining was a bitch...!
Every day on this side of the ground is a win.
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Joined: Jan 2010
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jan 2010
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A hand cranked rock crusher to assay ore. This is a first for me, never found one before. That looks like a Buffalo Forge. Maybe that is what it is. I was assuming, looks like incorrectly! What is a buffalo forge? It’s a manufactured forge for forging iron. Think of it as a very primitive portable welder. http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=129&tab=0
If you put Taco Bell sauce in your ramen noodles it tastes just like poverty
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Joined: May 2004
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Campfire Regular
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Thanks for the cool thread, very neat finds. Its a relief to see a thread like this on the campfire anymore.
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Joined: Apr 2017
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Nice find Timber. There's probably value in the ore that's left. Gold is at a premium right now. The old equipment you found is also worth a small fortune if you have legal rights to it. An old ore cart is usable condition will go for $3k in Colorado. There's a lot of guys out there, reclaiming mines. Check out the Reclaimed show on Discovery.
Last edited by Mountain10mm; 06/01/20.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Cool pics, I do a little prospecting on the west side but just placer. Those old miner's were a tough breed doing a lot work with hammers and sweat. Someday I'll get the time to do a bit of ghost town exploring and prospecting east of the divide. A lot mines in MT were started around the civil war period and just after. A lot of confederates left the south after the war and came west to make a new life. Kalispell was started a lumber camp by a confederate officer to supply the railroad construction, and there were a lot of miners from the confederate side working in the Helena mines.
"Life is tough, even tougher if your stupid" John Wayne
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Campfire Savant
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Campfire Savant
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That is very cool, be careful in those old mines.
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Campfire Tracker
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Nice find Timber. There's probably value in the ore that's left. Gold is at a premium right now. The old equipment you found is also worth a small fortune if you have legal rights to it. An old ore cart is usable condition will go for $3k in Colorado. There's a lot of guys out there, reclaiming mines. Check out the Reclaimed on Discovery. Nice! I know of about 25 ore carts in mines I’ve explored. Would be a biitch to get them out though.
~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Oct 2011
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Very cool stuff TM, looks like a blast!
Paul
"I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon".... D.A.D.
Trump Won!, Sandmann Won!, Rittenhouse Won!, Suck it Liberal Fuuktards.
molɔ̀ːn labé skýla
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Campfire Outfitter
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Some friends in California found an old gold mine in the Sierra mountains and went exploring inside. A side shaft had been blocked with a pile of tailings, and when they scrambled to the top of the pile they found our why. Several cases of decades-old dynamite were stacked in the passageway, and the outside of the boxes were glistening with crystallized nitroglycerine that had leaked out of the sawdust filler of the sticks inside. That stuff is so sensitive a hard sneeze can set it off. They beat a hasty retreat and never went back inside! Jerry
Ignorance can be fixed. Stupid is forever!
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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We toured the Molly Kathleen mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado, two years in a row in fact. Well worth the price if admission to see how the old timers did it and the conditions they worked in. http://www.goldminetours.com/
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Those are some serious hard rock mines. That doesn't look like a gold mine to me. Gold is usually in the softer rock and veins...though this could just be part of the adit and not a drift. Even considering the condition of those carts, they are worth a premium of the wheels still roll and the bin dumbs. Cool bit of trivia, an ore cart typically held one ton of ore. So if the assay came back 4oz/ton, there was (on average) four ounces of ore per ore cart.
Last edited by Mountain10mm; 06/01/20.
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Very interesting Pics Timbermaster . I used to take yearly Hunting Trips to Montana , Wyoming , and the Dakotas . Ranchers never throw anything away . I used to see lots of old " Al Capone Days " type Cars in pretty good shape out in those Fields . Don't have the skill , but for someone who does , I think it would be a good Business to pick up Cars and Restore them .
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Campfire Regular
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There are hundreds of abandoned mines nearby that I regularly explore. Many have not been entered for decades or longer. It is amazing what these miners left down in the twisting passages of solid rock and stones. A nearly collapsed adit. A few more years of erosion and this one will be lost. It appears as just a hole in the hillside but there are hundreds of yards of passages and workings just inside. Old tools of the trade Amazing mold and mineral deposits on a timber set from seeping water A hand cranked rock crusher to assay ore. This is a first for me, never found one before. Another adit with timbered entrance about to be lost to rock fall. Picture posted sideways for some reason. An abandoned mucker. Small dozer used to scoop ore into ore carts deep in the mine. Some mines have been gated by the DEQ. This one was easily breached by someone. The gizmo next to the forge is a rail bender to bend rail for turns. The "dozer" is not. It's an overshot mucking machine and could be an Eimco or Atlas Copco (compressed air powered). After a shot, an empty muck car was hitched to the back of the mucking machine to fill the car. Then another empty was attached until the shot was all mucked out to drill out another round. That obviously was not a mom and pop operation.
Last edited by WTF; 06/01/20.
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