Aerial Exploration of an Unknown and Unnamed Mine - UUM 467

SaltwaterServr

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We took the Phantom 4 out for a spin to get to this mine which is fairly difficult to get to. From the ground it's a mile and a half hike in with no trails, and about 1200' in elevation inside that distance. From where I was shooting the video, about 1700' away and 770' down from me, there's no way to get to this mine other than by air.

There's nothing known about it in any historical archives.

The moments when the video goes very bright is where I'm upping the exposure so I can see back into the shadows.

It's shot in 4K HD, but you'll need to adjust the settings on the Youtube display to get that high definition.

 

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arizau

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We took the Phantom 4 out for a spin to get to this mine which is fairly difficult to get to. From the ground it's a mile and a half hike in with no trails, and about 1200' in elevation inside that distance. From where I was shooting the video, about 1700' away and 770' down from me, there's no way to get to this mine other than by air.

There's nothing known about it in any historical archives.

The moments when the video goes very bright is where I'm upping the exposure so I can see back into the shadows.

It's shot in 4K HD, but you'll need to adjust the settings on the Youtube display to get that high definition.



I assume you have looked for trail or road traces to the mine on Welcome to Land Matters or google earth(?). I have had luck in finding/tracing uncharted roads by doing the same and so may you if you have not already done so.

Good luck.
 

Simon1

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Very nice video. I thought I saw wildlife trails towards the beginning. Had to be something in order for that engine block to be up there. Almost looked like a small V8. Looks like an interesting site for sure. Hope you get a chance to see it in person.
 

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SaltwaterServr

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Very nice video. I thought I saw wildlife trails towards the beginning. Had to be something in order for that engine block to be up there. Almost looked like a small V8. Looks like an interesting site for sure. Hope you get a chance to see it in person.

We're thinking a straight 4 cylinder. The crankshaft kinda looks like it would fit that. I have the luxury to pull still images from the raw video and blow them up considerably on Photoshop. We're going after her for sure this weekend.

I assume you have looked for trail or road traces to the mine on Welcome to Land Matters or google earth(?). I have had luck in finding/tracing uncharted roads by doing the same and so may you if you have not already done so.

Good luck.

We've scoured every available site there is. No trails up there any longer that aren't overgrown. If there is any remnants, we might be able to find it once we're up there and then follow it down. Always easier that way.
 

old digger

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Interesting! Is it possible that the old trail came up the ridge from the right side at the beginning of the video? Also, that engine does look like a flat-head four, with the valve covers that remove from the side that can be seen towards the camera. Good luck, hope you find something good.
 

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SaltwaterServr

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Interesting! Is it possible that the old trail came up the ridge from the right side at the beginning of the video? Also, that engine does look like a flat-head four, with the valve covers that remove from the side that can be seen towards the camera. Good luck, hope you find something good.

If I had to guess, yeah, somewhere down that direction. It should line up about where the black arrow points down hill at the start where I have the dimensions of the dump. There's another unseen prospect that direction too.
 

Simon1

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A four cylinder would make more sense, guess I was looking at it at the angle and concluded v8 which did seem odd. I thought to myself out of place artifact, (sorta). Keep us posted with your trip. !
 

RTR

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Gotta be a trail someplace.They didn't haul all that stuff in one trip.
 

RTR

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I understand that.But that Eng. needed a vehicle to get there.A road of sorts(wider than a trail) was needed.Either for mule & wagon. Or a jeep/truck. That area only gets a few inches of rain ,a year.Cant be too much erosion.Maybe expanding the search zone will reveal a small section of the 'road'
 

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Mad Machinist

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I'm betting the engine was taken in by mule team in pieces and reassembled on site. I've seen several references to this fact in old records.

Hell with the massive cajones some of the guys had they may have just set the pieces on their shoulders and carried them in. It takes a different sort of cat to work in a heading only two feet tall. And we have found several.

Gold fever will make you do some strange things.
 

mytimetoshine

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Awesome find and cool video. Even more crazy than hauling all that stuff in was the fact that they roamed those steep desolate canyons looking for it! Those old timers would be so jealous of our drones!
 

Mad Machinist

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Awesome find and cool video. Even more crazy than hauling all that stuff in was the fact that they roamed those steep desolate canyons looking for it! Those old timers would be so jealous of our drones!

I wanna pull that engine down, clean it up, rebuild it, and use it to power the huge arrastra we found. Be a hell of a conversation piece.
 

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SaltwaterServr

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I understand that.But that Eng. needed a vehicle to get there.A road of sorts(wider than a trail) was needed.Either for mule & wagon. Or a jeep/truck. That area only gets a few inches of rain ,a year.Cant be too much erosion.Maybe expanding the search zone will reveal a small section of the 'road'

It gets right around 19" of rain a year, plus a foot or so of snow. There's a piece of patent land right next door to one of our mines that burned down to the last blade of grass about 6 years ago. That brush is back to being nearly fully grown back and thick as bugs on a semi's bumper. It might be there, but we'll have to find it on the way down. We had some grown over trails at the Green Mountain mine that were grown back, but the brush there is much less dense since they only get about half the rain fail down there in Wickenburg.
 

RTR

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It gets right around 19" of rain a year, plus a foot or so of snow. There's a piece of patent land right next door to one of our mines that burned down to the last blade of grass about 6 years ago. That brush is back to being nearly fully grown back and thick as bugs on a semi's bumper. It might be there, but we'll have to find it on the way down. We had some grown over trails at the Green Mountain mine that were grown back, but the brush there is much less dense since they only get about half the rain fail down there in Wickenburg.

Hey, found this interesting piece >> https://www.ohio-forum.com/2013/05/how-do-you-find-a-cave-you-cant-see/
 

RTR

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We took the Phantom 4 out for a spin to get to this mine which is fairly difficult to get to. From the ground it's a mile and a half hike in with no trails, and about 1200' in elevation inside that distance. From where I was shooting the video, about 1700' away and 770' down from me, there's no way to get to this mine other than by air.

There's nothing known about it in any historical archives.

The moments when the video goes very bright is where I'm upping the exposure so I can see back into the shadows.

It's shot in 4K HD, but you'll need to adjust the settings on the Youtube display to get that high definition.



Hey have you checked it out yet on foot ?
 

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SaltwaterServr

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We came, we didn't see, we tried.

The path we thought offered the least resistance was not remotely easy once we got halfway up. 2 hours of hiking and we had realistically only done the fast half.

What looked like large boulders on the side of the mountain were 20-30' spires in some cases. The terrain was going to be much steeper than expected. We had about 3 hours of daylight left and our best guess was we would possibly make it with 30 minutes of light left.

So we turned around and went home. Almost.

We found another prospect spot with a lot of good ore still there. We call it "SB1" because it's a son of a (Hillary clinton) to get to. We'll know how that ore looks later in the day.

We also found a fairly extensive adit that I'll have a video up for today.

There's also another large dump pile with a hidden portal. The ore coming off of that is showing very large and chunky gold so far.
 

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