pictures of some old abanded mines

[rburg]

We found a big stack of crystallized dynamite in one mine near Socorro, NM.

Well I sure hope you played with it! Too good a find not to shoot. Gateway, Colorado has an annual dynamite shoot to help support the fire department. OK, so its a little dangerous. Don't drop it, and don't stumble and fall. There are all kinds of games you can play. One of the best is to get one stick well separated from the others. Then with one finger, slide it down the stick, picking up some ripe nitroglycern on the finger. Then flick it off on a rock or hard surface (away from your foot.) Kaboom! Just like a cherry bomb or M80, only close.... You ask, how does Dick know this crap? Oh, did I mention not to drop the full stick?

Those who venture near Telluride, there's a lake about half way down from Black Bear Pass. Its up above the switchbacks. The road to the lake has been blocked from jeep and ATV traffic. Anyway, if you go down around the lake to the little parking area, you'll see a mine opening. Look directly above the opening for the drill hole, and the two wires hanging down out of it. Its tamped into the rock face, so its probably not advisable to pull on the wires..... We've always wondered what was on the other end of the wires. We presume its a charge hole to close the mine opening. Oh, and while you're there, go over to the edge of the cliff and pick up some of the core samples dumped all over. I wouldn't worry about them all disappearing. There are thousands of them, to say the least.

There was something I wanted to...liberate a while back. We took the road thru Breck headed over toward Red Cone Peak. Its one way against us, but we wanted to run down Radical Hill, then down over Webster Pass (looking for the remains of the crashed aircraft down on the switchbacks.) Anyway, there was a mine shack part way down Radical. It was a convenient place to stop and look around. Inside the shack was a dynamite case, the old fashioned kind. Wood, with box joint ends (like dovetails, but not angled.) We were pretty well full in the jeep, and couldn't haul it out. It took me a couple of years to get back, and it was gone. Someone else wanted it, I guess.

 

[jkc]

Arizona is riddled with abandoned mines and prospect holes, many of which are unmarked, unprotected, and extremely hazardous. They occasionally claim a hapless, inattentive victim who falls in by accident, such as two young sisters who rode their ATV's into an unprotected shaft last year. There's a half-baked campaign to warn the public of the dangers of abandoned mines with public service announcements on billboards, and a feeble effort to fill in some shafts, but by and large it's an issue unaddressed by any agency.

AZ has an elected office, State Mine Inspector, which the legislature never funds beyond providing an office in Phoenix, and a couple of state vehicles used mostly for the personal business of a handful of employees, who seldom if ever actually inspect any mines or anything else.

Near where I often hunt deer there are extensive, long abandoned, cinnabar (mercury ore) mines and their associated giant industrial retorts and condensers, now extensively corroded by the acidic vapors from the reduction process. These are on Forest Service land, probably qualify as Superfund sites, probably are health hazards just to visit, and completely unrestricted of access, devoid of warning signs, have some shafts big enough to swallow a pickup.

These old mine sites are intriguing, but be careful!

 

[sabre]

Arizona is riddled with abandoned mines and prospect holes, many of which are unmarked, unprotected, and extremely hazardous.

Central Arizona is home to thousands of abandoned mines, most unmarked and easy to miss if you're not looking for them. This one had a marker; a quick internet search revealed the Black Pearl was a series of tungsten mines operating from 1914 until 1994. Not much left except the marker, ruins of a shack and the shaft itself.

Mine entrance / marker

Remains of the mining shack

Weathered wood, rusty nails and the only current resident

The shaft, unfenced & unmarked, this one looked to be maybe 75'-150' deep. As John/jkc said every so often someone falls or even drives an ATV or truck into one of these old mine shafts with generally tragic results.

 

[rburg]

Since Feril's thread has been pretty much hijacked toward the safety angle, I'll continue that way. Out in the desert where the early photos were all taken, no body much considers water and the damage it can do. Here in Kentucky, we have some coal mine dangers that really need attention. The old mine shafts just moved along, following the coal seam. No one ever mapped them, nor did they bother to fill them. They were just marginally sealed at the entrance. With coal mining also comes methane gas. But the biggest danger, besides spontaneous combustion and underground fires (they burn for decades or centuries) is what goes on up above.

We live where it rains. Coal mining sometimes produced tailings, and even more frequently acidic runoff. Be it out of the mines, or leaching from the tailings. The traditional and probably only way to deal with them is with impoundment ponds. Moderate sized lakes filled with greenish stuff that nothing lives in. And since no one alive knows what went on underground, they build them were its convenient. Occasionally, the roof of an old tunnel gives away or collapses. If its under a lake, the contents just wash into the shaft, then follow gravity. It often results in a blow out someplace else in the tunnel. Since they openings were so poorly sealed, any holes down hill, sometimes miles away, can give out.

We've had entire watersheds killed for miles from this kind of thing.

Over the last year or so, Leadville, CO has had a pretty good scare. Those were some of the richest gold and silver mines in the country. One low shaft was right on the outskirts of town. One day it stopped leaking or seeping water. Bad. The entire town is a superfund site. Its surrounded by tailings dumps, and under it is a maze of tunnels. Yes, they mined precious metals right under the houses. Luckily they've been able to secure funding for the mountain to the southeast. They've drilled pressure relief holes to extract and then treat the water before releasing it into the Arkansas River.

Mining was hard, make that backbreaking work on the scene. Now its kind of romantic. We all enjoy stumbling around the ruins. It might be a little more dangerous than we realize. Some of us are pretty careful. But there may be hidden dangers we can't imagine. Things like tunnels ready to collapse, poison gasses, or even radiation.

 

[R. Walter]

Well, I don't have all the expertise and experience that some of our esteemed forum members have in this area, but I did spend two springs and summers long ago on a Forest Service internship through NM State University. Each summer I visited old abandoned minesites in the state of New Mexico from Lordsburg in the southwest to Raton in the northeast taking measurements of radioactivity, hazardous wastes and water hazards. Besides the usual problems with denned up bears and blind rattlers, the worst hazard was to step on a blasting cap, the usual result of which was to lose your big toe and sometimes another toe or two. Funny, there just wasn't much dynamite laying around and this was 35 years or so ago. But there were blasting caps!

Since my college years I've been a contractor off and on for the Forest Service working in different areas of the state, usually out of the Reserve district in southwestern NM. This work more often than not has always involved a lot of up and down in hot and dusty weather. The FS has logged something like 20,000 old abandoned minesites in the state, and these are the ones on forests only. They don't include BLM, BLR or private ranches.

If anybody ever gets down to Reserve and wants a tour, give me a shout. Bring your boots.

 

[geoff40]

Geoff is exactly right. I live near many of these old mines and have seen most of them while working in the woods. I've also stood inside the mine involved in the Manhattan Project. I only found that out from the landowner. Geoff, is there a book that describes these old NH mines?

There is Shaun, but it is a private publication. The very same landowner published it. Last I knew the NH Audubon still had a copy or 2 for sale at it's Concord headquarters, about $100. Surprisingly the title is the same as the mine name. I have a copy on my shelf here. I've spent considerable time down that mine you stood at the entrance to, and some others. There are still hand drill holes down there from the days they blasted with black powder. I've photographed hibernating bats down at the 400 foot level. None of you can know what pitch black means until you are down inside an underground tunnel.

 

[feralmerril]

R Walter, that is impressive! I know nothing about mines, but I can see where pokeing around them is fun. I can see the dangers. Just how does one determin the legalites of being safe in tresspassing? I have seen ancient mines with nothing posted, some with rusted out signs laying down, and some with recent signs. I want to be legal and dont want to shoot it out with some desert rat. Most the country here in utah is BLM with some ranchers of course leaseing huge areas. How does one navigate these areas and know where you stand? I also am positive that there are some people liveing in those areas that will try to bull **** you that they own it when they dont! Got any hints?