I Walked Through a Mountain - The Noonday Mine

rockhopper here and today i'm gonna walk through a [Music] mountain let's get started [Applause] all right we are getting inside the mountain we gotta turn on the flashlight now and see where we're going going through these timbers holding up everything supports oh yeah duck your head say goodbye to the outside world here's where we're going we're heading into the abyss into the deep darkness of the noonday mine here in the california desert and what is this over here let's have a look uh looks like maybe they hung their coats up in here the miners that's not much else in here really nicely preserved set of rail tracks here through this shaft let's go to the right here and see what this thing is it's back here uh [Music] get some supports this doesn't go anywhere and that just goes down their ways not much there head back out continuing onward another little side tunnel there doesn't go anywhere some kind of pipeline down here yeah metal metal pipeline all right up ahead we've got an arrow a couple arrows see one arrow pointing that way something this way yeah a little railroad track check that out had little mining cars going right through here see those tracks and uh yeah this went somewhere for sure we're digging things out of here on this now another little shaft right there and this place is full of mining shafts looks like we have a little uh this is where maybe they loaded up the the mining carts and uh yeah the rocks and stuff doubled down through here the end of the carts i would suppose uh what else is back here another one of those little loaders i guess and uh just keeps going a little side shaft there another arrow pointing this way and uh some more woodwork here i know got a rather spacious room right here yep nothing there though just uh yeah just a big dug out room i guess forging on ahead some more wood beams supports [Applause] yeah they got a oh look down there yep you don't want to fall down there no nice even temperature in here very comfortable being underground another little just to be a loading platform maybe yeah it just keeps on going oh yeah look at this better be careful right here yeah you don't want to fall through there oh no you don't not a good idea that's a long drop oh heck yeah okay we'll be careful crossing these when it's over here just another little hole yep and we'll cross these and continue oh look overhead yeah that looks pretty uh pretty unstable i would say yeah yeah [Music] all right carrying on here down below you can see the little railroad ties what's left of them anyway a little mining cart that would have gone through here and get some spikes old spikes right there oh look up in there another little rail spike there starting to twist and turn a little bit here well piece of wood stuck up in the wall and the rock yep another little side shaft there let's just take a minute here take a few seconds here i'm going to shut this flashlight off i'm gonna hear what total silence and see what total darkness looks like yeah that's what it's like another one of these loaders here i guess okay clyde you can see these bore holes where they drilled into the rock several of those around here look at the way that rock is supported right there with those beams looking up in there for a sec piece of wood with some wire on it right there sticking out of the rock watch your head what do we have here another little side shaft got some ties down there a little loader thing maybe right there yeah another thing right there oh another man this place is just full of tunnels that's why these people painted the arrows so you don't get too lost and get some track right there and another little side shaft back here got some more braille ties and railing there and it looks like this just kind of peters out yep this is just a side shaft where they were digging and it pretty much ends right here so we will turn back okay back in the main shaft at least one of them and there's your arrow we'll continue this way and see what we can find more timbers more sports wedged in there tight oh wow another side shaft huh all right might have to check that out i don't know how far back this thing goes probably just peters out like the last one i guess we'll find out real fast here well what do we got that goes up their ways yep okay so this thing is getting a little bit lower overhead and a little bit narrower okay i think this will probably peter out but who knows i think we're back in the same oh there we are we are in the same place indeed with clyde okay it's just another little way of getting to the same place how about that go through the main area got a little pile of dirt here getting through the main shaft watch your head timbers up ahead some kind of pipe there swap me i'm a fly okay then little side shaft there looks like that partially collapsed maybe or something there's no don't see any railing there but it doesn't mean there wasn't any well i don't know what that's about what do we have here another side shaft huh well i don't think this one goes anywhere and there's some more stuff back there even this place is just filled with tunnels to explore here in the noonday mine i think this just ends right back there yep that's it for that we'll head back out look above right up in there [Applause] yeah lots of supports up in that way more stuff going through the main tunnel here people have written their names who have been here before continuing on through the main shaft some more railroad tracks there mining car tracks another arrow pointing you what's this okay you do not want to go down there uh-uh you would have a heck of a time trying to get back out of that we go around it though [Applause] i don't think this goes very far [Music] nope that is it for this side shaft i'm back in the main tunnel here well somebody says boil me i'm an egg okay what do we have here grind me i'm a valve all righty then what's that say row me i'm a boat and looking up here looks like that goes a ways up in there good luck trying to scramble up in there you could but i don't think we're gonna do that continuing on got some good rails here and uh decent clearance most the time probably about almost six feet look at this we're coming up to a split left or right the arrow says go to the right but we can have a quick look at the left as well if you want might as well since we're here right and just more more the same oh an arrow says out that way just connects with the tunnel to the right got some more railing here as well as more graffiti and what is this what do we have here uh looks like we've got a couple of dos eki beer bottles and a couple shot glasses hey why not have a party and what are these uh these newspapers wow let's check this out these things look really old man this is like i don't know look at those uh those are dresses and stuff this is like from wow okay look at that right there 1905 1911 1913 1919 [Music] 1919 so this is probably a newspaper or something from the 1920s maybe wow that is cool this let's have a closer look here right there it says edmund frederick 1919. so this paper is probably from 1919 or 1920 and yeah look at that look at the illustration little clothing and everything this is definitely really old and uh look at i turned this one over look at the car that thing is what 19 yeah probably about 1920. and another little car right there and look look at this fashion what's that wow that's funny look at that the headline is why men have better taste in dress than women and then they show the silhouettes of the years gone by 1819 there i guess all the way to the probably was the present 1919. [Music] and there's uh [Music] some woman in some kind of garb right there how interesting is that finding that in here we'll leave that uh alone for a minute and head on this way and see there's much anything down here nope not really and then you go this way looks like we're back to the main shaft or i don't know what is all this uh let's get up there and have a look i got some artifacts here looks like some old gloves uh an old bucket or something right there some kind of lid right there um what's that some paint can or something over there hmm what is this thing ah just an mre meals ready to eat some more stuff back here [Music] well there's a ladder huh where's that thing going wonder well let's have a look heading up and oh well um appears to be the end of it right there looking down what's that say right there 1923 i think so another little side tunnel here a couple of them some kind of paint can or whatever that may have been maybe a tin of beans or something who knows another 10 down there and you can look down in there it goes for a little ways down in there continuing down in here and that looks to be the end this way so we'll turn around and head back to the main tunnel oh there's a another little can right there heading back toward the main tunnel looking up the side shaft there okay we're back in the main tunnel following the tracks something down there an old can of some kind oh another little uh that's probably where we were down in here yeah it just cuts across i think or not yeah what do we have here pieces of piping um something right the old yeah we just saw it from the other side over there so it's the same place ladder and all that back in the main tunnel again probably walked a i don't know a half mile or more just exploring so far okay we're back to boil me i'm an egg noonday new day mine that's this place all right okay so we're back on track heading in the right direction now after doing a little bit of exploring there mucking around i think i see a little daylight up ahead i think we're getting close and going entirely through this mountain what's here yeah another little loader looking up there yeah so it looks like uh turn the flashlight off now let's see what's out here oh it's bright out here all of a sudden wow i need a minute to adjust to the daylight this is where the mining cars were a little trestle looks like it was there and uh kind of look at it that way where there was mine some sort of what looks to be a boiler right there got some pieces of wood some piping some concrete work there and right there is the tunnel we came out of we should go back in we got to go in anyway to get to the other side but early on there was that other mine shaft let's maybe take that see where that thing ends up going yeah check it out let's go back in we go into the darkness once again i think we walked about a mile getting from one end of the tunnel to the other okay we're heading back out to where we started and we're going to do a little exploration of some of these side shafts here for just a little bit see what's in them got some cable and some piping among the timbers and what looks to be somebody's underwear what were you doing in here some old tin there what does that say on there [Applause] let's see if we can read that quality let's say qualify [Music] something or what i don't know can you read it quality insurpassable something for media whatever let's step over that see what's back here it says say dead end okay so there's nothing back there just dead ends even though it says dead end let's just have a look anyway you never know what you might find a couple cans one looks to be really old one looks to be fairly recent yeah this dead end tunnel goes quite a ways just keeps going and going for a while anyway what do we have here shiny sparkly rocks i don't know if you can see the sparkle on some of these rocks as i move the flashlight around but they are pretty sparkly kind of cool sparkle sparkle come on and yes it is definitely a dead end as we were told so we'll turn back as we leave the dead end where it connects with the main shaft you can see some pretty big timbers there so we'll continue on to get out toward the beginning of where we started and there it is there's the beginning that's where we started we first came in the tunnel and there's another little there's our first post now remember we looked at that and this was a little turn to the right now this may or may not go anywhere well no it doesn't really go anywhere at all does it not really so i guess it wasn't much of anything so we'll head back out in the daylight duck your head this is definitely low clearance right through here let's head back out boom daylight very bright after being in total darkness except for the flashlight i hope you enjoyed going deep within the earth in the noonday mine out here in the california desert don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you can be 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