mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
For urban spelunkers and infiltrators, California is a recreational heaven. For people just minding their own business — and building new homes on once-remote inland foothills — it can be a holey Hell. Literally: after more than 100 years of heavy-mining operations, from the ‘49ers onward, California’s easily-accessed gold and silver have been replaced by at least 40,000 abandoned mines, and many more ancillary mine structures like tunnels and shafts.
While these can be fascinating places — I admit that I have a tough time staying out of dark holes in the sides of hills when I come across them; the idea of finding some 100-year-old miner’s sardine can, still moldering where he left it, is just too cool — they’re also dangerous. In the last few years, homes have collapsed into crumbling mine shafts, swallowed trees and claimed several lives annually. In fact, there are so many mines that California can’t even count them: “We’ve estimated that it would take 26 years for us to complete an inventory of all abandoned mines in the state,” says the mining office’s assistant director, Doug Craig.
Mine shaft with rail track:
The blogger/miner:
I’ve always liked the idea of exploring and possibly finding some Very Fascinating Debris.
posted by Beth on 4-20-2007 at 1:01 pm
I live in Lake Elsinore Ca. and there is an old mine shaft that is in the hills across the street from my house. I have made it pretty deep into the mine but there is a point where it drops down and is flooded with water. I am hoping for it to subside enough to explore further, I say you make another post sometime over summer so I can update my findings haha. I am hoping to find a society of Morlocks…preferably not hungry.
posted by Jarred Hanson on 4-20-2007 at 4:02 pm
I REMEMBER YEARS AGO WHEN WE WENT CAMPING AND WENT ON A HIKE DOWN A SMALL MOUNTAIN. WE FOUND A CAVE CARVED IN SOLID ROCK THAT WAS ABOUT 5 FT HIGH, 7 FT WIDE AND ABOUT 30 FT DEEP WITH A SIDE TUNEL SAME HEIGHT AND WIDTH BUT ABOUT 10 FT DEEP. WE DID A LITTLE SEARCHING IN DALANOGA GA. AND FOUND OUT THIS WAS A CAVE USED DURING CIVIL WAR AND ITS LOCATION HAD BEEN LOST OR FORGOTTEN. UNFORTUNATELY THERE WERE NO ARTIFACS THERE BUT IT WAS A NEAT FINDING. I AM A LITTLE CLOSTERFOBIC BUT I ACTUALLY LIKE EXPLORING CAVES….
posted by JOHN BROWN on 4-22-2007 at 1:17 pm
In college I was a member of the Geology Club, which was a thinly veiled excuse to go camping and drink beer.
Often our adventures centered on various mines in the Owens Valley region of California. We explored many and often found exquisite mineral specimens.
Rumors abounded about complete steam engines abandoned hundreds of feet underground, as well as other interesting finds. Alas, I never saw the engines, just a lot of rocks, but others in my group claimed have seen them first hand.
Exploring mines was exciting, scary, and incredibly dangerous. Oh, the follies of youth!
posted by Pete Olsen on 4-25-2007 at 6:55 am
I find that steam engine thing very interesting. I have been in basically every mine in the whole Inyo County California. I haven’t found any steam engines, but it is possible through this one huge mine shaft in the side of the hill vsible from the farthest point from highway 395. That just syas how much history there is to explore int this whole world.
posted by Tyler on 9-26-2007 at 5:13 pm
Someone in the last few months… somewhere in Northern California… fell into a shaft that had been covered over with wood, apparently, and then over the yeas dirt & weeds made it appear as ground. The person walked onto, then fell through, the old wood. Can’t recall if the person died. But, I think old mines are cool. Not sure if I’d be that much of a gambler to explore. As one person here said, they’re probably mostly full of water anyway.
posted by gary on 1-13-2008 at 11:06 pm
any one have something on elmirage in southern california
posted by pat evans on 2-8-2008 at 7:40 pm
I was recently in an abandoned shaft. As I climbed an old ladder I nearly slipped into what appeared to be a bottomless pit. Very scary! Always make sure to notify someone of the location you decide to explore.
posted by Tyler on 2-20-2008 at 4:34 pm