Would You Do It?

Nitric · Mar 1, 2019

I just watched this video....There is no way that I would have the guts. Haha Drops 550ft, handles dynomite(I think),kind of maybe he's a little mixed up looking for his back to the rope(I'm just guessing)etc... I was scared watching it! haha My first thought when he got to the bottom and saw him unhook.."what if that wasn't the bottom and if that could have been a plug?...." How would you know? Then who knows if walking around on it would let things loose? ...

He has more guts than I do...That's for sure!! There is A part one too, it's him being lowered down the 550 ft. I'd like to see some stuff like this...but? I don't think I have the guts for it.

Tpmetal · Mar 1, 2019

you would have to have a pretty strong case of finding treasure to get me in there

OreCart · Mar 1, 2019

Tpmetal said:
you would have to have a pretty strong case of finding treasure to get me in there

I am not sure if I could do it or not. I am not well enough to do this now physically, but assuming I could, I am not sure. I don't mind heights, but snakes really bother me. I say that too being from Maine, the only state in the nation without poisonous snakes. Tight spaces do not bother me which was really important when I welded up US Navy Destroyers. Until I good enough at welding with a mirror, I crammed myself into some holes. (Take a look at the bow section of the USS Zumwalt for an idea of how cramped it gets welding...and 180 sailors lives depend on your quality welds too).

I really like Frank though, and is the only channel on YouTube I watch routinely.

The biggest problem is that I could not go in alone. My best friend and exploring partner is my wife Katie, and our think is urban exploring such as old factories and buildings. We LIVE for that, so we definitely explore creepy places, but Katie is claustrophobic so there is no way I would get her into a mine shaft. Without her, I doubt I would go in.

We were coming back from a date one evening though and found an old house that just needed to be explored. Katie was not really dressed for exploring such a place, but her curiosity got the best of her, so we went in and looked about the place. She is a trooper in terms of exploring.

wildminer · Mar 1, 2019

Count me out. You can also call me chicken s*** and it won't bother me!

RobNC · Mar 1, 2019

It's nice to have someone go with you in such things.
But I thought when I seen the picture this was your way of putting a TREASURE in places to make you go looking!

OreCart said:
I am not sure if I could do it or not. I am not well enough to do this now physically, but assuming I could, I am not sure. I don't mind heights, but snakes really bother me. I say that too being from Maine, the only state in the nation without poisonous snakes. Tight spaces do not bother me which was really important when I welded up US Navy Destroyers. Until I good enough at welding with a mirror, I crammed myself into some holes. (Take a look at the bow section of the USS Zumwalt for an idea of how cramped it gets welding...and 180 sailors lives depend on your quality welds too).

I really like Frank though, and is the only channel on YouTube I watch routinely.

The biggest problem is that I could not go in alone. My best friend and exploring partner is my wife Katie, and our think is urban exploring such as old factories and buildings. We LIVE for that, so we definitely explore creepy places, but Katie is claustrophobic so there is no way I would get her into a mine shaft. Without her, I doubt I would go in.

We were coming back from a date one evening though and found an old house that just needed to be explored. Katie was not really dressed for exploring such a place, but her curiosity got the best of her, so we went in and looked about the place. She is a trooper in terms of exploring.

View attachment 1685918

N/A · Mar 1, 2019

They are lucky that rope didnt break from sliding on the corner of the rock

No gold in NY · Mar 1, 2019

I did it while in my late 20's. A vertical cave in W. Virginia. 154 feet down. Looking in I could see hardhats, about the size of my thumb nail. Quick going down. Took me 20 minutes to get back up. They said I did good for a first timer. Now I'm an old timer.

N-Lionberger · Mar 1, 2019

I have rappelled into some caves as well.

Joanne · Mar 1, 2019

Would I do it? Heck yes! It's what we do.

Joanne

mofugly13 · Mar 1, 2019

Joanne said:
Would I do it? Heck yes! It's what we do.

Joanne

This looks awesome. What’s the story?

OreCart · Mar 2, 2019

Joanne said:
Would I do it? Heck yes! It's what we do.

Joanne

That is awesome!

I think it is really great when a husband and wife do things fun together like this. Old mines would be the greatest exploration I think because everything down there that is explorable, took hard work to excavate, and so every stope and rise would make me think, "now why would they do all this", which of course all done on the HOPE that the ore held promise.

Nice pictures too. I know what little bit we explore, taking quality photos in dusty, dirty buildings in poor light can be a challenge. In short I really admire you for doing what you do! My only question is, where are the high heels and little red dress? (LOL) (Only teasing).

OreCart · Mar 2, 2019

As I said, I really like Frank and his explorations.

He has over 190 videos so far, and said he has been approached by Discovery Channel to do a television show on exploring abandoned mines. I am not sure how that went, or if that is still in the works or not.

The only thing I am unsure of, is that sometimes he takes things out of the mine. Myself; and this is just me...Katie and I admit that what we are doing is illegal, as exploring old buildings is trespassing, but we live by one rule. Leave only footprints, and take only photographs. And we have seen some really nice stuff. Stuff that probably no one would ever want, BUT...it is not ours.

Nitric · Mar 2, 2019

OreCart said:
I am not sure if I could do it or not. I am not well enough to do this now physically, but assuming I could, I am not sure. I don't mind heights, but snakes really bother me. I say that too being from Maine, the only state in the nation without poisonous snakes. Tight spaces do not bother me which was really important when I welded up US Navy Destroyers. Until I good enough at welding with a mirror, I crammed myself into some holes. (Take a look at the bow section of the USS Zumwalt for an idea of how cramped it gets welding...and 180 sailors lives depend on your quality welds too).

I really like Frank though, and is the only channel on YouTube I watch routinely.

The biggest problem is that I could not go in alone. My best friend and exploring partner is my wife Katie, and our think is urban exploring such as old factories and buildings. We LIVE for that, so we definitely explore creepy places, but Katie is claustrophobic so there is no way I would get her into a mine shaft. Without her, I doubt I would go in.

We were coming back from a date one evening though and found an old house that just needed to be explored. Katie was not really dressed for exploring such a place, but her curiosity got the best of her, so we went in and looked about the place. She is a trooper in terms of exploring.

View attachment 1685918

We use to go exploring every weekend. When we were younger her and I would jump in the car and sometimes on Sunday would be 3 states away. haha...There was also a time when we looked for the "Haunted" stuff....My wife doesn't have much fear when it comes to that stuff. I'm probably the one that worries more of what could happen. Snakes and spiders are my biggest problem. I'm not deathly afraid or anything like that. It's just always on my mind and I'm a little jumpy watching out for them. I'm ok if I see it first, I don't like surprised by them.

My biggest problem being lowered in would be the trust of who was on the other end of the rope, then the constant thought of what could fail...That and worried about things coming down on me. The shaft would be the same...I'd have a constant worry of what could fail or go wrong. The mental part would get me..."what if the light goes out, what if that timber fails, what if there was an earth quake,etc..." That's how my mind would go. Seems like the older I get the more those types of thoughts go when doing this kind of stuff. haha

Your pic reminds me of stuff my wife and I would do.Your not fooling me with the whole..."we just happened to stop and check it out.." :laughing7:

.I'm joking!!

SHe loves old house that have the Victorian type look, we couldn't pass one that looked abandoned with out her wanting to check it out. We haven't done that in years since now I have more of a respect for property owners, it really depends on a lot if we go look at something or not., but in the past it wasn't much of a concern. :laughing7:

Plus in your teens and 20's it's kind of expected when caught...When your 40's it's looked at a little different. haha: We even stayed in the local "haunted house" where we grew up. Everyone was afraid of it and we were dared to spend the night in it....We did...haha Heard noise's..Went to check it out. Just squirrels and raccoons living in it. No ghosts.

I like his video's too!! I wasn't trying to trash on him at all...Just thought the kid was a little crazy for some of the things he did and most of that was because of my own fears of things. I'm a subscriber to the channel. I've watched a ton of his video's.

Nitric · Mar 2, 2019

Joanne said:
Would I do it? Heck yes! It's what we do.

Joanne

That would be a blast! and I would love to see some of that kind of stuff..Just too many fears for that....Maybe once I understand more it would be different.

OreCart · Mar 2, 2019

Nitric said:
We use to go exploring every weekend. When we were younger her and I would jump in the car and sometimes on Sunday would be 3 states away. haha...There was also a time when we looked for the "Haunted" stuff....My wife doesn't have much fear when it comes to that stuff. I'm probably the one that worries more of what could happen. Snakes and spiders are my biggest problem. I'm not deathly afraid or anything like that. It's just always on my mind and I'm a little jumpy watching out for them. I'm ok if I see it first, I don't like surprised by them.

My biggest problem being lowered in would be the trust of who was on the other end of the rope, then the constant thought of what could fail...That and worried about things coming down on me. The shaft would be the same...I'd have a constant worry of what could fail or go wrong. The mental part would get me..."what if the light goes out, what if that timber fails, what if there was an earth quake,etc..." That's how my mind would go. Seems like the older I get the more those types of thoughts go when doing this kind of stuff. haha

Your pic reminds me of stuff my wife and I would do.Your not fooling me with the whole..."we just happened to stop and check it out..".I'm joking!!

SHe loves old house that have the Victorian type look, we couldn't pass one that looked abandoned with out her wanting to check it out. We haven't done that in years since now I have more of a respect for property owners, it really depends on a lot if we go look at something or not., but in the past it wasn't much of a concern. Plus in your teens and 20's it's kind of expected when caught...When your 40's it's looked at a little different. haha: We even stayed in the local "haunted house" where we grew up. Everyone was afraid of it and we were dared to spend the night in it....We did...haha Heard noise's..Went to check it out. Just squirrels and raccoons living in it. No ghosts.

I like his video's too!! I wasn't trying to trash on him at all...Just thought the kid was a little crazy for some of the things he did and most of that was because of my own fears of things. I'm a subscriber to the channel. I've watched a ton of his video's.

No, no, no...I did not take it all that you were "trashing him". If I conveyed that, I am so sorry. I knew exactly what you were saying.

The only surprise to me on this particular video was, in the first one showing the kid being lowered down, they seemed like the rope system was perfect and they were 'experts", but then when things went wrong (getting him back up), they seemed like amateurs. I am not trashing them, plans do not always work out like you think, it just seemed like such a stark contrast to the first video to the second.

As for us just happening along to that old house, that was TRUE! We even had our youngest daughter with us at the time. We had actually taken a side-road to go see a park, but when we got there it was getting late, and was hiking trails. Katie was not exactly dressed for hiking (her high heels), but when we ran across this abandoned railroad house, we explored it.

OreCart · Mar 2, 2019

Kind of a funny story about that night, but I will try and work it in family-like ways...

That old railroad house was about 3 hours from home, so it was dark on the ride back, and the baby had fallen asleep. Bored, I decided to make things interesting knowing Katie was just wearing her high heels, her dress and some jewelry; not a lot underneath shall we say. So with it being dark out, I coerced her into wearing just her heels and jewelry!

That was okay, except she would drape the red dress over her when we came to towns due to the streetlights. So...I grabbed the dress and threw it in the back seat. That upped the ole ante!

That was fine until we got close to home and approached a blind Tee Intersection. There was traffic coming from the left and right, but I could not really judge the distance. So I started to take off, but then slammed on the brakes due to the traffic from the left. I started to go again, and slammed on the brakes due to the traffic approaching faster than I thought from the right. I started to go a third time, and a car from the left came into vie, so I slammed the brakes on again. Just about that time, the car from the right went by....and it was a State Police Officer! She hit the brakes herself, and I began to freak out. Here I had a not-so-clothed wife, a baby sleeping in the back, and I am thinking, "hw am I going to explain this to a police officer and child protective services?" Worse yet, it is a small town, and knew the police officer was a woman!

Go straight to jail and do not collect $200.

Anyway, the police officer must have just been considering a stop, because she just kept going! Thankfully!! But that would have been some explaining to do.

Nitric · Mar 2, 2019

OreCart said:
No, no, no...I did not take it all that you were "trashing him". If I conveyed that, I am so sorry. I knew exactly what you were saying.

The only surprise to me on this particular video was, in the first one showing the kid being lowered down, they seemed like the rope system was perfect and they were 'experts", but then when things went wrong (getting him back up), they seemed like amateurs. I am not trashing them, plans do not always work out like you think, it just seemed like such a stark contrast to the first video to the second.

As for us just happening along to that old house, that was TRUE! We even had our youngest daughter with us at the time. We had actually taken a side-road to go see a park, but when we got there it was getting late, and was hiking trails. Katie was not exactly dressed for hiking (her high heels), but when we ran across this abandoned railroad house, we explored it.

View attachment 1686173

I know nothing about rope and using it to lower and raise myself. Your right though! And I'm not sure I would have liked the truck idea. That and they were running over the rope!!! I worked for a tree climber one summer and he was very picky about his ropes. When I saw them running over the rope I thought of the guy I worked for..He would have went off over something like that. hahaha" Don't let it get damp(don't put it away damp), don't run over it, if you see any damage bring it to someones attention...etc..." That and running that much rope over the edge like they did would worry me too. There has to be some kind of something to use so that it's not wearing on rock or whatever was on the edge there.

And it's easy to sit on my keyboard and pick at stuff...So, This is just for conversation... I have no idea of what's safe or not...Just some of the things I thought about when watching. haha I know the bounce would have freaked me out too. haha I would imagine on that length it gets a little springy(?).

Years ago I got permission to take pics of a house in Southern Ohio. We have them on a zip drive somewhere. The other day my wife showed me that there were pics that someone took and put on the net before they tore it down. It was pretty cool to think that we beat them by about 20 years. :laughing7:

It was a shame that it wasn't saved, but it was in no where Ohio and had been flooded too many times over the years with out any repairs. It was past the stage of repair 20 years ago...Just a shame that it cost so much to save some of these places..They hold some cool history.

And no, You didn't make me think I was trash talking him. I just thought I should put that in there...Because I really don't have a clue about this stuff...I just know I'd worry about everything if trying to do something like this..Not sure I could do it. especially what they showed in the video. I'd have to understand everything that I could before I even thought about going down a 550ft hole, that's a long way when you think about it, then running around down there. Like him banging the dynomite on the ground to knock the dust off..(I think I saw that in there)....I know my luck too well. :laughing7:

If I would have done that then stuck it in my hat. It would have fell out of my hat part way up and blew me right out the hole into the sky! .. haha

Capt Nemo · Mar 2, 2019

Given the water level was higher at points, the nitro may have leached completely out, and that stick was nothing but sawdust.

OreCart · Mar 2, 2019

Nitric said:
I know nothing about rope and using it to lower and raise myself. Your right though! And I'm not sure I would have liked the truck idea. That and they were running over the rope!!! I worked for a tree climber one summer and he was very picky about his ropes. When I saw them running over the rope I thought of the guy I worked for..He would have went off over something like that. hahaha" Don't let it get damp(don't put it away damp), don't run over it, if you see any damage bring it to someones attention...etc..." That and running that much rope over the edge like they did would worry me too. There has to be some kind of something to use so that it's not wearing on rock or whatever was on the edge there.

And it's easy to sit on my keyboard and pick at stuff...So, This is just for conversation... I have no idea of what's safe or not...Just some of the things I thought about when watching. haha I know the bounce would have freaked me out too. haha I would imagine on that length it gets a little springy(?).

Years ago I got permission to take pics of a house in Southern Ohio. We have them on a zip drive somewhere. The other day my wife showed me that there were pics that someone took and put on the net before they tore it down. It was pretty cool to think that we beat them by about 20 years. It was a shame that it wasn't saved, but it was in no where Ohio and had been flooded too many times over the years with out any repairs. It was past the stage of repair 20 years ago...Just a shame that it cost so much to save some of these places..They hold some cool history.

And no, You didn't make me think I was trash talking him. I just thought I should put that in there...Because I really don't have a clue about this stuff...I just know I'd worry about everything if trying to do something like this..Not sure I could do it. especially what they showed in the video. I'd have to understand everything that I could before I even thought about going down a 550ft hole, that's a long way when you think about it, then running around down there. Like him banging the dynomite on the ground to knock the dust off..(I think I saw that in there)....I know my luck too well. If I would have done that then stuck it in my hat. It would have fell out of my hat part way up and blew me right out the hole into the sky! .. haha

In the comments they said the rope was NOT running over the rock edge, but running over a piece of rebar, but it still would make me nervous.

Frank's ex-girlfriend said on a video once that what would surprise people "is the heights involved inside a mine"; ironic in a way, that you could be deep underground and fall to your death, but some ore shafts are straight down by several thousand feet.

My favorite video ever was when he climbed through all that old mine shafting, heard noises, popped up and found they had restarted the mine up and workers were inside. They asked him if he had climbed up the backway and did not seem to give to grunts about him being inside the place.

But I love ole Frank, he reminds me of me. I talk to myself, grumble all the time, and do everything alone now ever since Katie went back to work. He is an old farmer too, admits when he does not know something, and knows about as much of geology as I do, so I can relate to him.

Joanne · Mar 2, 2019

The photos that I posted are from the Delamar mine north of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a large gold mine that operated from about 1890 to 1909. I've probably spent two or three weeks underground in that mine and still haven't see all of it. I know of 5 underground shafts in the mine (one of them is the first picture I posted) that are close to 300' each. It has some really amazing square-set timbering that we don't often find in most mines. We also found a few almost buried adits that we dug back open that gave us access to large parts of the mine.

A number of years ago, there was a production company who contacted Mojave Underground, Underground Explorers, and myself to see if they could put together a reality show featuring the three exploring groups. Ultimately nothing ever came of it, but it would have been fun to do.

I have a LOT of pictures on my website Abandoned mines of the Southwest if you want to see more underground pictures.

Joanne