Exploring The Many Adits Of Nevada's Sweetwater Rim Mine

We stumbled across this abandoned mine while looking for a camping spot, just as darkness was descending upon us (I shot the video the next morning). So, it was a most welcome discovery since it was an ideal location - level ground, out of the wind, a cleared area, good views, plenty of dry wood around for firewood… Abandoned mines often make for great campsites and this one was not an exception.

This name of this mine does not appear on any topographic maps that we have seen (if it is even marked at all) and it took some serious digging to even come up with a name. So, regrettably, I am unable to share any concrete information on its history. This area is heavy on lead and silver mines though and so, it stands to reason, they likely mined the same here as well.

It would seem that the area where we camped might possibly be the older workings at the mine given the absence of rail and the remains of that very old stone building in the wash (which is presumably where the early miner – or miners – lived). Perhaps the miner(s) followed the veins around the hill and started working that second section after coming to believe the first area we explored was played out. In support of this possibility is the fact that the second section had rail, more equipment, an ore chute, etc. Of course, another possibility is that the stone building was from the very early days of Nevada’s mining history and that some modest mining was done then, but that the majority of the mining work seen in the first and second sections dates to an effort during the 1930s or so. I mention this second possibility because the woodwork inside of both the first and second sections appears to be about the same age and it seems less likely that miners would be living in a primitive stone shelter by the 1930s.

That woodwork could also simply be a result of more recent claim owners (of which there is obviously at least one) going back and poking around in old workings.

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You can click here for the full playlist of abandoned mines: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

Thanks for watching!

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Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well.

These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that niche of our history is gone forever. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born.

So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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