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When the tour was over and people made their way back home, Stuart, Crystal and Miah continued the exploration down the winze. Our goal was to see where the lower levels connect to the Buckhorn mine on the other side of the mountain. After gearing up and descending down we decided to take all the turn offs and drifts that Shawn and Miah breezed past. The first left tunnel we went down Crystal made an amazing discovery, a small hole tucked away inside the wall of the passage that lead into a cave full of brilliant formations. Having found this previously undiscovered cave we decided to name it ‘Miah’s Cave’. The cave is full of popcorn formations, soda straws, impressive flows, smithsonite covered walls, and many more notable features. We spent about a half hour or so checking out all the little nooks and crawling through some tight spaces.
After we exited the cave we explored the rest of the drift and went back out to the haulage tunnel and continued southwestward to the next unexplored passage. Rock hounds set up a small camp down on this level where we found an old teapot, a large barrel, and some other more modern rubbish. We spent a few moments examining the trash and determined it to be from the 90’s. At the rock hound camp we took a left down a stope and started to find large chunks of discarded dogtooth spar crystals. Stuart traced the origin of the spars up a very tight raise into a vug filled with them. Most of the crystals were completely intact and undamaged, but there were also quite a few that had been knocked loose lying around on the ground.
Back on the haulage tunnel we continued on passing a few collapsed ore shoots and some minor breakdown until we came upon an area that looked promising with some decent airflow suggesting a connection. We climbed up a short wall with the assistance of an old pipe and at the top were surprised to find a copy of an old magazine containing short western stories and some funny advertisements. Unfortunately the magazine did not have a date, but we assumed it was from the 1930’s-50’s. Scrambling further up the stope we came upon another tunnel with rails in both directions, starting with the left tunnel we followed a strong cold breeze for quite a while until we came to the end which was filled with rock from some stopes above. Baffled as to the source of the airflow, Crystal and Miah split up and climbed up the waste rock to see what was above. Not finding anything that looked promising we turned around and heading back towards the right hand tunnel where we found another large stope full of waste rock. Up the stope we found an old incline and a very old wooden ore cart! The incline was lined on both sides with hand-stacked walls fifteen feet tall.
On one of the drifts off the old incline we found a really cool rock arch and a room piled high with waste rock from some massive stopes somewhere above us. We took a break in this room and ate a light snack, entertained by the remains of the financial section of an old Italian newspaper. Back on the main incline we found a curious trail of empty Bud Light beer cans and old carbide arrows. Following this trail winding upwards through some tight squeezes, climbs, and tons of waste rock we came upon an amazing stope covered in dogtooth spar crystals. They were all over the walls, ceiling, and covering the rocks on the floor.
Miah and Crystal were finally able to get Stuart away from the minerals and continue our journey up the stope. The further we went up the stope the worse the breakdown got, eventually it was so bad and we were so worn out that we decided to head back out. We made it out of the mine safely and were able to get home by two in the morning. There is so much still left to explore down there and we barely saw any of it in seven hours of exploring, not to mention the unexplored sections in the upper section that Stuart’s group discovered earlier in the day. We can’t wait to get back inside!
ALL THE PICTURES
After we exited the cave we explored the rest of the drift and went back out to the haulage tunnel and continued southwestward to the next unexplored passage. Rock hounds set up a small camp down on this level where we found an old teapot, a large barrel, and some other more modern rubbish. We spent a few moments examining the trash and determined it to be from the 90’s. At the rock hound camp we took a left down a stope and started to find large chunks of discarded dogtooth spar crystals. Stuart traced the origin of the spars up a very tight raise into a vug filled with them. Most of the crystals were completely intact and undamaged, but there were also quite a few that had been knocked loose lying around on the ground.
Back on the haulage tunnel we continued on passing a few collapsed ore shoots and some minor breakdown until we came upon an area that looked promising with some decent airflow suggesting a connection. We climbed up a short wall with the assistance of an old pipe and at the top were surprised to find a copy of an old magazine containing short western stories and some funny advertisements. Unfortunately the magazine did not have a date, but we assumed it was from the 1930’s-50’s. Scrambling further up the stope we came upon another tunnel with rails in both directions, starting with the left tunnel we followed a strong cold breeze for quite a while until we came to the end which was filled with rock from some stopes above. Baffled as to the source of the airflow, Crystal and Miah split up and climbed up the waste rock to see what was above. Not finding anything that looked promising we turned around and heading back towards the right hand tunnel where we found another large stope full of waste rock. Up the stope we found an old incline and a very old wooden ore cart! The incline was lined on both sides with hand-stacked walls fifteen feet tall.
On one of the drifts off the old incline we found a really cool rock arch and a room piled high with waste rock from some massive stopes somewhere above us. We took a break in this room and ate a light snack, entertained by the remains of the financial section of an old Italian newspaper. Back on the main incline we found a curious trail of empty Bud Light beer cans and old carbide arrows. Following this trail winding upwards through some tight squeezes, climbs, and tons of waste rock we came upon an amazing stope covered in dogtooth spar crystals. They were all over the walls, ceiling, and covering the rocks on the floor.
Miah and Crystal were finally able to get Stuart away from the minerals and continue our journey up the stope. The further we went up the stope the worse the breakdown got, eventually it was so bad and we were so worn out that we decided to head back out. We made it out of the mine safely and were able to get home by two in the morning. There is so much still left to explore down there and we barely saw any of it in seven hours of exploring, not to mention the unexplored sections in the upper section that Stuart’s group discovered earlier in the day. We can’t wait to get back inside!
ALL THE PICTURES
Attempting to track-down the source of the air flow was quite baffling - we ascended an ore chute, explored a sizeable incline, and followed a number of leads but to no end. Stuart's altimiter indicated (at our highest elevation inside the "lower" section) an altitude greater than or equal to the level of the main haulage tunnel, but we were not able to make any connections back to it. We spent so much time in the cave and dogtooth areas we didn't get to track back down the passage that Shawn and I blew through earlier in the day. Our adventure took us 1/2 mile or farther down the main passage, over a number of sections of breakdown, passing adjacent passages left and right, unitl we determined that we had left Shawn's poor girlfriend waiting at the top of the winze long enough! The passage seems to follow a steep fault; with some sections covered in flowstone. Stoping seemed to follow the angle of the fault, leaving a clean hanging wall at 120 degrees from horizontal and the parallel footwall of native rock or flowstone in small sections. VERY interesting. Some of the areas of rockfall filled the passage, causing us to climb over the debris up into the stope then back down to the continuing passage. There was clear evidence all along the main route of previous explorers, a bit of a spoiler in my mind. Well worn tracks lead the way. Even our friend Jeremiah Etherington somehow visited this section - his twin rock pick insignia spraypainted above his initials. The question I have is did most people rappel the 80' shaft to access this lower level or did they come in somehwere else? The Buckhorn, I would suspect??? With some trash dating to the mid 1990's and the story that John Skinner relates regarding his attempt to reach the lost Boy Scout via the Buckhorn in 1989 I doubt they came through the Buckhorn. Questions yet to be answered.
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