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.

That's pretty cool!

That looks like a Buffalo Forge.

Wow those are some great pictures,are those on privet prop or are they public access.

Maybe that is what it is. I was assuming, looks like incorrectly!

What is a buffalo forge?

Mining claims on public land.

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

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...!

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

Thanks for the cool thread, very neat finds. Its a relief to see a thread like this on the campfire anymore.

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.

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.

That is very cool, be careful in those old mines.

Nice! I know of about 25 ore carts in mines I’ve explored. Would be a biitch to get them out though.

Very cool stuff TM, looks like a blast!

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

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/

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.

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 .

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.

Fascinating. Great photos.
I love the old abandoned machines. Good God what a hard dangerous life for those guys.

Thanks for the replies folks, especially those identifying the odds and ends that were pictured. The rail bender and forge ID is priceless. Thank you.

For Stormin Norman: a sketchy azz placer mine. I generally stay out of these and stick to hard rock mines!! Much safer.

https://www.discovery.com/shows/reclaimed

There's the Discovery show.

When I was a teen I found some old mines in the tops of the sawtooths up above alturas lake. Still had the rail tracks in one of them and i was impressive that they hauled that kind of equipment all the way up in there.

Bb

A lot of labor and heartbreak in those mines.

Chances are that most of what is thought to be "abandoned mines", are not. Some are patented and some are unpatented claims. The local county courthouse can tell one the ownership/status. Just because there is no sign of recent activity does not mean abandoned ground. Either patented or unpatented, the removal of such things is considered stealing.

No way I would go into that, that’s some scary stuff and a tough way to make a living. I know some of miners at Virginia city dug tunnels chasing hot streaks of placer deposits. Desperate men for sure.

Agreed. I do not take items from any mine. There are active mines scattered about with the old ones. Some of them have been mined on and off since the 1800’s. A few have up to date claims posted.

I have one of those forges in the barn.

They do get stuff hot fast.

More than WOW! This overaged farm would not go two feet into those.

Cool pics! Those things are all over the hills down here in NM. I've stuck my head in, but that's as far as I go.

Was it the "copperhead" Rene kilt on his front porch? LOL....