Yesterday I had the opportunity to head out into the desert for a bit of exploring. My roommate's brother has been wanting to give mine exploration a try so we headed out. One of the mines we stopped at was the Tiffin Mine. I had been past this mine but had never ventured inside.
As we came upon the mine site, the first thing is the foundation of an old building. The floor joists are still in place.
This appears to have been some "cool storage" for the mine. The structure goes back into the earth a few feet where it would have been cooler. There are still shelves with fine metal screen surrounding them to keep out the pests.
A bit further down the trail is the mine entrance. The tailing pile indicates that there were some significant workings.
Once inside the mine we got to see some nice minerals. I'm guessing this is some form of copper.
We came across this headframe which immediately caught my interest. What we had seen to this point didn't seem to warrant the amount of tailings we saw outside. The inclined shaft made it all make sense.
Looking down the incline we couldn't see the bottom even when I used my big light. Time to head down for a "look see".
One the way down I noticed a number of small workings.
There are bits of rubble in some of the little side nooks. None of the working that I saw appeared to be very extensive.
This ladder went up into a stope right next to the incline. This picture was taken while I was standing on the ladder so you can see how little space there was in the little side nooks.
I got to the bottom only to find it full of dirt that filled the area all most to the top of the drift. With my flashlight I could see through a three inch gap to see that there is a drift at that level. I believe that it could be dug out with a shovel and a bit of work. That will have to be another trip. My exploration completed, I headed back up. I'm guessing that the shaft is close to 150' deep.
Here is Mark climbing out of the mine entrance. This was his first day of mine exploring and I think he is "hooked"! He lives in Salt Lake City so he may end up joining this forum.
It's a bit funny how often I take guests with me out to the mines. I just ordered a second helmet and light so they can have a full fledged setup for their first adventure. The bike helmet & Princeton Tec Fuel light really aren't adequate. I'm also setting up a second set of SRT gear so I can teach folks about rappelling and climbing without having to swap gear every time. I have a number of people who have asked me about learning SRT so I should be ready to go.
Joane
As we came upon the mine site, the first thing is the foundation of an old building. The floor joists are still in place.
This appears to have been some "cool storage" for the mine. The structure goes back into the earth a few feet where it would have been cooler. There are still shelves with fine metal screen surrounding them to keep out the pests.
A bit further down the trail is the mine entrance. The tailing pile indicates that there were some significant workings.
Once inside the mine we got to see some nice minerals. I'm guessing this is some form of copper.
We came across this headframe which immediately caught my interest. What we had seen to this point didn't seem to warrant the amount of tailings we saw outside. The inclined shaft made it all make sense.
Looking down the incline we couldn't see the bottom even when I used my big light. Time to head down for a "look see".
One the way down I noticed a number of small workings.
There are bits of rubble in some of the little side nooks. None of the working that I saw appeared to be very extensive.
This ladder went up into a stope right next to the incline. This picture was taken while I was standing on the ladder so you can see how little space there was in the little side nooks.
I got to the bottom only to find it full of dirt that filled the area all most to the top of the drift. With my flashlight I could see through a three inch gap to see that there is a drift at that level. I believe that it could be dug out with a shovel and a bit of work. That will have to be another trip. My exploration completed, I headed back up. I'm guessing that the shaft is close to 150' deep.
Here is Mark climbing out of the mine entrance. This was his first day of mine exploring and I think he is "hooked"! He lives in Salt Lake City so he may end up joining this forum.
It's a bit funny how often I take guests with me out to the mines. I just ordered a second helmet and light so they can have a full fledged setup for their first adventure. The bike helmet & Princeton Tec Fuel light really aren't adequate. I'm also setting up a second set of SRT gear so I can teach folks about rappelling and climbing without having to swap gear every time. I have a number of people who have asked me about learning SRT so I should be ready to go.
Joane
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