Thank you everyone for the continued support! There was a lot of interest in me making a video about the Mizpah Hotel, which I've published here: ua-cam.com/video/X9S9BequQRw/v-deo.html As for the canyon, it's one of the most remote places we've explored, but it turns out some people have been there in the past century for sure and a couple comments had some excellent additional research on the place. I'm now planning a Part 2 of this video including some of the new information that was shared as well as some of the material I cut from this video. Honestly, I didn't anticipate this much interest in the subject and trimmed out quite a bit to cater to my usual subscribers. There isn't much to see of it, but I'll be including shots of the blasted mine entrance as well as more surveying of the town. I hope to have that out on this channel Saturday, March 19.
Late 1980s and early 90s I worked building housing subdivisions in Las Vegas and I know what its like to work in "117 , Degree heat !! When it dropped back to 100 or 105 , it felt comfortable !!
The Mizpah, I've camped out there several times on winter nights. They say the place is haunted and I must agree. The hotel is like a step back into time. There's nothing like Tonopah, and no telling what you'll see in the sky. I've seen top secret flights where the chase planes were left in the dust, with one that a friend and a saw out at the silver peeks that was doing well over Mach 5, while the high speed chase planes looked as if parked in the air, they were so slow.
Awesome, was hoping for you to document the Mizpah Hotel..As always thanks for the excellent videos, as well as the super informative info. Looking forward to your next video! Thank you for preserving interest in almost forgotten history.
Hi, I really have enjoyed reading and watching your quest for your next 📚 book. Thank you for taking us along! Have you ever gotten into collecting antique bottles etc while surveying the Ghost towns you write about? Back in the 1980's I enjoyed going for a week at a time to different ghost towns in Utah, Nevada, California. To either mining camps, or small temporary tent cities. One tent city (as I call them, for the lack of a better educated term.) We were in northwestern Utah. Above and to the west of the Great Salt Lake. My boyfriend at the time figured out and walked the original layout for the perimeter of an old neighborhood. And he dug up a shallow trash pit from about the 1880's to 1890's. He found 2 Chinese brown Bennington pots. One was a dry bean pot for storage. And the other was for Saki. There were also a few clay pipes probably for opium. And a few onion skin marbles. He and our friend probed long and hard for the rest our time spent there. But no other artifacts were found that time. Any how, I really enjoyed your story. Thank you for sharing it! If you do collect the artifacts from the ghost towns you write about... I would LOVE to see them!!! And I am positive that I would not be alone on that!! 👌😁😁
Living in central europe, where pretty much every square centimeter is occupied today, I find this very interesting, that there spots like these that haven't been visited in over a century. I always underestimate how huge the US is. Thanks for the video, really great to watch.
I used to travel on Interstate 70 to Las Vegas from western Colorado. About halfway through Utah there's a stretch of highway 132 miles long with no services, no gasoline available. No nothing except fabulous wilderness.
A good reference for Europeans: the continental US (no mexico or canada or alaska) is about the same size as the entirety of Europe, islands and nordics all, up to the Urals. With about half the population, ie the same size as either western _or_ eastern Europe, which are coincidentally similar. And this population is almost entirely geograpically condensed into a few large sprawling “metropolitan” areas that are denser but not as dense as a large european city. Britain is about the size of Alabama.
My work buddy said he found an abandoned stagecoach in the Sierras, it was still hitched up with horse skeletons and all the luggage and lock box was still there. He left it alone because it didn't belong to him and it was none of his business.
I visited this camp back in 1972. The buildings were somewhat still upright back then with only the roofs caving in on two of them and a few walls starting to tip. It was "spooky" to say the least. At that time there was an elderly man living there in a pickup truck with a camper on top of it. I believe his name was Dave, I can not for the life of me remember his last name. He was using part of the old buildings to try and build another one to the northeast a few hundred yards. I would think it should still be there. It looked as if he was mining the area and had a few boxes made up for mining what he called" left overs" LOL. That was many years ago and I have gotten pretty old now ........ He liked to bury his pots of gold, or so he said (smile). I dont think he really did that well but hey, who knows on these old mining camps. And another thing, that small creek was quite a bit larger back then and the water not so toxic looking.
That stamp mill belonged to my grandfather. The McCoy's mined that area in the early 40's. Pigeon Springs had a cabin that was their home. Above the stamp mill was a canvas tent. They mined the Buster mine. The shovel at Tonopah museum also belonged to my grandfather and his brothers. A man by the name of Roy Wilber had a couple mines as well. He lived in a cabin from 1932 I believe until his passing.
@@oneyebat7839 Thank goodness it is not flat or we would fall off. Love how Lori connected. Hope good information and history was saved for posterity. High 5 to all of you.
Thank you so much! I'm a 68-year-old lady whose heart's desire is this kind of exploration, but, oh well. You give me a vicarious experience so appreciated!
@James Wilder After "slight" injury 20+ years ago, right knee worn out. Still strange, hobble and limp without much pain, but tiring. Trying to be grateful for, whatever....
The large building was the bar, kitchen and scale. I have 4 poker chips fused together from time and weather we unearthed in 1971when we went back. The entrance is at west end of great smokey valley where our ranch was. The governor of Nevada in 1972 flew over the canyon with me at 6yrs old and I broke my finger in the plane door on that trip. All in all 5 trips we took into the mine and we came from the gold rush end. I have the documents and photos to show. I am completely excited that someone else took the trip there and I would be honored to donate the chips to the public and meet that gentleman. I'm the last survivor of the mine and I now live in selah WA . The records for the mine are in my mother and grandfather's name in the Nye county courthouse. Bert Leroy Carder and Francis Joan Carder. Only one town I didn't get to see was Kimberly Nevada which is 15 miles southwest of Ely and I would love to get information from there
In Apple Valley, Ca. we'd hike in to the springs during the day (with beer) BUT hike out just before dark, when the temp. would drop almost 15 to 20 degrees. Hike smart, pack in and pack out.
Well done for walking down and up that valley. Next time you attempt something like that drop a water store en route to pickup on the way back. Saves carrying it. I used to work regularly on 52°C and above, in desert conditions, we always dropped water to save on carrying it.
My dad, in 1965, bought an old house that was a stage coach stop for mines in the mountains of northern ID. The house was 100 years old when he bought it and 6 acres for $500. We lived in the house and it still stands today. The property had lots of smaller bunk houses all over the property and several old automobiles as well! My dad even got one running and my mom drove it around and people looked at us like we were nuts … today I still love old cars. None of the buildings were made of stone/rock…everything was wood. ..up the road were three mines and all were made of wood and falling down but there were three huge settling ponds and when I say huge I’m talking huge…it’s a big EPA headache. Arsenic, lead, mercury, iron…all coming from the ponds where the cribbing is collapsing. Good memories. Thanks for the video.
buy rent a metal detector and cover the house and 150 yards out in all directions,stage stops and depots are good places to find gold coins,found many around the butterfield lines
Using a drone to save you hours of trail finding misery in such heat, was a game changer. Great video - I really enjoyed it from the comfort of my UK homestead.
I've been to this area in the late 70's early 80's. We use to look for where the old outhouses were and dig for old bottles. Men tended to sit on the pot drinking and when the bottle was empty they dropped it into the hole 🙂The buildings were in much better shape then. I still have many bottles collected from our treks into the hills. Thank for posting this, bring back many good memories of my younger days.
@@TamaraBeinlich Are you an archaeologist? anthropologist? steward or conservator? No? Don't think you're really the judge of what is and is not an important artifact. Much of what we consider "valuable artifacts" are old trash. Antiquities act 1906. Tldr, eat sh1t.
@@TamaraBeinlich The desert has been stripped bare of it's cultural heritage by numbskulls dying for a yard ornament or shelf displayed dust collector. Thanks.
What a great and rewarding adventure! I'm a land surveyor and I've encountered similar things to this. About 20 years ago I was running the boundary of an old mining claim with a compass and hip chain when I spotted beer cans on the ground in front of met. We were in a remote location that had grown over and the cans were tin and required a "church key" to open, the were all unopened and empty. I followed the cans into the woods off the line and discovered an intact miners camp. There was a wood shaker box for gold and a canvas wall tent. The tent had turned into scraps and trees grew up through the old 4 poster bed and rocking chair within. There were several other items that seemed to date the site to the 1920s or 30s. We were locating the corner posts with GPS but only had claim maps form the early 1900s, we found all of them too, including one that had been through a recent forest fire. (Hint, wood claim posts don't have roots!). Here's to adventure and exploring the old places!
@@lorirode-off BLM has them, also more local governments may have them, State, or County/Borough level. The older and superseded ones may be in a local archive of some kind.
This whole video was so cool, my 5 year old son enjoys watching your videos with me and he just loves abandoned places and vehicles. Glad you all made it safe, look forward to checking out the book!
Best part of exploring the SW US mines and ghost towns is how well preserved they are. In the Pacific northwest, alot of the old camps are over grown and or rotted away. There's not much left to see. But in the desert, there's much more evidence left.
I guess it depends on what the PNW is. Poker flat is probably interesting to a layman. take a 4wd vehicle with high clearance. Don't mess around in there though or the prospectors will deal with you. but maybe north CA is not PNW to some people.
@@somedegreeofsundown2338 Where Poker Flat is located is not typically thought of as the PNW. The extreme north of the California coast is included, however. If you haven't yet read it, find a copy of Bret Harte's short stories. There is a very moving one titled, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat."
Sorry, but I am an old explorer of the west. I am 75 now and unable to do much. Me and my friends were Marines. We would plan for a week of exploration. We used burros to help with supplies, as you had to walk into these areas. Really enjoyed our discoveries, but no one was interested in them at time. Found many claims, with stone monuments that had the old claims inside inside old tobacco cans (Prince Albert). Left everything as it was. Glad to see that someone is documenting these places
Have been to a old mining town 10,000 feet up in the mountains of Idaho called Boulder City which was once Idaho’s highest mining settlement. Only way to this mine is either by walking or through the use of UTV. One year we went up there and it is very impressive. The tram line wire still runs up all the way to the mine higher above the mountain. Lots of buildings still remain (albeit in deteriorating condition)and I found a old burlap sack buried under the snow and ice (Probably the reason why it survived) with a letter “B” on it. I surmise it is from the heyday of the mine which was from 1883 to 1893. At 10,000 feet above sea level I find it incredible that 700 people used to live there. Very treacherous trail to this mine and I was caught up in a nasty thunderstorm when I was up there.
That is so interesting! Maybe it's because I've spent most of my life in GA, but on my trips to the west I have a terrible time breathing. I developed asthma in my 30's. In the past few years I collapsed my right lung and had a pneumothorax in my left. I'm pretty sure that if I can't go on horseback, I'll never make it to those altitudes again. So frustrating. We've been able to visit Bodie and I loved it despite not being able to breathe. Since then my husband has traveled all over the country due to work, and has had the opportunity visit a lot of easily accessible ghost towns and wilderness areas. It's incredibly beautiful. Hopefully enough people can't make the hike so those places remain preserved for the lucky few who can make the trip.
My grandfather, an electrician and great grandfather, a rancher/prospector/miner, were working mines in Nevada and Oregon in the thirties into the early forties. That Model A wasn't abandon because it was new but because it was worn out and broken, robbed for parts. They worked at the Granite and Cornucopia mines in Oregon in the thirties. And they talked about the wine and whisky bottle houses built at Nevada camps seen earlier. They were working in Nevada at a mine and my great grandmother had a dream about horses. When that happened, there was always death coming. They packed up and went back to Oregon. Weeks later the mine had a major cave in. My mother at the age of ten contracted polio in 1940 likely in Baker City where my great grandfather was living at the time. The locals quarantined the Granite mining camp out of fear where she fell, though my mother and aunt also showing symptoms had already been moved to Baker City and great-grandfathers. There were two fences some distance outside the camp with an armed guard. Supplies were dropped off inside the first gate and the folks had to wait for the hands to clear out before they could come in and get supplies. It's thought that the source was a frequented mom and pop store in Baker City near my great grandfathers where visits were common and the guys kids would steal a piece of candy and suck on it for a bit...then put it back so dad wouldn't catch them. One or more of them had contracted the feared summer Polio scourge as well. The only doctor in town that would touch her threatened to quit when Great grandpa Wilson tried to tell him about the singular success Sister Mary was having in Australia and her methods. After all, he was the doctor. My frail but hyperactive aunt got better. But mom was eventually sent on the train by herself to Portland to a children's hospital for treatment, such as it was. But came home for Christmas for a time. Was in a second PDX hospital the second year and they put her in a body cast, which she found torcherous. It was later discovered the loss of use of her right leg completely even after recovery was due to doctors cutting all the nerves and tendons in that leg to stop the drawing up...but they didn't put that down on paper. In their defense, no one really knew what to do, just about anything was tried with feared polio, but no family was around to say anything either. Got to help christen some of the liberty ships they were cranking out daily at the Vancouver ship yards after the war started. After the body cast experience, she wouldn't go back regardless. Thank God it didn't hit her lungs. Used a brace and occasional crutches for any distance the rest of her life...and was a marvelously upbeat, supportive and loving person. In first grade, she and a little girlfriend got followed home in the snow by a cougar in the dark. She told the adults about the scary noises they were hearing on the bank above the road and they went out and found the tracks where they'd been stocked some distance. The next day they shut down the mine and all went hunting cougar...and got it. Not sure whether that was Granite or Cornucopia 8 miles north of Halfway where snow could get thirteen feet deep and you'd tunnel out to the road in winter...or come out an upper story window:) There was a mine on the top edge of the ridge on up the canyon with old buildings still visible and 3/4 mile long cables down to a central smelter across the creek from the Cornicopia. You can still see the cables draped across a nearer ridge and the hundred yard long buildings at shear ridge-top. Just some period mine life. I"ll have to quiz the author some on the subject:)
This was so interesting to read for me as I have never visited America and don’t have many older relatives left to tell me of polio. So glad your mother survived! And I’m glad they got that cougar
Awesome video.. When I was a kid my parents took me out west. We visited a ghost town of South Pass City. The only person there was an old caretaker with a hook hand and a 30-30 in his good hand. He gave us a great tour of the town. Dad and I almost bought the farm checking out one of the old silver mines. We started to walk in and I got a creepy feeling. We threw some stones and realized there was a deep vertical shaft a couple of feet in front of us. Decided to turn around. It was amazing to see the town where people just 'up and left'. I can't imagine how cool it is to see a town untouched for 100 years Thanks again for posting that. PS - I like the idea of a drone for scouting. Never considered that. I have one sitting here that I've been afraid to fly. Might was well crash or fly.
I'm in Thermopolis Wyoming and that's the exact town I thought of when I watched this. That was a real quiet place when I found it, and just a quick walk from where you park the car.
No kidding, this was an enjoyable watch. The topic, the scenery, the company, the music, the composition, all of it, very enjoyable. Sometimes the historical accuracy isn't crucially important when the story telling is this compelling. Take that for what it is (after reading the comments) and know that you've told a story that has at least enthused the viewers with your journey.
Being Born and raised in Sparks I find it amazing when someone can offer me more knowledge about this great State that I didn’t know. Wonderful video. I look forward to reading Alan’s book and tuning in to more adventures.
Any research or commentary on our history is really appreciated. Seems like our heritage and history is quietly, but aggressively being erased and rewritten in history books, schools and libraries around the nation. I also am impressed that yopu didn't strip the place of its artifacts and history. Kudos, my friends
Absolutely. I think history is difficult to understand (& remember) in a meaningful way from omissions, revisions, misinterpretations, inconsistencies, etc.
Things tend to survive longer in the desert….also 1-200 years ago it was a long miserable journey to lug all that sh!t back to civilization, so lots of stuff got abandoned.
Amazing video man. It's hard to not get emotional seeing all those small, every day items sitting in the same place they were lefts almost 100 years ago. Awesome find.
You guys are the keepers of history, nicely done! So much history is being forgotten all across the country, you're keeping it alive. The desert is beautiful but it is also deadly. It's amazing that nobody has been there for such a long time.
Carol..... I've seen homesteads that built halfway into the ground....kept the courtyard covered with cloth and was able to stay fairly cool in such hot temps....they also grew fruit trees below the ground surface and recycling the grey water for the tree crop...they trees were in this lower courtyard and grew to well above the ground but was kept protected and cooler
I lived in Nevada for fifteen years way back when. Spent most of my free time searching around the desert for ghost towns. Found several that were mostly destroyed but still with evidence of habitation. My old '72 toyota land cruiser never let me down. I hope you guys continue to have the same good luck. Really miss Nevada before it got all crowded.
Sounds really cool, so I have wanted to do some searching myself. I live in Atlanta, so most spots are well documented. I have a 93 LandCruiser with 325,000 miles on her, but I am keeping it until the wheels fall off. Be well...
I lived and worked in Ely, NV. Loved it, except as a middle aged single woman, it got very hard to have any social life.. the movie theater was beautifully restored, but he wouldn't show one UNLESS there were 12 patrons. We used to call Co workers to come down, but not much luck. The ONLY 2 times it was full was when Star Wars & Titanic. Played. What a hoot!!!
Same here. I moved to LV in late 87 and did some exploring around the area. vegas just a small town then. Today it is way too big. I took my fiance to a trip to a ghost town off Telegraph road on a spring day and snow was still on the ground.
It's a great day when one can go visit old places that have aged gracefully and bring us fond memories. Been doing some great nostalgic exploring in recently opened public park lands. Peaceful and quiet.
I find exploring old mine sites and towns absolutely fascinating. I live in Northern Ontario and when driving or quaking the old rail road tracks we would happen across old towns that have long since been forgotten. Just the fact of what stories these towns hid is as intriguing as a Sherlock Holmes novel. A friend of mine has a camp located on the old Mine Site Basin Mines located in Wanapitae River. We’ve found the old dump site, a barn concrete foundation and coal depots for the steam trains. The mine has a ghost as well, we were told his name was oris William. A Trapper Prospector who would visit the town for supplies every few weeks. We found his log cabins each about 2 klicks apart. The sense of history again ..puts an extra thump in your chest. As I understand it during the 1870’s The Dominion of Canada wanted and needed an increase in population. So with the Help of Canada’s railroads and a marketing campaign of free land to farm to any new English person wanting to settle in Canada. In areas of Northern Ontario a large portion of the land is swamp, rock and blueberry patches. Many families lost loved ones. Mostly children to the government and railway’s deception. Along some of the paths that remain it is not uncommon to walk past grave markers, mostly of children. Anyways thanks for the video enjoyed it
Fascinating! Brings back memories of my childhood growing up on a farm in Iowa and having the whole countryside to explore. I explored it too. Played in the creeks and caught tadpoles and crawdads. Explored the forests and even found an old engine shack for a coal mine in one of the forests and the big ole engine was still on it's mounts inside the shack. I want to say it was either a Hercules or a Continental engine but can't remember for sure. It was a big one though. Rode the gravel roads on my bicycle for miles and miles in all directions. Stopped in and visited all the folks on neighboring farms if I saw them outside. Some would give me something cold to drink on those hot summer days. A lot of the time my neighbor boy would accompany me on some of the adventures. Times of our lives. But you know what? I never got tired, or felt the heat. Didn't have a watch and never cared about what time it was, except to be home before suppertime. Everything seemed so vivid and alive and no detail escaped my five senses. If only we could turn back time.
Sure would be nice to turn the clock back just for a few minutes. I explored all over the forests and iron pits and like you I never felt the heat or cold a watch was not thought of.
Your remeniscing about your childhood adventures on your farm in Iowa made me feel like I was watching a classic Disney movie. What wonderful memories of a more pure and simpler time. Thank you for sharing.
I am an old Iowa farm boy and enjoyed exploring the creeks and forests also. It was fun to find old stone foundations, and sometimes even crumbling building remains seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. Always left me wondering about the history of the place and the people that had been there. There were surely trails or primitive roads connecting these places with the rest of the world, but Mother Nature had long ago wiped out their traces. Oh how much fun it would be to, as you said, turn back time and do it again.
I loved exploring as a kid. It was the early 90s. And more of an urban setting. But I would go out with my friends everyday for hours exploring outside our town on our bikes. Reading your comment brought back so many memories.
I m from Iowa my grandparents and uncle both owned farms near Andrew / Maquoketa as kids we were always exploring girl cousins boy cousins all together outdoors we would pick berries cherries apples pears depending on the time of year climb around the small rock quarry finding caves and old treasures in the timber. I now live in Colorado and still take hikes around old abandoned mine areas ghost towns love the history our ancestors were some physically mentally strong people We need to be that too ..Have a blessed day fellow explorers
I wonder if it's as full of erroneous guesses as this video depicts? Somehow Tom knows next to nothing about this place but is positive that nobody has been there in a century, even before he gets to it... I assure you that model a Ford got there from the bottom. And if the engine from that car isn't still nearby used for mining equipment then somebody drove in there and took it. People have been there regularly, they just weren't carrying supplies of trash such as cans of beer and bottles of champagne. Most people making a hike like that in 100f+ temperature don't pack champagne. Nor do they start in at 9am from a trailhead. I also believe finding the mine works will show evidence of recent visitation. The late start is why there is no video of attempting to find the mine works. Alan is a ghost town 'archeologist', I don't think he did his due diligence as an 'archeologist' by assuming the purpose of the buildings without actually taking any time to FULLY understand the site. Any visitors to the site can assume it was mining related, and assume the collapsed building with stove pipes was a mess hall. What were they mining? What type of mining process was it? What mining equipment is left behind? Answers to those questions will help answer a lot of other questions. Actually investigating the mine works can help answer 'what was being mined', investigating what was left behind as well as the mining process can help answer 'why was the mine abandoned'. These answers can help narrow down research so that the question of who can be answered, possibly.
Wow, so totally interesting. I spent 40 years hiking and backpacking mostly in the Eastern Sierra's but also around Death Valley. Those were the best years filled with wonder and amazement.
I envy the inhabitants of a country so vast that you can make discoveries like this. In the UK you can trip over an old colleague in the unlikeliest ‘remote’ spot.
Having spent half my life in the area of this video and half where you are, I agree. Yet there are things much older buried around you…. Like the Indian carvings near here that were here before the miners….. they are still there in the California/Nevada border and the best place to this area to visit is Laws railroad museum in Bishop, CA and Bodie, CA (ghost town ) in the same side of the sirrra mountains. Also, the bristlecone pines are the oldest trees (we are talking the time of Christ) in the white mountains on the CA and Nevada line…..
We don't appreciate it as Americans, but we could live here our whole lives and never see everything ( in Nevada alone)... It IS vast, beautiful, and alot of places remain " untamed".. as you can see....We have GREAT history from our " pioneers"
Why not move here? Everyone else is. At lease we could get some euro genetic brethren here. Or at least be willing to contribute and not live off the system and complain that your tax payer funded hotel room isnt nice enough
you are so good at what you do. the narration, insight, and respect you have for your subject matter, location, and audience is something that rivals PBS.Incredible work.
I had researched this area when I took a year off and just traveled And stopped at all the weird and unknown. Supposedly there was some geologists out there in the mid 80’s and stated there was copper stain. There are a few cool rocks/gem out there. Very cool video. It’s cool for me to show my parents who can not make the trek. Cheers to exploring!
You had researched it? I think you just researched it since it's incorrect to put had in front of a past tense verb for no apparent grammatical reason.
“ incorrect to put had in front of a past tense verb” FALSE. Adding had or have indicates the Distant past instead of the recent past. Also you should have put your “had” inside quotes to use correct punctuation
So, I liked and subscribed... Being a car guy, you can identify the wheel by the lug pattern. 5 on 5 was a model T, 5 on 5.5 was the model A. Both had wire spoke rims, which started in 26' w/the model T. With that said, most people didn't just buy a vehicle, and junk it, time something broke. I believe that place was probably abandoned in the 40's! Vehicle was probably used for 10yrs, and parted out, as I didn't see a drivetrain. Just my opinion! Loved the video, and history lesson!🥰
Huge thanks for giving equivalents to the metric system. There are lots and lots of people who don't use imperial system and it's a really nice detail to include. Great video btw :)
I got lost in the woods when I was nine and stumbled across a ghost camp at the top of the mountain. I think that’s why Ghost towns fascinate me so much! Metal Detecting towns that are gone is one of my favorite things to do.
Very interesting! I grew up in Arizona, in old mining country. My dad was a foreman for a rancher who came to Arizona in 1914, when he was 16 years old. He established 5 mining claims and built 5 small cabins, one for himself and each of his 4 brothers. I loved listening to his stories. He personally knew the Powers brothers.
Using Google Maps, I triangulated Lida to Uncle Sam Creek and Poison Springs and literally followed along the same point where you entered the canyon... reverifying when you updated that you were at Alum Creek. I have to say, this was the most fun I've ever had using Google Maps before. I wish I could have come with you guys... I miss doing stuff like this. But, I felt like I was already there so... close enough.
My husband and I like to go on virtual vacations (since we can't afford real ones). One picks the destination and we explore the area via Google. And we learn about an area via Google as well, and read the history and look up museums. It is a lot more fun than I would have guessed.
@@fairwitness7473 - That's really cool. I've been around the world, more than a few times (ex U.S. Navy)... and I feel blessed that I was lucky enough to go to the places I did. I'm now almost 60, and my health is... not the best. It's an absolute joy that I'm able to revel in the benefits of modern technology and websites like UA-cam and Google Maps. They're an escape for me, and allow me to continue seeing and learning about places that I probably never would have gone to (especially after getting out of the Navy and having to fund such trips on my own). So I really know exactly where you're coming from. Good luck and fair seas on your journeys through cyberspace. May the (proverbial) wind be at your back.
Thank you, this was enjoyable to watch. Ghost towns are fascinating to me. Here in British Columbia, Canada, the various waves of gold rush fever left behind a number of abandoned towns from the late 1800s.
Moving to Down East Maine 20 years ago there were many interesting places to see. Back in the day residents had no formal dumps and everybody created their own. Many of the former houses are in ruins but artifacts of their lives remain hidden in their dumps. A sure sign of where someone once lived is a Lilac Bush or other flowered plant.
After watching one of your videos, I binge watched the remaining over the weekend. Your narration and photography are top notch. Kudos to how much love you put into your videos ♡♡♡
Thank you three for struggling through the heat to show us a part of history. It's amazing what people way back then did with the tools they had. So much more interesting than the world today
I think the best way they do at The Grand Canyon, using mules and taking at least two pack animals, one for food and supplies and the second to carry water. The mules are very sure footed and Grand Canyon authorities say not one of them has ever fallen in the Canyon. This would make the journey much more comfortable and could even allow for an over night stay at the townsite. Thanks for sharing a very interesting explore and I would love to see an in depth video on the Mizpah Hotel.
Back in the 1950's my aunt took a trip down into the canyon on a mule. Apparently she was so terrified she kept her eyes closed most of the way. I do remember the lovely post card she sent. 🙂
Mules are sure footed because they can see their back feet and the Burro part of them won't take unnecessary chances. Some people don't understand that Burros are very intelligent and pound for pound stronger than a horse and don't eat as much per pound of body weight. If left on their own somewhere they will survive, they are quite capable of finding their own food and water. I think the Burro part of a Mule is the better part.
The night sky there would be so beautiful. I live in the Allegheny mountains Va and grew up in the Appalachian Mts Wv. Sometimes when a meteor shower was forecast my wife and I would ride up into the county lay in the back of my truck and watch the shooting stars. We still book a cabin at Pocahontas county Wv Seneca state forest on the greenbrier and enjoy the stars, you can even rent the old thorny mt fire tower and stay but at 58 and needed new knees cabin suffices. lol
I really admire that man for making it a point to visit the places he writes about. challenging the odds, tightening up his laces and trekking out to them is an unpredictable venture that definitely harbors it's fair share of danger. He could easily go off of what others have told him, sent out a scout on his behalf or even flown overhead with a tight zooming camera but he did it the old fashioned way and for that, he should be commended. It really is neat to look up on those piles of weathered wood and rusted skeletal remains of centuries old machinery while trying to imagine what day to day life would have been like in that very spot. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us as personally I would have never been aware of that place's existence, yet alone have the privilege of actually seeing what it looks like. Well done!
The history of these old mining towns is fascinating, I grew up with many mines close to my home town in Colorado. I think one historian said there were a total of almost 200 mines in the county alone
In my home city of ipswich Australia there’s at least 8 mines running under the city and I know where the entrance is to one of the mines but it’s completely sealed
These projects you’re putting together are incredible man. With all the great B-roll, choice of music, and scripting, it’s a fantastic visual and auditory experience. Thanks for sharing 🙏
This video popped up on my recommendations, probably as I follow Ghost Town Living. But what a great introduction to your channel a fascinating well presented look at a lost piece of American history. I am not from America but I have a fascination with history from anywhere in the world so this was very interesting to me.
Regarding the mineral deposits in that stream - the yellow is definitely sulfur, and the orangish is possibly orpiment which is an arsenic sulfide typically found co-located with sulfur. That would explain the Poison Spring name.
So I’ve been binge watching you all day!! I don’t even feel guilty, I have learned so much and am fascinated by your videos! Incredibally informative and soooo interesting, you’ve made me an “ armchair” part time explorer! Would love to do what you do! But will settle for watching! Thankyou! So glad I found your channel it’s easily jumped into my top 5 UA-cam channels, I think I’m 10 or more vids in, and will probably quite happily be up all night, as I want to watch all of them!!! 👍🥰
Great video on all things, narration, camera work production, interest historical and general, challenging and adventurous. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Hi there! New subscriber, here. This was very interesting and I enjoyed it immensely. It's August as I write this and still nowhere near the temps you all endured out at the Uncle Sam. I was tired just looking at you! Thank so much for your content - it's great to see someone with a sense of adventure and history, and I love that you stayed in an historic hotel, too! You two are really lovely.
It's great that you're documenting these old cities that disappeared in the history of our Young Nation ! My grandfather knew of an encampment from the 1800s - the war against American British again in Michigan. There's only two other people alive that even know the location of it.
Oh man! That's so cool. One day, if time and funds allow it I plan to spend a summer out west exploring old mining settlements. Hiking around in the middle of the desert sounds like a dream to me.
What I love about the Sierra Nevadas is that they're still mostly untouched; so much history, in both the lands and the people, can be told after centuries of silence. They're pretty unforgiving, though, and I'm glad you lot made it through (mostly) unscathed 😂
Great video, that was a fair amount of work, both the trek itself as well as all of your excellent editing. I love that area of Eastern California and Western Nevada, more of these trip videos would be excellent.
Thanks for this. When I was a kid, my parents would take a day and explore the old logging roads around our place in Montana. It was so much fun finding these old ghost towns and long-unseen places. Nice to have you videographing them for people who can’t get out and see them
I subscribed to this channel based on the work done with ship wrecks and the Titanic itself and all of the content has been so wonderful to consume, but this is such an interesting journey to go on via video! Thank you all for trekking through and finding out all you can about this place. It's absolutely fascinating to see how some places end up drying up and are abandoned the way that they are. The history is incredibly interesting to me. This is awesome. Good luck on your future adventures!
You put a lot of effort into finding that abandoned site. Good job 🍾🥂 for sure. My family and I were in Tonapah NV in the early 60s like maybe 1961. We drove in at night and before getting to the town which was about 1 maybe 2 blocks square, the pavement stopped. There were hitch rails with pack mules and horses tied up. We went in a restaurant/bar, probably that hotel and there were cowboys wearing spurs and with six guns strapped on their waist. We were all startled and my father thought we were in the Twilight Zone. It was the only place serving food so we had a meal in a real old West time capsule. It is one of my best memories of our 2 summer long trips out West! 👍☮️🌞🌵🥾💖
This is one of the few things I miss about NV/CA is doing this. Mining camps, ghost towns and the various Pictographs and petroglyphs. It’s the main reason I got into 4x4s. Sure I enjoy the Moab and Baja trips but as a kid seeing all the trails going off into the desert and mountains from the highway always intrigued me. I built a couple trucks and Jeeps for customers looking to prospect or just what you’re doing.
Tom, I'm so glad you exist; and so are we all. ❤️❤️ This was wonderful, and yes, we'd love a separate video on the Mizpah hotel and all the lore related to it!
My mother was born in Goldfield in 1914, my grandfather was the postmaster. My great uncle a chef in the hotel. Prior to then they owned the town of Lyda.
I found it absolutely hilarious at 14:12 when you said, " Emma, come here, Quick ". As if the car that you found was going to miraculously drive off in to the sunset in a moment's time after sitting there for an extremely long period of time. 😂😅🤣 Y'all are AWESOME!!!
Thanks for the support on this video! There's quite a few comments mentioning they'd love to see the Mizpah Hotel video. I'll aim to release that next Saturday (March 12). Subscribe to see it in your feed!
Being in a spot where you can actually see nobody has been in decades or a century, even when it is not hard to get to, can be an incredible feeling. I remember when I used a little creativity to get into part of an old coastal defense battery, and the only marks in the dust were the ones I had made. Easily nobody had been there in many decades, given the age of the place, it is possible that it was 100+ years. I was utterly covered in that black, fine grain dust due to where I went and how I got there, but it was still a great feeling. (This was Fort Wetherill in Rhode Island)
Thank you for braving the heat and dodgy roads to bring us this, it’s amazing to think you’re the first visitors for almost a hundred years.i love the fact it’s a time capsule and can imagine how tough life must have been there for the miners. Looking forward to the next video.☮️💟
Oh jeez, I'm going to binge your whole content, aren't I. Well, it's worth it. This adventure was fascinating and beautiful. That sulfurous creek! I was a little worried about Mr. Alan there, but he's clearly tougher than his age would indicate. Love ghost towns, especially off the beaten track, which this certainly was.
It's possible that the yellow orange color along the path of the creek is uranium. There's quite a bit of uranium out in the desert. Take a Geiger counter when go out on trail. Was not wise to wet your clothes in "Poison" creek. I really enjoyed your video of you adventure. Thank you for sharing.
Going out there on foot that time of year, was certainly not without risk. As a longtime desert resident, I can tell you every summer the news of visitors needing rescued is virtually daily.
The Lake Havasu is a lot cooler than those canyons and hills in Nevada.Love feeding the carp and ducks under the London Bridge!Beautiful,clear photos of my Mom who has passed, under the palms 🌴smiling in the Arizona sun.She really enjoyed visiting us in Tempe for excursions to Grand Canyon and buying Indian jewelry by the Little Grand Canyon.She was a bold traveler,and stopped at her beloved Sky City Indian pueblo in N.M. on her drive back to N.C.She was a nurse at the Indian hospital in Albuquerque,before becoming Supervisor of the Nursing Dept.at night for Duke U.Med.Center.Don't laugh too hard at us folks who were downstream in Maricopa County who have to head up to Apache or Saguaro Lake to cool down or unwind!The tour guide on the Lake Havasu boat did,considering we got our water from up there,where everybody was drinking beer on their boats with the water preferred for a potty on packed holidays.Not funny to Tempeans,but the tour guide laughed.
Ghost town hunting in that extreme heat and terrain is very dangerous. Great to see some people take the risk to bring us info on these amazing Ghost towns.
I won't go hiking near Death Valley from May 1st to November 1st. It's no fun when all you do is worry about surviving the expedition. I'm not good in the Heat anyway.
@@georgespalding7640 -- Once you acclimatize yourself to the heat , you barely notice it . I lived and worked (Mining) in Death Valley for 9 years , and I have currently lived near the eastern edge of Death Valley for over 40 years . --- Acclimatize yourself and get out there and enjoy the Desert .
Love the drone shots! Its amazing the old histories that are hidden in these places. What a great way to experience, preserve and share them. Good work!
Hey, great job with this video. The narrative was really well written. Good choice of music. I would love to read Alan's books after watching this cool, informative piece. Hello from Shurz, Nevada. :)
The true mark of professionalism: Letting someone know where you are going and when to expect you back. Amateurs think they are too 'professional' to bother with such a mundane thing.
Very cool! One word of advice I picked up from back packing in scouts and my time in the uscg, invest in a camel back. Pack it with ice, and throw in an electrolight tablet. You can go all day, the ice melts and gives you more water. Trust me do another hike like that do that you ll be in better shape. Done it hiking in the new mexico desert and camp Lejeune in July with Body Armor it works!
@@kellywatkins6409 that's why I took the advice from a Marine Corp friend and invested in a shemagh. On long hot days in the sun they are worth their weight in gold.
I was out there in around 2012-2014. It is much much easier to come up from the bottom of the canyon. You can drive to within about a mile or so with a properly set up Jeep. It looked just like it did when you went out there.. Everything was collapsed but instead of hot it was about 32 degrees. Perfect hicking weather.. Up the other canyon to the east there is a huge green spring with nice shade trees that you can drive to also with a properly set up Jeep. I have been to camps in that area that are so hidden that they still have two story ranch houses with old `1930's cars still parked in the barns.. Those are the true secret places. I have all of Alans books and have been out with him long ago with another friend of mine Bill G...
Well now, that was a fun vicarious adventure for us! Perhaps less fun for you two, but hopefully a more satisfying real-life adventure. I love that you're willing to do the hard work to record the nooks and crannies of history. I came to your channel for the ocean liner stuff, but I'll gladly follow you guys down any trail that piques your interest.
Reminds me of my work buddy who found a stagecoach in the Sierra with all the horse skeletons still harnessed up; the unopened lock box was still there and old luggage. He left it alone in case someone was going to come back for all their stuff. I told him that it was abandoned, but he said it wasn't his or any of his business.
I enjoyed this video thoroughly. Alan was wonderful and I was very impressed with him. We recently had moved to Phoenix from Florida. I am just now learning the historical and environmental differences of the desert folk. I subscribed and liked . Keep'm coming !
For a place that hasn't been seen for so long its well documented. The minerals pulled from this canyon are even listed in several topography and mining sites. Sometimes the "mysteries" are our own creation.
Back in my days in 1969 they called it the ruby marshes and I have documentation of our trips to the camp and I have a few photos to prove to you that the white pine county emergency posse did the treck and I would like to share it cause I am last surviving to have actually been in the mine. I'm now 59 and I don't want the records to get lost. Please let someone know what I have and the hardback book to show you the real road in and out was drove daily in a 62 rambler hauling dinamite for grandpa. The original ore car is still in tonapah and I would like someone to contact Janice Carder which still lives in my grandparents house on green mountain
This whole series just feels like playing Red Dead Redemption or Fallout in real life. Like, not the combat obviously, but just exploring the world and trying to decipher the history and lore of the places you go. Also worth noting a lot of these old mining and logging operations would've remained relatively similar up until around the 1960s, and with the harsh weather I'm sure it wouldn't take long to turn an old wood building to cinders. The vehicle dates it at least back to the 1930s but who knows how old it was when it was left there, maybe it wasn't left there by the miners but was later abandoned by someone else? With little to no surviving records, all we can do is guess.
It's always possible and I tried to make sure my statement wasn't an absolute - but we know the people who own the nearest private land, and they're also not aware of any hunting activity out that way. Glad to see people are enjoying these ghost town videos! I thought people only tuned in for my ship stuff.
When I was a kid, I lived on what was an abandonded training airfield from WW2. I had a few old maps and aerial photos. I would overlay the photos on google maps and find old brick foundations about an inch under the dirt. I once went to a large field, dug down and found an old gravel road. My back yard had an old brick foundation that was used for my shed. Fun times. The real fun stuff though was finding the auxiliary airstrips. They were little more than cleared fields with a shack for a radioman. Some, while over grown with trees and brush, are well defined with the outline of the field. Others hare completely gone with no signs remaining that pilots trained there. My favorite lost airstrip I found, I used the faint outline of two old mudholes from the 1940's and lined them up with terrain today. Now an orange grove, tree's grew slightly malnourished in the exact shape and orientation of the old mudholes. Edit: I decided to look at on of the old fields I couldn't find years ago, and just found it! I love finding lost things from old maps. More recent imagery from google maps show one prominent mud spot to be better defined today then it was ten years ago.
This video just popped up in my suggested watch videos. I am glad it did! It is very interesting to see areas that have been lost in history and now rediscovered.
1:37 1957/8 Mercury, '59 Merc 4:41. Ford Model A made in 1928-31; the one onsite might have been up to a decade old at last use. The miners could even have abandoned to fight in World War 2 and been injured or killed.
I love this video. I have stumbled upon 130 year old campsites in the Arizona desert and was very careful not to disturb anything. It was like a time capsule.
Thank you for finding this mining camp. I know you didn’t find exactly what you wanted, but I was glued to your video every second. What a great video!
I grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in the Sacramento Mountains of NM. There were old gold and silver mines everywhere. They all look the same. My grandparents met in silver city NM. My grandfather was born 1889 and grandmother 1892. My grandmothers dad was the lead engineer for the mine. My grandfather ran the mule and donkey stables. I was looking at his draft card WW1. Written on back was bad vision. Job livery manager and farrier. They ended up homesteading a ranch near Piñon NM and that’s where I grew up.
My Grandmother’s sister (I never met my Grandmother, but my Aunt, or Grand-Aunt, was like a Gramma to me) was born in 1911 and I’ve always been fascinated with her life and the time she lived. If she went out traveling when she was young, she could have seen the tail end of the old west in different areas. I would have loved to seen the old west, what an amazing thing that would have been to witness. Dangerous, though. It would have been a major benefit to be well armed and to be able shoot well under pressure.
@@catsooey yes. Me too. My grandparents still talked about the Poncho Via raid on Columbus NM where my great grandfather lived. My great grandfather’s dad fought with Sam Huston and ended up with a ranch on the Brazos river in Texas. On my fathers side my 6th great grandfather came to the US in the 1600’ and became a large tobacco farmer near Jamestown. Literally across the James River to the south.
@@bret9741 That’s incredible! You have so much amazing American history in your family. By comparison, my Great Grandparents came over from Ireland, on one side, and from Poland on the other (although they were ethnic Germans, not actually Polish). You must have so many great stories from your family’s past. It would make a great book!
Thank you everyone for the continued support! There was a lot of interest in me making a video about the Mizpah Hotel, which I've published here: ua-cam.com/video/X9S9BequQRw/v-deo.html
As for the canyon, it's one of the most remote places we've explored, but it turns out some people have been there in the past century for sure and a couple comments had some excellent additional research on the place. I'm now planning a Part 2 of this video including some of the new information that was shared as well as some of the material I cut from this video. Honestly, I didn't anticipate this much interest in the subject and trimmed out quite a bit to cater to my usual subscribers. There isn't much to see of it, but I'll be including shots of the blasted mine entrance as well as more surveying of the town. I hope to have that out on this channel Saturday, March 19.
Late 1980s and early 90s I worked building housing subdivisions in Las Vegas and I know what its like to work in "117 , Degree heat !! When it dropped back to 100 or 105 , it felt comfortable !!
were you able to enter the mine through an adit or drift ?
it would be very interesting
The Mizpah, I've camped out there several times on winter nights. They say the place is haunted and I must agree. The hotel is like a step back into time. There's nothing like Tonopah, and no telling what you'll see in the sky. I've seen top secret flights where the chase planes were left in the dust, with one that a friend and a saw out at the silver peeks that was doing well over Mach 5, while the high speed chase planes looked as if parked in the air, they were so slow.
Awesome, was hoping for you to document the Mizpah Hotel..As always thanks for the excellent videos, as well as the super informative info. Looking forward to your next video! Thank you for preserving interest in almost forgotten history.
Hi, I really have enjoyed reading and watching your quest for your next 📚 book. Thank you for taking us along! Have you ever gotten into collecting antique bottles etc while surveying the Ghost towns you write about? Back in the 1980's I enjoyed going for a week at a time to different ghost towns in Utah, Nevada, California. To either mining camps, or small temporary tent cities. One tent city (as I call them, for the lack of a better educated term.) We were in northwestern Utah. Above and to the west of the Great Salt Lake. My boyfriend at the time figured out and walked the original layout for the perimeter of an old neighborhood. And he dug up a shallow trash pit from about the 1880's to 1890's. He found 2 Chinese brown Bennington pots. One was a dry bean pot for storage. And the other was for Saki. There were also a few clay pipes probably for opium. And a few onion skin marbles. He and our friend probed long and hard for the rest our time spent there. But no other artifacts were found that time. Any how, I really enjoyed your story. Thank you for sharing it! If you do collect the artifacts from the ghost towns you write about... I would LOVE to see them!!! And I am positive that I would not be alone on that!! 👌😁😁
Living in central europe, where pretty much every square centimeter is occupied today, I find this very interesting, that there spots like these that haven't been visited in over a century. I always underestimate how huge the US is. Thanks for the video, really great to watch.
I used to travel on Interstate 70 to Las Vegas from western Colorado. About halfway through Utah there's a stretch of highway 132 miles long with no services, no gasoline available. No nothing except fabulous wilderness.
A good reference for Europeans: the continental US (no mexico or canada or alaska) is about the same size as the entirety of Europe, islands and nordics all, up to the Urals. With about half the population, ie the same size as either western _or_ eastern Europe, which are coincidentally similar. And this population is almost entirely geograpically condensed into a few large sprawling “metropolitan” areas that are denser but not as dense as a large european city. Britain is about the size of Alabama.
My work buddy said he found an abandoned stagecoach in the Sierras, it was still hitched up with horse skeletons and all the luggage and lock box was still there. He left it alone because it didn't belong to him and it was none of his business.
When riding around the northeast, my friend from Tunisia would often say the same thing: Your country is empty!
@@mr.bnatural3700 😳
I visited this camp back in 1972. The buildings were somewhat still upright back then with only the roofs caving in on two of them and a few walls starting to tip. It was "spooky" to say the least. At that time there was an elderly man living there in a pickup truck with a camper on top of it. I believe his name was Dave, I can not for the life of me remember his last name. He was using part of the old buildings to try and build another one to the northeast a few hundred yards. I would think it should still be there. It looked as if he was mining the area and had a few boxes made up for mining what he called" left overs" LOL. That was many years ago and I have gotten pretty old now ........ He liked to bury his pots of gold, or so he said (smile). I dont think he really did that well but hey, who knows on these old mining camps. And another thing, that small creek was quite a bit larger back then and the water not so toxic looking.
Great story, Bart. It would have been really neat to see that camp when some of it was still standing. Hey, I like your last name lol.
YUP great story and a Great Experience. Did it seem as Remote Back then (1972) or about the same?
did you happen to take any photos? I'd love to see what the buildings were like back then
There is 50y since then ...
i call bs
That stamp mill belonged to my grandfather. The McCoy's mined that area in the early 40's. Pigeon Springs had a cabin that was their home. Above the stamp mill was a canvas tent. They mined the Buster mine. The shovel at Tonopah museum also belonged to my grandfather and his brothers. A man by the name of Roy Wilber had a couple mines as well. He lived in a cabin from 1932 I believe until his passing.
Hey Lori, I'd love to talk to you and find out more of the history there. Can you please email me at tlynskey@historicalfx.com
Wow!
It's a small internet world.
@@oneyebat7839 Thank goodness it is not flat or we would fall off. Love how Lori connected. Hope good information and history was saved for posterity. High 5 to all of you.
This is impressive, Lori M. Nice of you to share that information. 😊
Thank you so much! I'm a 68-year-old lady whose heart's desire is this kind of exploration, but, oh well. You give me a vicarious experience so appreciated!
Hah! Oops. Just turned 69.
@@daphnewilson7966 congratulations!🎊
me too !! I'm 60 and this makes up for not being able to explore anymore
@James Wilder After "slight" injury 20+ years ago, right knee worn out. Still strange, hobble and limp without much pain, but tiring. Trying to be grateful for, whatever....
You are not alone. If I can not go off roading to get to it, I just have to watch it on here.
The large building was the bar, kitchen and scale. I have 4 poker chips fused together from time and weather we unearthed in 1971when we went back. The entrance is at west end of great smokey valley where our ranch was. The governor of Nevada in 1972 flew over the canyon with me at 6yrs old and I broke my finger in the plane door on that trip. All in all 5 trips we took into the mine and we came from the gold rush end. I have the documents and photos to show. I am completely excited that someone else took the trip there and I would be honored to donate the chips to the public and meet that gentleman. I'm the last survivor of the mine and I now live in selah WA . The records for the mine are in my mother and grandfather's name in the Nye county courthouse. Bert Leroy Carder and Francis Joan Carder. Only one town I didn't get to see was Kimberly Nevada which is 15 miles southwest of Ely and I would love to get information from there
Any gold?
man, show us documents and anything!
Excellent share.
Do you mean Frances?
Can you get title transfered to your name? You could sell folks are buying them for preservation and history.
I think Emma deserves a round of applause for hiking all the way down there and back too with nary a complaint! Enjoyed your video, thank you :)
Why you gotta point it out... because shes a woman? kinda sexist ngl
Well it wasn't recorded. The complaints I mean lol
@@greg7129 😆
@@mystyguitarmusic Yeah sounded mean didn't it
Alan was a trooper hiking down 3 miles, exploring around and then hiking back up 3 miles during extreme heat. Right On Alan !!!
In Apple Valley, Ca. we'd hike in to the springs during the day (with beer) BUT hike out just before dark, when the temp. would drop almost 15 to 20 degrees. Hike smart, pack in and pack out.
Scary. Going downward an unknown trail 3 miles in 100° temperature. Oh dear. I'm glad it turned out well.
He was ahead of them.
If you have ever done anything like that know its willpower. Imagine the original occupants. No air conditioning
For real!! ❤
A lot of credit to the old man for making this rugged trek in the oppressive heat. Many much younger men wouldn't or couldn't have done what He did.
Old? Hes only 37.
amen to that !
@@sharksport01 did you happen to notice there were two men there ??!!
@@vickiepeek2279
Yes. It was a joke. Calm down.
@@sharksport01 cool your jets
Well done for walking down and up that valley. Next time you attempt something like that drop a water store en route to pickup on the way back. Saves carrying it. I used to work regularly on 52°C and above, in desert conditions, we always dropped water to save on carrying it.
That water cache money lifestyle...
My dad, in 1965, bought an old house that was a stage coach stop for mines in the mountains of northern ID. The house was 100 years old when he bought it and 6 acres for $500. We lived in the house and it still stands today. The property had lots of smaller bunk houses all over the property and several old automobiles as well! My dad even got one running and my mom drove it around and people looked at us like we were nuts … today I still love old cars. None of the buildings were made of stone/rock…everything was wood. ..up the road were three mines and all were made of wood and falling down but there were three huge settling ponds and when I say huge I’m talking huge…it’s a big EPA headache. Arsenic, lead, mercury, iron…all coming from the ponds where the cribbing is collapsing. Good memories. Thanks for the video.
meh 4 wheelers are trash
buy rent a metal detector and cover the house and 150 yards out in all directions,stage stops and depots are good places to find gold coins,found many around the butterfield lines
I envy you! I'd love to have a house like that. if only walls could talk ....
It seems everywhere there is a mine, there is all of what you mentioned. I grew up near an abandoned mine. You couldn't drink any running water.
Using a drone to save you hours of trail finding misery in such heat, was a game changer. Great video - I really enjoyed it from the comfort of my UK homestead.
How do you think he did those overhead views in the video? 🧐
haha old days , you look around wipe sweat off forehead and go.. mmff mmfff and wonder how it will end. We take for granted how special solitude is.
I've been to this area in the late 70's early 80's. We use to look for where the old outhouses were and dig for old bottles. Men tended to sit on the pot drinking and when the bottle was empty they dropped it into the hole 🙂The buildings were in much better shape then. I still have many bottles collected from our treks into the hills. Thank for posting this, bring back many good memories of my younger days.
thnx 4 stealing history brutha
@@DongeSpongle oh please it's bottles not important artifacts.
@@TamaraBeinlich Are you an archaeologist? anthropologist? steward or conservator? No? Don't think you're really the judge of what is and is not an important artifact. Much of what we consider "valuable artifacts" are old trash. Antiquities act 1906.
Tldr, eat sh1t.
@@TamaraBeinlich The desert has been stripped bare of it's cultural heritage by numbskulls dying for a yard ornament or shelf displayed dust collector. Thanks.
What a great and rewarding adventure! I'm a land surveyor and I've encountered similar things to this. About 20 years ago I was running the boundary of an old mining claim with a compass and hip chain when I spotted beer cans on the ground in front of met. We were in a remote location that had grown over and the cans were tin and required a "church key" to open, the were all unopened and empty. I followed the cans into the woods off the line and discovered an intact miners camp. There was a wood shaker box for gold and a canvas wall tent. The tent had turned into scraps and trees grew up through the old 4 poster bed and rocking chair within. There were several other items that seemed to date the site to the 1920s or 30s. We were locating the corner posts with GPS but only had claim maps form the early 1900s, we found all of them too, including one that had been through a recent forest fire. (Hint, wood claim posts don't have roots!). Here's to adventure and exploring the old places!
Where does one obtain old claim maps?
@@lorirode-off BLM has them, also more local governments may have them, State, or County/Borough level. The older and superseded ones may be in a local archive of some kind.
@@whirving That's good to know. I will start with BLM and go from there.
Thank you for your time and reply!
@@lorirode-off If you are familiar with a GIS interface then the SDMS map page will probably be a good place to start with the BLM.
@@whirving I used that in the past. It's been several years since. I will go and see if I can refresh my memory and skills with it.
Thanks!!
This whole video was so cool, my 5 year old son enjoys watching your videos with me and he just loves abandoned places and vehicles. Glad you all made it safe, look forward to checking out the book!
In my opinion the video was rather hot and not that of a cool one!
That’s nice. Mine just wants to play roblox 24x7.
@@edgein3299 Maybe he will grow up to be like you though.
@@dustinnukem5458 Good chance of that happening if he keeps playing roblox.
A five year old being interested? Now that's an explorer
Us OLD people that can enjoy ,what you all do ! Thank you ! Iam 77 and enjoy reading your adventures ! Thank you !
Best part of exploring the SW US mines and ghost towns is how well preserved they are. In the Pacific northwest, alot of the old camps are over grown and or rotted away. There's not much left to see.
But in the desert, there's much more evidence left.
I guess it depends on what the PNW is. Poker flat is probably interesting to a layman. take a 4wd vehicle with high clearance. Don't mess around in there though or the prospectors will deal with you. but maybe north CA is not PNW to some people.
@@somedegreeofsundown2338 Where Poker Flat is located is not typically thought of as the PNW. The extreme north of the California coast is included, however. If you haven't yet read it, find a copy of Bret Harte's short stories. There is a very moving one titled, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat."
Much respect for Alan that he won’t write about something that he hasn’t experienced for himself. 👍🏼🎉😊
Sorry, but I am an old explorer of the west. I am 75 now and unable to do much. Me and my friends were Marines. We would plan for a week of exploration. We used burros to help with supplies, as you had to walk into these areas. Really enjoyed our discoveries, but no one was interested in them at time. Found many claims, with stone monuments that had the old claims inside inside old tobacco cans (Prince Albert). Left everything as it was. Glad to see that someone is documenting these places
Have been to a old mining town 10,000 feet up in the mountains of Idaho called Boulder City which was once Idaho’s highest mining settlement. Only way to this mine is either by walking or through the use of UTV. One year we went up there and it is very impressive. The tram line wire still runs up all the way to the mine higher above the mountain. Lots of buildings still remain (albeit in deteriorating condition)and I found a old burlap sack buried under the snow and ice (Probably the reason why it survived) with a letter “B” on it. I surmise it is from the heyday of the mine which was from 1883 to 1893. At 10,000 feet above sea level I find it incredible that 700 people used to live there. Very treacherous trail to this mine and I was caught up in a nasty thunderstorm when I was up there.
That is so interesting! Maybe it's because I've spent most of my life in GA, but on my trips to the west I have a terrible time breathing. I developed asthma in my 30's. In the past few years I collapsed my right lung and had a pneumothorax in my left. I'm pretty sure that if I can't go on horseback, I'll never make it to those altitudes again. So frustrating.
We've been able to visit Bodie and I loved it despite not being able to breathe. Since then my husband has traveled all over the country due to work, and has had the opportunity visit a lot of easily accessible ghost towns and wilderness areas. It's incredibly beautiful.
Hopefully enough people can't make the hike so those places remain preserved for the lucky few who can make the trip.
My grandfather, an electrician and great grandfather, a rancher/prospector/miner, were working mines in Nevada and Oregon in the thirties into the early forties. That Model A wasn't abandon because it was new but because it was worn out and broken, robbed for parts. They worked at the Granite and Cornucopia mines in Oregon in the thirties. And they talked about the wine and whisky bottle houses built at Nevada camps seen earlier. They were working in Nevada at a mine and my great grandmother had a dream about horses. When that happened, there was always death coming. They packed up and went back to Oregon. Weeks later the mine had a major cave in. My mother at the age of ten contracted polio in 1940 likely in Baker City where my great grandfather was living at the time. The locals quarantined the Granite mining camp out of fear where she fell, though my mother and aunt also showing symptoms had already been moved to Baker City and great-grandfathers. There were two fences some distance outside the camp with an armed guard. Supplies were dropped off inside the first gate and the folks had to wait for the hands to clear out before they could come in and get supplies. It's thought that the source was a frequented mom and pop store in Baker City near my great grandfathers where visits were common and the guys kids would steal a piece of candy and suck on it for a bit...then put it back so dad wouldn't catch them. One or more of them had contracted the feared summer Polio scourge as well. The only doctor in town that would touch her threatened to quit when Great grandpa Wilson tried to tell him about the singular success Sister Mary was having in Australia and her methods. After all, he was the doctor. My frail but hyperactive aunt got better. But mom was eventually sent on the train by herself to Portland to a children's hospital for treatment, such as it was. But came home for Christmas for a time. Was in a second PDX hospital the second year and they put her in a body cast, which she found torcherous. It was later discovered the loss of use of her right leg completely even after recovery was due to doctors cutting all the nerves and tendons in that leg to stop the drawing up...but they didn't put that down on paper. In their defense, no one really knew what to do, just about anything was tried with feared polio, but no family was around to say anything either. Got to help christen some of the liberty ships they were cranking out daily at the Vancouver ship yards after the war started. After the body cast experience, she wouldn't go back regardless. Thank God it didn't hit her lungs. Used a brace and occasional crutches for any distance the rest of her life...and was a marvelously upbeat, supportive and loving person. In first grade, she and a little girlfriend got followed home in the snow by a cougar in the dark. She told the adults about the scary noises they were hearing on the bank above the road and they went out and found the tracks where they'd been stocked some distance. The next day they shut down the mine and all went hunting cougar...and got it. Not sure whether that was Granite or Cornucopia 8 miles north of Halfway where snow could get thirteen feet deep and you'd tunnel out to the road in winter...or come out an upper story window:) There was a mine on the top edge of the ridge on up the canyon with old buildings still visible and 3/4 mile long cables down to a central smelter across the creek from the Cornicopia. You can still see the cables draped across a nearer ridge and the hundred yard long buildings at shear ridge-top. Just some period mine life. I"ll have to quiz the author some on the subject:)
Thanks for this piece of american and worker history. As a life long construction worker (started when I was 15) I always love hearing these stories.
Yeah & i walked 5 miles to school every day uphill both ways 🙃
Thanks for the story and glad your mom survived. Those were difficult times back then
Thank you for sharing your story and a piece of history 😌 I really enjoyed it
This was so interesting to read for me as I have never visited America and don’t have many older relatives left to tell me of polio.
So glad your mother survived! And I’m glad they got that cougar
So amazing you folks are truly real Americans finding lost American cities.
Hello 👋how are you doing?
Awesome video.. When I was a kid my parents took me out west. We visited a ghost town of South Pass City. The only person there was an old caretaker with a hook hand and a 30-30 in his good hand. He gave us a great tour of the town.
Dad and I almost bought the farm checking out one of the old silver mines. We started to walk in and I got a creepy feeling. We threw some stones and realized there was a deep vertical shaft a couple of feet in front of us. Decided to turn around.
It was amazing to see the town where people just 'up and left'. I can't imagine how cool it is to see a town untouched for 100 years
Thanks again for posting that.
PS - I like the idea of a drone for scouting. Never considered that. I have one sitting here that I've been afraid to fly. Might was well crash or fly.
I'm in Thermopolis Wyoming and that's the exact town I thought of when I watched this. That was a real quiet place when I found it, and just a quick walk from where you park the car.
No kidding, this was an enjoyable watch. The topic, the scenery, the company, the music, the composition, all of it, very enjoyable.
Sometimes the historical accuracy isn't crucially important when the story telling is this compelling. Take that for what it is (after reading the comments) and know that you've told a story that has at least enthused the viewers with your journey.
Being Born and raised in Sparks I find it amazing when someone can offer me more knowledge about this great State that I didn’t know. Wonderful video. I look forward to reading Alan’s book and tuning in to more adventures.
Any research or commentary on our history is really appreciated. Seems like our heritage and history is quietly, but aggressively being erased and rewritten in history books, schools and libraries around the nation. I also am impressed that yopu didn't strip the place of its artifacts and history. Kudos, my friends
Absolutely. I think history is difficult to understand (& remember) in a meaningful way from omissions, revisions, misinterpretations, inconsistencies, etc.
Yes, your careful examination and respect were obvious. Well done!
Why didnt the explorers in the video find the mine itself?!
Intentionally erased. Who ? Satanic Zionists, seeking their JWO.
@@davidjames1063 lay off the drugs
Lots of cool things still hidden away in our forests and deserts...
Yay hello TVR!
Things tend to survive longer in the desert….also 1-200 years ago it was a long miserable journey to lug all that sh!t back to civilization, so lots of stuff got abandoned.
Amazing video man. It's hard to not get emotional seeing all those small, every day items sitting in the same place they were lefts almost 100 years ago. Awesome find.
You guys are the keepers of history, nicely done! So much history is being forgotten all across the country, you're keeping it alive. The desert is beautiful but it is also deadly. It's amazing that nobody has been there for such a long time.
I bought a desert property and I couldn't stay all summer. It was H.O.T. 126° hot. My cat kept whining until we went to a motel. A/C in hell.
@@carolharris2357 Where is the place?
Carol..... I've seen homesteads that built halfway into the ground....kept the courtyard covered with cloth and was able to stay fairly cool in such hot temps....they also grew fruit trees below the ground surface and recycling the grey water for the tree crop...they trees were in this lower courtyard and grew to well above the ground but was kept protected and cooler
I lived in Nevada for fifteen years way back when. Spent most of my free time searching around the desert for ghost towns. Found several that were mostly destroyed but still with evidence of habitation. My old '72 toyota land cruiser never let me down. I hope you guys continue to have the same good luck. Really miss Nevada before it got all crowded.
Sounds really cool, so I have wanted to do some searching myself. I live in Atlanta, so most spots are well documented. I have a 93 LandCruiser with 325,000 miles on her, but I am keeping it until the wheels fall off. Be well...
You think Nevada got crowded, you should see Colorado now!
I lived and worked in Ely, NV. Loved it, except as a middle aged single woman, it got very hard to have any social life.. the movie theater was beautifully restored, but he wouldn't show one UNLESS there were 12 patrons. We used to call Co workers to come down, but not much luck. The ONLY 2 times it was full was when Star Wars & Titanic. Played. What a hoot!!!
Same here. I moved to LV in late 87 and did some exploring around the area. vegas just a small town then. Today it is way too big. I took my fiance to a trip to a ghost town off Telegraph road on a spring day and snow was still on the ground.
@@ginakelley749 yeah the Cali invasion. You oughta see what happened to Austin.
It's a great day when one can go visit old places that have aged gracefully and bring us fond memories. Been doing some great nostalgic exploring in recently opened public park lands. Peaceful and quiet.
I find exploring old mine sites and towns absolutely fascinating. I live in Northern Ontario and when driving or quaking the old rail road tracks we would happen across old towns that have long since been forgotten. Just the fact of what stories these towns hid is as intriguing as a Sherlock Holmes novel. A friend of mine has a camp located on the old Mine Site Basin Mines located in Wanapitae River. We’ve found the old dump site, a barn concrete foundation and coal depots for the steam trains. The mine has a ghost as well, we were told his name was oris William. A Trapper Prospector who would visit the town for supplies every few weeks. We found his log cabins each about 2 klicks apart. The sense of history again ..puts an extra thump in your chest. As I understand it during the 1870’s The Dominion of Canada wanted and needed an increase in population. So with the Help of Canada’s railroads and a marketing campaign of free land to farm to any new English person wanting to settle in Canada. In areas of Northern Ontario a large portion of the land is swamp, rock and blueberry patches. Many families lost loved ones. Mostly children to the government and railway’s deception. Along some of the paths that remain it is not uncommon to walk past grave markers, mostly of children. Anyways thanks for the video enjoyed it
Fascinating! Brings back memories of my childhood growing up on a farm in Iowa and having the whole countryside to explore. I explored it too. Played in the creeks and caught tadpoles and crawdads. Explored the forests and even found an old engine shack for a coal mine in one of the forests and the big ole engine was still on it's mounts inside the shack. I want to say it was either a Hercules or a Continental engine but can't remember for sure. It was a big one though. Rode the gravel roads on my bicycle for miles and miles in all directions. Stopped in and visited all the folks on neighboring farms if I saw them outside. Some would give me something cold to drink on those hot summer days. A lot of the time my neighbor boy would accompany me on some of the adventures. Times of our lives. But you know what? I never got tired, or felt the heat. Didn't have a watch and never cared about what time it was, except to be home before suppertime. Everything seemed so vivid and alive and no detail escaped my five senses. If only we could turn back time.
Sure would be nice to turn the clock back just for a few minutes. I explored all over the forests and iron pits and like you I never felt the heat or cold a watch was not thought of.
Your remeniscing about your childhood adventures on your farm in Iowa made me feel like I was watching a classic Disney movie. What wonderful memories of a more pure and simpler time. Thank you for sharing.
I am an old Iowa farm boy and enjoyed exploring the creeks and forests also. It was fun to find old stone foundations, and sometimes even crumbling building remains seemingly out in the middle of nowhere. Always left me wondering about the history of the place and the people that had been there. There were surely trails or primitive roads connecting these places with the rest of the world, but Mother Nature had long ago wiped out their traces. Oh how much fun it would be to, as you said, turn back time and do it again.
I loved exploring as a kid. It was the early 90s. And more of an urban setting. But I would go out with my friends everyday for hours exploring outside our town on our bikes. Reading your comment brought back so many memories.
I m from Iowa my grandparents and uncle both owned farms near Andrew / Maquoketa as kids we were always exploring girl cousins boy cousins all together outdoors we would pick berries cherries apples pears depending on the time of year climb around the small rock quarry finding caves and old treasures in the timber. I now live in Colorado and still take hikes around old abandoned mine areas ghost towns love the history our ancestors were some physically mentally strong people We need to be that too ..Have a blessed day fellow explorers
Everyone should buy Alan's book out of appreciation, not to mention interest! 📚
I wonder if it's as full of erroneous guesses as this video depicts? Somehow Tom knows next to nothing about this place but is positive that nobody has been there in a century, even before he gets to it... I assure you that model a Ford got there from the bottom. And if the engine from that car isn't still nearby used for mining equipment then somebody drove in there and took it.
People have been there regularly, they just weren't carrying supplies of trash such as cans of beer and bottles of champagne. Most people making a hike like that in 100f+ temperature don't pack champagne. Nor do they start in at 9am from a trailhead. I also believe finding the mine works will show evidence of recent visitation.
The late start is why there is no video of attempting to find the mine works.
Alan is a ghost town 'archeologist', I don't think he did his due diligence as an 'archeologist' by assuming the purpose of the buildings without actually taking any time to FULLY understand the site.
Any visitors to the site can assume it was mining related, and assume the collapsed building with stove pipes was a mess hall.
What were they mining? What type of mining process was it? What mining equipment is left behind? Answers to those questions will help answer a lot of other questions.
Actually investigating the mine works can help answer 'what was being mined', investigating what was left behind as well as the mining process can help answer 'why was the mine abandoned'. These answers can help narrow down research so that the question of who can be answered, possibly.
Wow, so totally interesting. I spent 40 years hiking and backpacking mostly in the Eastern Sierra's but also around Death Valley. Those were the best years filled with wonder and amazement.
What were they worried about after dark I wonder. Is that when snakes and other things come out?
I envy the inhabitants of a country so vast that you can make discoveries like this. In the UK you can trip over an old colleague in the unlikeliest ‘remote’ spot.
That's terrible!!!
Having spent half my life in the area of this video and half where you are, I agree. Yet there are things much older buried around you…. Like the Indian carvings near here that were here before the miners….. they are still there in the California/Nevada border and the best place to this area to visit is Laws railroad museum in Bishop, CA and Bodie, CA (ghost town ) in the same side of the sirrra mountains. Also, the bristlecone pines are the oldest trees (we are talking the time of Christ) in the white mountains on the CA and Nevada line…..
We don't appreciate it as Americans, but we could live here our whole lives and never see everything ( in Nevada alone)... It IS vast, beautiful, and alot of places remain " untamed".. as you can see....We have GREAT history from our " pioneers"
Why not move here? Everyone else is. At lease we could get some euro genetic brethren here. Or at least be willing to contribute and not live off the system and complain that your tax payer funded hotel room isnt nice enough
@@lorrie5881Some of us appreciate it. I try to see as much as I can. Only stifled by lack of funds, not curiousity or appreciation.
you are so good at what you do. the narration, insight, and respect you have for your subject matter, location, and audience is something that rivals PBS.Incredible work.
I had researched this area when I took a year off and just traveled And stopped at all the weird and unknown.
Supposedly there was some geologists out there in the mid 80’s and stated there was copper stain.
There are a few cool rocks/gem out there.
Very cool video. It’s cool for me to show my parents who can not make the trek. Cheers to exploring!
Thanks for this info - excellent research!
You had researched it?
I think you just researched it since it's incorrect to put had in front of a past tense verb for no apparent grammatical reason.
@@bruce2357 You must be fun at parties
@@bruce2357 nobody cares
“ incorrect to put had in front of a past tense verb” FALSE. Adding had or have indicates the Distant past instead of the recent past.
Also you should have put your “had” inside quotes to use correct punctuation
So, I liked and subscribed... Being a car guy, you can identify the wheel by the lug pattern. 5 on 5 was a model T, 5 on 5.5 was the model A. Both had wire spoke rims, which started in 26' w/the model T. With that said, most people didn't just buy a vehicle, and junk it, time something broke. I believe that place was probably abandoned in the 40's! Vehicle was probably used for 10yrs, and parted out, as I didn't see a drivetrain. Just my opinion! Loved the video, and history lesson!🥰
Huge thanks for giving equivalents to the metric system. There are lots and lots of people who don't use imperial system and it's a really nice detail to include. Great video btw :)
I am a history buff, and I am fascinated by old forgotten places like this. I really enjoyed your exploration of this old town, thank you for sharing!
Best of luck on your book.
Hope to see the video of the hotel/ motel/brothel? 😳🙄🤭.
I got lost in the woods when I was nine and stumbled across a ghost camp at the top of the mountain. I think that’s why Ghost towns fascinate me so much! Metal Detecting towns that are gone is one of my favorite things to do.
Very interesting! I grew up in Arizona, in old mining country. My dad was a foreman for a rancher who came to Arizona in 1914, when he was 16 years old. He established 5 mining claims and built 5 small cabins, one for himself and each of his 4 brothers. I loved listening to his stories. He personally knew the Powers brothers.
Who were Powers brothers? That might make a good topic for research.
Using Google Maps, I triangulated Lida to Uncle Sam Creek and Poison Springs and literally followed along the same point where you entered the canyon... reverifying when you updated that you were at Alum Creek. I have to say, this was the most fun I've ever had using Google Maps before. I wish I could have come with you guys... I miss doing stuff like this. But, I felt like I was already there so... close enough.
Using Google Satillite has great tools for research before going.I use it for areas here in Alaska before going.
My husband and I like to go on virtual vacations (since we can't afford real ones). One picks the destination and we explore the area via Google. And we learn about an area via Google as well, and read the history and look up museums. It is a lot more fun than I would have guessed.
@@fairwitness7473 - That's really cool. I've been around the world, more than a few times (ex U.S. Navy)... and I feel blessed that I was lucky enough to go to the places I did. I'm now almost 60, and my health is... not the best. It's an absolute joy that I'm able to revel in the benefits of modern technology and websites like UA-cam and Google Maps. They're an escape for me, and allow me to continue seeing and learning about places that I probably never would have gone to (especially after getting out of the Navy and having to fund such trips on my own). So I really know exactly where you're coming from.
Good luck and fair seas on your journeys through cyberspace. May the (proverbial) wind be at your back.
I've been doing that very thing in the wilderness of Colorado lately. It's amazing the places and the history to be found.
Even at 60+ there is still much we can do in our world. You are never too old to achieve and produce good works. God bless this company.
Thank you, this was enjoyable to watch. Ghost towns are fascinating to me. Here in British Columbia, Canada, the various waves of gold rush fever left behind a number of abandoned towns from the late 1800s.
Would love to see a video on the history of the Mizpah hotel, it sounds like quite the tale.
I'm sure their is a ghost video about the hotel because of its long and chequered history.
ua-cam.com/video/jirXsQ1jtJI/v-deo.html Its definitely got a chequered past!
Moving to Down East Maine 20 years ago there were many interesting places to see. Back in the day residents had no formal dumps and everybody created their own. Many of the former houses are in ruins but artifacts of their lives remain hidden in their dumps. A sure sign of where someone once lived is a Lilac Bush or other flowered plant.
After watching one of your videos, I binge watched the remaining over the weekend. Your narration and photography are top notch. Kudos to how much love you put into your videos ♡♡♡
Thank you three for struggling through the heat to show us a part of history. It's amazing what people way back then did with the tools they had. So much more interesting than the world today
I think the best way they do at The Grand Canyon, using mules and taking at least two pack animals, one for food and supplies and the second to carry water. The mules are very sure footed and Grand Canyon authorities say not one of them has ever fallen in the Canyon. This would make the journey much more comfortable and could even allow for an over night stay at the townsite. Thanks for sharing a very interesting explore and I would love to see an in depth video on the Mizpah Hotel.
Back in the 1950's my aunt took a trip down into the canyon on a mule. Apparently she was so terrified she kept her eyes closed most of the way. I do remember the lovely post card she sent. 🙂
Mules are sure footed because they can see their back feet and the Burro part of them won't take unnecessary chances.
Some people don't understand that Burros are very intelligent and pound for pound stronger than a horse and don't eat as much per pound of body weight.
If left on their own somewhere they will survive, they are quite capable of finding their own food and water.
I think the Burro part of a Mule is the better part.
@@bruce2357 Burros are very resilient animals. We have tons of wild burros here in Arizona.
The night sky there would be so beautiful. I live in the Allegheny mountains Va and grew up in the Appalachian Mts Wv. Sometimes when a meteor shower was forecast my wife and I would ride up into the county lay in the back of my truck and watch the shooting stars. We still book a cabin at Pocahontas county Wv Seneca state forest on the greenbrier and enjoy the stars, you can even rent the old thorny mt fire tower and stay but at 58 and needed new knees cabin suffices. lol
I really admire that man for making it a point to visit the places he writes about. challenging the odds, tightening up his laces and trekking out to them is an unpredictable venture that definitely harbors it's fair share of danger. He could easily go off of what others have told him, sent out a scout on his behalf or even flown overhead with a tight zooming camera but he did it the old fashioned way and for that, he should be commended. It really is neat to look up on those piles of weathered wood and rusted skeletal remains of centuries old machinery while trying to imagine what day to day life would have been like in that very spot. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us as personally I would have never been aware of that place's existence, yet alone have the privilege of actually seeing what it looks like. Well done!
Hope you’re doing well brother! This is a really interesting journey! It’s amazing how well the desert keeps things preserved. God bless!
Would love to see a video on that hotel too!
The history of these old mining towns is fascinating, I grew up with many mines close to my home town in Colorado. I think one historian said there were a total of almost 200 mines in the county alone
200,000 in NV.
In my home city of ipswich Australia there’s at least 8 mines running under the city and I know where the entrance is to one of the mines but it’s completely sealed
CO, too! Big time rock hunter,lived in ALMA - SWEET HOME MINE Mostof my timeinthe San Juan Mts. Love SILVERTON SO MANY MINES - NEVER ENOUGH TIME!!!!
I live under goldhill Colorado they got a mine that goes 26 miles into the mountain, there’s mines everywhere near Boulder
@@richardmccallum2735 I was born in Boulder, lived in Clear Creek County, 26 miles??? WOW!
These projects you’re putting together are incredible man. With all the great B-roll, choice of music, and scripting, it’s a fantastic visual and auditory experience. Thanks for sharing 🙏
This video popped up on my recommendations, probably as I follow Ghost Town Living. But what a great introduction to your channel a fascinating well presented look at a lost piece of American history. I am not from America but I have a fascination with history from anywhere in the world so this was very interesting to me.
Regarding the mineral deposits in that stream - the yellow is definitely sulfur, and the orangish is possibly orpiment which is an arsenic sulfide typically found co-located with sulfur. That would explain the Poison Spring name.
So I’ve been binge watching you all day!! I don’t even feel guilty, I have learned so much and am fascinated by your videos! Incredibally informative and soooo interesting, you’ve made me an “ armchair” part time explorer! Would love to do what you do! But will settle for watching! Thankyou! So glad I found your channel it’s easily jumped into my top 5 UA-cam channels, I think I’m 10 or more vids in, and will probably quite happily be up all night, as I want to watch all of them!!! 👍🥰
What an awesome experience! I've always dreamed of being able to explore old mines and ghost towns out west.
Great video on all things, narration, camera work production, interest historical and general, challenging and adventurous. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Hi there! New subscriber, here. This was very interesting and I enjoyed it immensely. It's August as I write this and still nowhere near the temps you all endured out at the Uncle Sam. I was tired just looking at you! Thank so much for your content - it's great to see someone with a sense of adventure and history, and I love that you stayed in an historic hotel, too! You two are really lovely.
Greetings from Australia enjoying this very much
It's great that you're documenting these old cities that disappeared in the history of our Young Nation !
My grandfather knew of an encampment from the 1800s - the war against American British again in Michigan.
There's only two other people alive that even know the location of it.
Make video about it i am curious
Oh man! That's so cool. One day, if time and funds allow it I plan to spend a summer out west exploring old mining settlements. Hiking around in the middle of the desert sounds like a dream to me.
What I love about the Sierra Nevadas is that they're still mostly untouched; so much history, in both the lands and the people, can be told after centuries of silence. They're pretty unforgiving, though, and I'm glad you lot made it through (mostly) unscathed 😂
They aren't in the Sierras, dear.
Great video, that was a fair amount of work, both the trek itself as well as all of your excellent editing. I love that area of Eastern California and Western Nevada, more of these trip videos would be excellent.
Thanks for this. When I was a kid, my parents would take a day and explore the old logging roads around our place in Montana. It was so much fun finding these old ghost towns and long-unseen places. Nice to have you videographing them for people who can’t get out and see them
I subscribed to this channel based on the work done with ship wrecks and the Titanic itself and all of the content has been so wonderful to consume, but this is such an interesting journey to go on via video! Thank you all for trekking through and finding out all you can about this place. It's absolutely fascinating to see how some places end up drying up and are abandoned the way that they are. The history is incredibly interesting to me. This is awesome. Good luck on your future adventures!
You put a lot of effort into finding that abandoned site. Good job 🍾🥂 for sure. My family and I were in Tonapah NV in the early 60s like maybe 1961. We drove in at night and before getting to the town which was about 1 maybe 2 blocks square, the pavement stopped. There were hitch rails with pack mules and horses tied up. We went in a restaurant/bar, probably that hotel and there were cowboys wearing spurs and with six guns strapped on their waist. We were all startled and my father thought we were in the Twilight Zone. It was the only place serving food so we had a meal in a real old West time capsule. It is one of my best memories of our 2 summer long trips out West!
👍☮️🌞🌵🥾💖
This is one of the few things I miss about NV/CA is doing this. Mining camps, ghost towns and the various Pictographs and petroglyphs. It’s the main reason I got into 4x4s. Sure I enjoy the Moab and Baja trips but as a kid seeing all the trails going off into the desert and mountains from the highway always intrigued me.
I built a couple trucks and Jeeps for customers looking to prospect or just what you’re doing.
Cool! Off-road adventures rock!
Tom, I'm so glad you exist; and so are we all. ❤️❤️ This was wonderful, and yes, we'd love a separate video on the Mizpah hotel and all the lore related to it!
My mother was born in Goldfield in 1914, my grandfather was the postmaster. My great uncle a chef in the hotel. Prior to then they owned the town of Lyda.
I found it absolutely hilarious at 14:12 when you said, " Emma, come here, Quick ".
As if the car that you found was going to miraculously drive off in to the sunset in a moment's time after sitting there for an extremely long period of time. 😂😅🤣
Y'all are AWESOME!!!
Thanks for the support on this video! There's quite a few comments mentioning they'd love to see the Mizpah Hotel video. I'll aim to release that next Saturday (March 12). Subscribe to see it in your feed!
Huzzah!
Being in a spot where you can actually see nobody has been in decades or a century, even when it is not hard to get to, can be an incredible feeling. I remember when I used a little creativity to get into part of an old coastal defense battery, and the only marks in the dust were the ones I had made. Easily nobody had been there in many decades, given the age of the place, it is possible that it was 100+ years. I was utterly covered in that black, fine grain dust due to where I went and how I got there, but it was still a great feeling. (This was Fort Wetherill in Rhode Island)
2 Things… What town is that Hotel in…? And yes, you should do a video on it. And 2: I like the younger guys hat…I need one of those…
Great! Subbed.
You say you found the mine but I didn't see any footage of the entrance. Was the uncle sam mine all above ground?
Thank you for braving the heat and dodgy roads to bring us this, it’s amazing to think you’re the first visitors for almost a hundred years.i love the fact it’s a time capsule and can imagine how tough life must have been there for the miners. Looking forward to the next video.☮️💟
Oh jeez, I'm going to binge your whole content, aren't I. Well, it's worth it. This adventure was fascinating and beautiful. That sulfurous creek! I was a little worried about Mr. Alan there, but he's clearly tougher than his age would indicate. Love ghost towns, especially off the beaten track, which this certainly was.
It's possible that the yellow orange color along the path of the creek is uranium. There's quite a bit of uranium out in the desert. Take a Geiger counter when go out on trail. Was not wise to wet your clothes in "Poison" creek. I really enjoyed your video of you adventure. Thank you for sharing.
So nice to have an absolute expert on one of these ghost town videos!
Going out there on foot that time of year, was certainly not without risk. As a longtime desert resident, I can tell you every summer the news of visitors needing rescued is virtually daily.
The Lake Havasu is a lot cooler than those canyons and hills in Nevada.Love feeding the carp and ducks under the London Bridge!Beautiful,clear photos of my Mom who has passed, under the palms 🌴smiling in the Arizona sun.She really enjoyed visiting us in Tempe for excursions to Grand Canyon and buying Indian jewelry by the Little Grand Canyon.She was a bold traveler,and stopped at her beloved Sky City Indian pueblo in N.M. on her drive back to N.C.She was a nurse at the Indian hospital in Albuquerque,before becoming Supervisor of the Nursing Dept.at night for Duke U.Med.Center.Don't laugh too hard at us folks who were downstream in Maricopa County who have to head up to Apache or Saguaro Lake to cool down or unwind!The tour guide on the Lake Havasu boat did,considering we got our water from up there,where everybody was drinking beer on their boats with the water preferred for a potty on packed holidays.Not funny to Tempeans,but the tour guide laughed.
Well.This is now a historical video in the foot steps of legends.Really enjoyed this trip.😊🎉❤.Thank you people.
Ghost town hunting in that extreme heat and terrain is very dangerous. Great to see some people take the risk to bring us info on these amazing Ghost towns.
I won't go hiking near Death Valley from May 1st to November 1st. It's no fun when all you do is worry about surviving the expedition. I'm not good in the Heat anyway.
@@georgespalding7640 -- Once you acclimatize yourself to the heat , you barely notice it . I lived and worked (Mining) in Death Valley for 9 years , and I have currently lived near the eastern edge of Death Valley for over 40 years . --- Acclimatize yourself and get out there and enjoy the Desert .
Love the drone shots! Its amazing the old histories that are hidden in these places. What a great way to experience, preserve and share them. Good work!
Hey, great job with this video. The narrative was really well written. Good choice of music. I would love to read Alan's books after watching this cool, informative piece. Hello from Shurz, Nevada. :)
The true mark of professionalism: Letting someone know where you are going and when to expect you back. Amateurs think they are too 'professional' to bother with such a mundane thing.
..and a Rambo Knife!! 😁
Safety first! You are never too careful! As I heard once: it's better to excess in awareness thanh the opposite!
Very cool! One word of advice I picked up from back packing in scouts and my time in the uscg, invest in a camel back. Pack it with ice, and throw in an electrolight tablet. You can go all day, the ice melts and gives you more water. Trust me do another hike like that do that you ll be in better shape. Done it hiking in the new mexico desert and camp Lejeune in July with Body Armor it works!
Indeed it does, and a wet towel wrapped around the head and neck not only blocks the sun if kept moist with water is quite comfortable.
@@kellywatkins6409 that's why I took the advice from a Marine Corp friend and invested in a shemagh. On long hot days in the sun they are worth their weight in gold.
I was out there in around 2012-2014. It is much much easier to come up from the bottom of the canyon. You can drive to within about a mile or so with a properly set up Jeep. It looked just like it did when you went out there.. Everything was collapsed but instead of hot it was about 32 degrees. Perfect hicking weather.. Up the other canyon to the east there is a huge green spring with nice shade trees that you can drive to also with a properly set up Jeep. I have been to camps in that area that are so hidden that they still have two story ranch houses with old `1930's cars still parked in the barns.. Those are the true secret places. I have all of Alans books and have been out with him long ago with another friend of mine Bill G...
Well now, that was a fun vicarious adventure for us! Perhaps less fun for you two, but hopefully a more satisfying real-life adventure. I love that you're willing to do the hard work to record the nooks and crannies of history. I came to your channel for the ocean liner stuff, but I'll gladly follow you guys down any trail that piques your interest.
Same!
For the three of them, don't forget the camera lady
@@EKAdventures51 That's actually who I meant, no disrespect to the historian implied. 3 cheers for Emma the camera lady!
Reminds me of my work buddy who found a stagecoach in the Sierra with all the horse skeletons still harnessed up; the unopened lock box was still there and old luggage. He left it alone in case someone was going to come back for all their stuff. I told him that it was abandoned, but he said it wasn't his or any of his business.
I enjoyed this video thoroughly. Alan was wonderful and I was very impressed with him. We recently had moved to Phoenix from Florida. I am just now learning the historical and environmental differences of the desert folk. I subscribed and liked . Keep'm coming !
You have your own adventurous place close by the Superstition mountains so many tales from that area.
For a place that hasn't been seen for so long its well documented. The minerals pulled from this canyon are even listed in several topography and mining sites. Sometimes the "mysteries" are our own creation.
Back in 2014, I completed my archaeology field school in Fish Lake Valley (Dyer, NV). Really nice to see this region of Nevada again. Great video!
Back in my days in 1969 they called it the ruby marshes and I have documentation of our trips to the camp and I have a few photos to prove to you that the white pine county emergency posse did the treck and I would like to share it cause I am last surviving to have actually been in the mine. I'm now 59 and I don't want the records to get lost. Please let someone know what I have and the hardback book to show you the real road in and out was drove daily in a 62 rambler hauling dinamite for grandpa. The original ore car is still in tonapah and I would like someone to contact Janice Carder which still lives in my grandparents house on green mountain
This whole series just feels like playing Red Dead Redemption or Fallout in real life.
Like, not the combat obviously, but just exploring the world and trying to decipher the history and lore of the places you go.
Also worth noting a lot of these old mining and logging operations would've remained relatively similar up until around the 1960s, and with the harsh weather I'm sure it wouldn't take long to turn an old wood building to cinders.
The vehicle dates it at least back to the 1930s but who knows how old it was when it was left there, maybe it wasn't left there by the miners but was later abandoned by someone else?
With little to no surviving records, all we can do is guess.
Thanks for taking us on the trip. It was awesome.😊
I enjoyed. Sometimes when we follow our passion, we discover amazing things. Thanks Alan!
Hello 👋how’re you doing?
I imagine Hunters have been all over that canyon more recent then you think. Sweet video, dig the history on the mines, safe ventures!
It's always possible and I tried to make sure my statement wasn't an absolute - but we know the people who own the nearest private land, and they're also not aware of any hunting activity out that way. Glad to see people are enjoying these ghost town videos! I thought people only tuned in for my ship stuff.
Exactly. Looking at the drone forage far too many trails were extremely distinct.
@@andyrob3259 Those are most likely game trails. The natives used them for efficient ways to move around.
Wonderful! History should be preserved and you have done that.
When I was a kid, I lived on what was an abandonded training airfield from WW2. I had a few old maps and aerial photos. I would overlay the photos on google maps and find old brick foundations about an inch under the dirt. I once went to a large field, dug down and found an old gravel road. My back yard had an old brick foundation that was used for my shed. Fun times.
The real fun stuff though was finding the auxiliary airstrips. They were little more than cleared fields with a shack for a radioman. Some, while over grown with trees and brush, are well defined with the outline of the field. Others hare completely gone with no signs remaining that pilots trained there.
My favorite lost airstrip I found, I used the faint outline of two old mudholes from the 1940's and lined them up with terrain today. Now an orange grove, tree's grew slightly malnourished in the exact shape and orientation of the old mudholes.
Edit: I decided to look at on of the old fields I couldn't find years ago, and just found it! I love finding lost things from old maps. More recent imagery from google maps show one prominent mud spot to be better defined today then it was ten years ago.
That is where satellite archaeology comes into play.
Wow! If I were starting over, I’d be an explorer. But this looked pretty dangerous on a number of levels. What a life! Thank you for sharing.
This video just popped up in my suggested watch videos. I am glad it did! It is very interesting to see areas that have been lost in history and now rediscovered.
1:37 1957/8 Mercury, '59 Merc 4:41. Ford Model A made in 1928-31; the one onsite might have been up to a decade old at last use. The miners could even have abandoned to fight in World War 2 and been injured or killed.
I agree.
There was likely some sort of activity in the late 30's or early 40's, when WW2 shut down most mining activity.
@@straybullitt yes. So many still productive mines shut down around 1939 to 1942 due to the war and never started up again.
@@straybullitt There were many Model A's running well into the 1950's
I love this video. I have stumbled upon 130 year old campsites in the Arizona desert and was very careful not to disturb anything. It was like a time capsule.
Thank you for finding this mining camp. I know you didn’t find exactly what you wanted, but I was glued to your video every second. What a great video!
I grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch in the Sacramento Mountains of NM. There were old gold and silver mines everywhere. They all look the same. My grandparents met in silver city NM. My grandfather was born 1889 and grandmother 1892. My grandmothers dad was the lead engineer for the mine. My grandfather ran the mule and donkey stables. I was looking at his draft card WW1. Written on back was bad vision. Job livery manager and farrier.
They ended up homesteading a ranch near Piñon NM and that’s where I grew up.
My Grandmother’s sister (I never met my Grandmother, but my Aunt, or Grand-Aunt, was like a Gramma to me) was born in 1911 and I’ve always been fascinated with her life and the time she lived. If she went out traveling when she was young, she could have seen the tail end of the old west in different areas. I would have loved to seen the old west, what an amazing thing that would have been to witness. Dangerous, though. It would have been a major benefit to be well armed and to be able shoot well under pressure.
@@catsooey yes. Me too. My grandparents still talked about the Poncho Via raid on Columbus NM where my great grandfather lived. My great grandfather’s dad fought with Sam Huston and ended up with a ranch on the Brazos river in Texas. On my fathers side my 6th great grandfather came to the US in the 1600’ and became a large tobacco farmer near Jamestown. Literally across the James River to the south.
@@bret9741 That’s incredible! You have so much amazing American history in your family. By comparison, my Great Grandparents came over from Ireland, on one side, and from Poland on the other (although they were ethnic Germans, not actually Polish). You must have so many great stories from your family’s past. It would make a great book!