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00:00Hoho! This could be history in the making. Holy s**t. We're in it. We are now somewhere from the Omega
00:09down into the Union Mine.
00:12And now it's going to go straight vertical, which is terrifying, but obviously intriguing. That was very, very sketchy.
00:19See, I barely had enough rope, and I do not know what level we're on.
00:23I'm nervous. There's more down there. It's floating everywhere today.
00:29And if you look up here, Levi Strauss & Co.
00:33Look. Holy s**t.
00:48Today is a very exciting day because today I am headed back into the historic Omega Tunnel here at Cerro
00:58Gordo.
00:58And hopefully we'll get into parts of this mine that nobody has seen in a very, very long time.
01:05The Omega Tunnel was originally dug in 1870, and eventually it was connected into the main Union Mine here.
01:14And the Union Mine was the largest silver mine in California that had over 30 miles of mine shafts.
01:22But the Omega Tunnel was very infamous because sometime in the 1870s, it had a collapse that trapped and killed
01:32an unknown number of miners.
01:34And over the years, the tunnel pretty much just collapsed in on itself.
01:39And by the time I moved up here about six years ago, the portal just blended into the hillside.
01:45And over the course of about five years, I tried to dig my way in using a loader, then using
01:52a backhoe and dynamite and even hand digging.
01:56And finally, a few months ago, I got through the final collapse and got into the Omega for the very
02:04first time.
02:04And back there, there were all sorts of things, including vertical shafts, down.
02:10And the more I get into this mine, the more lost history that I'm able to uncover.
02:17This was an important mine and an important part of California's history.
02:22But over 100 years, a lot of the history up here got lost.
02:25It's been lost to collapsed mine shafts.
02:28It's been lost to fires in the courthouse.
02:30It's been lost to artifacts being removed.
02:33And so the deeper that I can get into the Omega and into the Union,
02:36the more of this history I'm able to uncover and broadcast.
02:41And my first time back into the Omega, I brought 200 feet of rope.
02:46And by the time I got to the bottom, I entered this new area and it wasn't enough.
02:50There were more vertical shafts that went even deeper down.
02:54And so today, I am taking 400 feet of rope.
02:57I am taking climbing bolts.
02:59And I am taking the motivation to see what history we can uncover.
03:12All right, I'm back.
03:13More energy to get to the bottom of what's down this tunnel to the 400.
03:18But I think today's going to have to be the final day.
03:21I feel like I'm tempting it a little bit too much to keep going down here.
03:25We're going to get in there quick.
03:27We'll try to get to the bottom.
03:28See what's down there.
03:34I'm talking about that hole never gets bigger.
03:36But it doesn't appear to have gotten smaller, which is good.
03:41So we're going to get through that and get this thing on the road.
03:45We're going to get through that hole.
03:47We're going to get through that hole.
03:49We're going to get through that hole.
03:51We're going to get through that hole.
03:54We're going to get through that hole.
03:59We're going to get through that hole.
04:01We're going to get through that hole.
04:03We're going to get through that hole.
04:05We're going to get through that hole.
04:05We're going to get through that hole.
04:05We're going to get through that hole.
04:06We're going to get through that hole.
04:06We're going to get through that hole.
04:07We're going to get through that hole.
04:07We're going to get through that hole.
04:08We're going to get through that hole.
04:08We're going to get through that hole.
04:09We're going to get through that hole.
04:10We're going to get through that hole.
04:10We're going to get through that hole.
04:33back to the whole rope sorry down there we gotta go deeper today's the day my other main goal with
04:40this exploration is to find a way into the mine that doesn't require using the hoist you know when
04:48they mapped this thing 100 years ago they didn't pick up all these little connections between the
04:55levels and so i'm hoping to find one of those and we can add to the history map and find
05:01a new way into
05:02this mine
05:47so over here in the tunnel that we'll be going down i would anticipate that we need to go down
05:52on either 100 feet and if we get down 100 feet over there then we get to the 400 level
05:57in an area of the
05:59400 level that has not been explored so without further ado let's figure that out
06:12to the hope that this goes down to the 400 level there's nowhere to tie off to so i'm going
06:17to bolt
06:29to the 400 level let's do it
07:08oh so got to the bottom of this hole that i rappelled down again and now there is track
07:16and we're at a trash dump and i have to tell you that here
07:22is the 400 level oh holy cow we got down to a new level let's check this out oh we
07:30got a drill steel
07:31already boom
07:35right off the bat if you peek this way oh oh man holy we're in it we are now somewhere
07:47from the omega down into the union mine this is insane not sure how i missed this before
07:54you can see where the buttons would have been pocket see if we can find any uh clues
08:02the rock just gets so different in this level now it's this really white rock
08:08all sorts of stuff that i missed azola salad oil never saw that before whoa
08:21carbide from 35 so this level was worked way after the 200 where i came in from because this
08:29has access to the main shaft somewhere so we've seen some carbide from 35 salt lake city utah 35
08:36oh i don't even know where i am
08:43boom sticks dynamite this is freaking awesome man look there's another shoot up that must go up
08:51towards the 200 too making all sorts of connections now texan juice
09:00a lot of stuff down here
09:07this area is almost certainly a toilet you can tell because this would have been where
09:12they stacked up these crates and used the extra carbide as a bathroom and i've walked through this
09:18before but there's little scraps of newspaper in here and other things that i feel like could give a
09:25date i need to put on some gloves this grossness but let's check it out
09:32and that's most likely there's a little scrap of jeans sometimes they cut off little squares of jeans
09:38to use as toilet paper there's a rivet 101 i don't know that levi's has 501 but i'm not sure
09:45about 101
09:46see what else is in here remove some of these something under there
09:57oh oh oh it's got a little metal rivet to it too
10:04look at that for being printed almost 100 years ago the stuff in this level is in really good shape
10:09i mean
10:10that looks like the day it came off the press three bedrooms 350 cash down gives you d three rooms
10:16somebody look up 3555 wes slalson and see how much it is now it's 3 500 that's in great shape
10:26it's like to get underneath all of this
10:38dynamite little bag have any rivets or similar there's like the crotch basically you'd think
10:45there'd be a rivet in there i'll probably get more poop stuck on them ew damn these don't have any
10:50markings on it at all put that in the pile oh is that a toothpick or a matchstick wow look
10:58at that
10:58it still had a matchstick in the pocket
11:05owens valley progress citizen i've never even heard of that newspaper before wow 1934
11:13so we're not far from the shaft i need to go back to where i just rappelled down at but
11:17poking around
11:18this it was some pretty good stuff i mean a lot of newspapers all from 1934 there was a good
11:25amount
11:25of jeans which is exciting but all of it's just scrapped and crappy you can even tell by the stitching
11:31sometimes but given that it's by all these 1930s newspapers i can imagine these are the 1800s stuff
11:38that we're looking for but there was on one of these pieces there was two of them actually there was
11:44this rivet says 101
11:49maybe a 30s brand i don't know about or something but now it's time to go down lower than mine
11:55too to
11:55see we connect from the omega as far down as we can this is a huge level and i'm feeling
12:00it today that
12:01was exciting feel like we're on the hunt that's through where i went it's weird because it never really
12:08even made that much sense before to go over there i'm also interested in this we could pull off some
12:13of
12:13this stuff see if there's anything cool behind this collapse let's go dig around over here
12:19oh we got another little poke through of jeans and if you watch my channel for a while this is
12:25always what i'm looking for so we definitely have some denim
12:33this is about as solid a pair as i've ever seen
12:40down into mine
12:50i don't think that's levi or 101 again
12:55got the same rivet as before wait let's
13:00those are unmarked okay anything in the pockets
13:05nothing in the pockets dang that is so cool man i've looked a long time for stuff like that
13:12there you go there's a pair of jean shorts oh maybe there we'll get a logo
13:28it says 101 brand try to see where that's from ooh these seem more robust this seems more like
13:38what we're looking for this seems sturdier this denim still looks like
13:44they can't feel much stronger than the other stuff
13:56another pair
14:02and the second pair that was in here that i said felt more durable well maybe there's a reason they're
14:06more durable look how great they are how big they are and if you look up here a little bit
14:12of
14:15spit strauss and co levi strauss and co that would be levi's too if we could see that
14:22there's their customary rivets and these are not the oldest because the oldies have a cinch in the
14:28back when the 1800s seems to be 30s but for so long i've always wanted to find jeans in a
14:38mine this
14:38is the absolute closest pair i've ever seen and this is a newer pair but people often ask they say
14:45hey
14:45why are pants down in the mine that's not possible but now you've seen two pairs
14:52right next to each other levi jeans in a mine very good condition oh man oh man i think i'm
15:04gonna
15:05reach out to levi's and see if they can figure out exactly how old these are they'll take some photos
15:12and
15:12send them over to them if you can find some of these that are about 60 years older than these
15:18ones
15:19are then they go for big big bucks but this is just proof look levi strauss jeans in a mine
15:27so cool
15:38i just love exploring these mines finding these new connections finding new artifacts it just
15:46really brings me to life but it's not the easiest thing being down here crawling around and scrambling
15:53about but something that i've had with me for the past six years on these adventures is element this
16:00is an electrolyte mix that keeps me going and before it was just the electrolyte the sodium
16:05potassium magnesium so this is a new blend recently they added natural caffeine from black tea so just
16:1150 milligrams just enough to keep you going not enough to give you those jitters that the energy
16:16drinks will give you so this stuff is absolutely amazing this is the lemonade iced tea and again
16:20it's going to prevent those dehydration cramps those headaches it keeps you crawling around these
16:24mines it comes in these little sticks all you have to do is take one of these put in a
16:29water
16:29bottle shake it up and you're good to go and now they're going to get that little boost just enough
16:3450 milligrams of caffeine too so if you want to check it out they're giving a free sample pack with
16:40any purchase all you have to do is go to drink element.com brent so drink lmnt.com brent this
16:47stuff is amazing i didn't think they could make it better but they somehow did and i hope you check
16:50it
16:50out it's weird it's like it's very obvious now because the rope's here if you walked by this you'd
16:58walk right by it and even looking up there's no indication that this goes to where you want to go
17:03there's a bunch of these shafts up throughout the mine that i've either not seen by not looking up
17:08or does not figure out how to get up because obviously like rock climbing up this is a different
17:12story so you really need to get probably from above but now maybe i'll pay attention more to some of
17:17these inclines down so over this way we're headed towards the union chimney and over this way there
17:26also is a little shoot down towards the 550 what might be interesting is to see how far down we
17:32can get
17:33from the omega without taking the main shaft and since we're on our roll today let's see what else
17:40we can find i realized that all my time down here originally i never really dug down very much
17:46and it seems like that's where everything's hidden a few inches underneath this dirt
17:53oh oh where's that go get jammed up right there or does it keep going down i've got this little
18:00backup
18:00rope this is about as thin as you're supposed to rappel on but i've got situations like this where
18:06i just need to go down a little bit to be able to get back out but that is a
18:14holy all right wake up call you don't want these falling in on me as i go down there holy
18:21sometimes you see a sign if that timber breaks all these rocks could shift fill it in down there so
18:27that's a no-go i'm pretty risk tolerant but that one is too much for me so instead let's go
18:34down
18:35to the 550 see if we can find some cool stuff down there
19:17so sub level in between old room so we're headed further down that towards the 500 to 550
19:34so
19:52oh
19:58look at that oil can rag still in it
20:07all right so it's coming down below the 400 down towards the 550 and off that ladder there's this
20:13little tiny like sub level it now looks like it goes straight vertical which is terrifying but
20:19obviously intriguing and i do have this backup rope which is about as small as you can rappel on
20:25so i could see if i could tie off and at least look over the edge there to see how
20:28deep it goes
20:29i think that's what i'm going to do because that's an area that i've never been into
20:32and that would be very very cool to give you this day this is just chutes and ladders if i've
20:38ever
20:39seen it so let's see if i can find somewhere to tie off on and get us down a little
20:42further even
20:46so
20:52so
21:00so
21:08so
21:15so
21:37well i've come to the end of my rope and
21:39i'm not on the ground so that's not good uh i'm gonna have to decide whether i untie the rope
21:50and just send it down below but that might have me stuck down there so we'll see
22:25that was very very sketchy you can see i barely had enough rope i had to go down to one
22:30out of
22:30the double it up rope not good if i left enough where i can theoretically get up but getting back
22:34up that's going to be extremely difficult but we did get down to a level and i do not know
22:39what
22:39level we're on and that was the goal but it's a little scary because if this does not lead to
22:45the hoist then i'm gonna have to try to figure out how to get back up that single strand for
22:49a while
22:50then hook back in then climb up it's just going to be really really hard
22:55oh i don't know how it stops
22:59pounding some more buckets nothing's ringing a bell yet it's kind of concerning we're definitely
23:04on a big level oh what the hell
23:08got something up there charcoal or something must have been a later era that they were down here as well
23:17oh don't tell me that
23:21that doesn't seem to go anywhere we have to go back towards where we started
23:28drill rod oh we're really getting into it on this one
23:35getting nervous hoping to see something i recognize we're going back towards where i just
23:40propelled down to this is a big pile of stuff oh
23:48more down i always need more rope whatever level this is it's a really big level i remember this kind
23:56of these are core samples i think i remember this i don't remember how it's been six years
24:03looks like you get this wheelbarrow out of here look at this thing
24:09still rolling great
24:14that's cool look at that miner's lamp union carbide they cut a hole in it for some reason
24:19they repurposed it that's a great can i feel like in this area or something let's take a little time
24:26clothing is here you can see clothing here what is that is that a coin or a button
24:32i think this is a button from a red shirt now i gave the explanation of why there might be
24:38jeans
24:39in an old mine why there might be old shirts i don't know but i've been a lot of them
24:43probably
24:43toilet paper to be honest so that's why i put back on the gloves a purple shirt that was totally
24:49hidden
24:50dude's wearing a purple shirt down into mine hell yeah oh look that's so cool second one day look he
24:57had a
24:57match in his pocket of his shirt what have we got looking start moving stuff start getting more
25:02drill bits another one i'm not after drill bits all right all right i think we've hit our diminishing
25:08returns anything in this area just shredded anyways all right get out of here oh man
25:34all right we're out of the pit of shirts there's at least five shirts down there plus some messed up
25:40pants but this level is too wet but this date is the latest date i've ever seen in the serogordal
25:45mines i've never seen that so they were working this level into the 40s almost 50s which is incredible
25:51that might actually date the pants from earlier a little bit later than i thought so probably 30s or
25:5840s that's crazy to imagine that this level was mined in the 1860s as well as the 1940s so
26:05almost 80 90 years that the miners are poking around this level even in 1949 they're taking
26:12core samples the miners did a very good job of getting all the ore out of here so there's not
26:17much left except for those little ledges like we saw earlier but we gotta start getting out of here
26:21i'm getting real tired after a long day how is that for a day oh my gosh let's get out
26:37of here let's
26:38get back up this is awesome i'm pretty sure i know where we are now heading back towards the main
26:46shaft
26:47which would prevent me from having to cross that sneaky hole again oh this looks like me that looks
26:55like the hoist this is it the main shaft oh i got from the omega to the main shaft so
27:04that means we
27:22so
27:23so that was a awesome explorer i felt like i learned something new and i was able to add something
27:35to cerogoro's history which is what i've been always trying to do for the last six years being up here
27:42you know i was able to get into the omega and get down to the 400 so now we have
27:48a better map
27:49than has ever been created up here then there was the genes and these genes i took photos and set
27:55them
27:55off to tracy who's the historian at levi strauss and i've done a video with tracy before and she's just
28:01a wealth of knowledge and with tracy we were able to determine that these genes were somewhere between
28:101942 and 1945 and you know this for a few reasons first is the back pocket since levi started making
28:20jeans in 1873 they put these double arch stitching on the back pockets but during the war the war board
28:27said they had to stop doing non-essential things to try to conserve resources and so levi's during that
28:35period they painted on the stitches and those paint would just disappear after a wear or two so you
28:42know if you have jeans without that stitching on the back that you have some jeans that they're producing
28:48during world war ii and also to conserve materials during the war they took out the cinch that was in
28:57the back and that never returned and then further if you look at the front in the little watch pocket
29:02the rivets weren't there and so all these things point to a conservation mode that levi's was in
29:09which points to 1942 to 1945 and here at cerro gordo during that era there was a company up here
29:18called the golden queen and the golden queen was a subsidiary of a huge south african mining company
29:25that had their mind shut down just south of here in mojave because the war shut down all non-essential
29:32mines so gold mines were shut down across america and so this mining company they came to cerro gordo
29:39to look for zinc instead because zinc was an essential mineral for the war so they came here because
29:45zinc was a huge producer at cerro gordo and they poked around for a while and eventually didn't find
29:51anything and deeper in this exploration i found that date on the wall from 1947 and that's an interesting
30:00period because by then a guy named wc riggs had leased the property and riggs and company were
30:08the last official people that were here doing mining in any real scale but what's also interesting
30:15is after riggs was here riggs had a caretaker named barbara and eventually jack smith and jack smith's
30:23niece was a woman named jody stewart who inherited the property and then jody stewart married a guy
30:30named mike patterson and when both of them died jody didn't have any children and so mike's son sean
30:37inherited the property and i bought cerro gordo from mike's son sean and so since that date was written
30:46down in the mine in 1947 this property has only been in the hands of two families before me and
30:52so i feel
30:53a deep connection to that as well and so i love these explorations i love the fact that you guys
31:01sit here with me through all of them and so i appreciate it very much for checking out this video
31:06and until the next time i hope you have a great week and i'll see you then
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