Why Did So Many Miners Lose Their Pants In This Mine?

The number of pairs of pants that the miners (or trousers for my UK viewers) lost in this mine is nothing short of extraordinary… And that is not even including the fragments of cloth that are suspected pairs of pants! I’ll even go a step further and observe that there are undoubtedly even more lost pants behind the lagging in the mine and behind the gobbing (stacked rocks on the side) as those are the primary places that miners will discard things.

As a side note, as the number of historical mines still in existence continues to decrease and those that remain are increasingly stripped of all artifacts, I suspect that future mine explorers will start picking through gobbing. That will essentially be the last refuge for artifacts.

But about those pants… Even if one rips them, pants seem like a rather extreme personal item to abandon underground. Did the miners spend the rest of the day working in their boots and underwear? It is difficult to imagine them casually strolling home after a long shift like that. Miners have a good sense of humor and so I could see it happening as a joke, but it seems like it was a regular occurrence at this mine. I’m afraid that some questions may never be answered.

Having worked in the mining sector, I can assure you that there isn’t a secret miner’s ritual of losing pants down a mine shaft and I don’t know any miners that have ever lost their pants underground…

The work in this mining district started in the very early 1900s and the geology is an odd mix ranging from turquoise to silver to boron to copper (all have been mined here). The focus for this particular mine shaft was on galena (silver/lead) ore, but turquoise and the other minerals mentioned were frequently encountered.

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You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L

You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD and here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6

Several kind viewers have asked about donating to help cover some of the many expenses associated with exploring these abandoned mines. Inspired by their generosity, I set up a Patreon account. So, if anyone would care to chip in, I’m under TVR Exploring on Patreon.

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 colorful niche of our history is gone forever.
I hope you’ll join us on these adventures!

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