Tecopa pics and questions

[go_browns79]

Yesterday a friend and I took a quick trip to Tecopa, CA. I know you've all seen these pics before but I'm mainly posting this in the hopes that someone can answer a couple location and safety questions for me. My friend has no rope experience or gear so I thought the War Eagle would be a good place to start. I got the location labeled " War Eagle (1) " off the google maps database overlay. It took me to an entrance that other people have called the back entrance. It went back far but not the miles I've heard about. The pics below show the area I was in. The hopper was near this adit and the Noonday and Columbia #2 were seen easily from here. Does this adit connect to the bigger part of the mine ? Did I miss a turn somewhere ? Or do I need to find another entrance ?



inside the hopper


Next we headed over the the Columbia #2. Inside we saw a ladder that headed down at a low angle for 60'-80' then was attached to more ladders that were much steeper and we couldn't see the bottom. I knew this was a deep mine so without rope and gear we easily decided not to go down. Does anyone know how far down this set off ladders goes down ? I'm assuming it's not smart to go down these ladders without proper gear, do you agree ? Here's a couple pics




Then we headed over to the Noonday Mine. We went to the adit on the left side of the broken tressel, seen in the pic below, and saw lots of good stuff.





On our way to the Columbia and Noonday we were on the wrong road and saw a shortcut back to the right road that went down and up real quick. The combination of stock tires and a longer wheel base were not taken into consideration, now the truck's officially broken, it was bound to happen sooner or later.



Over all it was a great first trip to Tecopa and being only two hours from Vegas i'll be back soon. If anyone's interested in heading out there sometime let me know. Any advise, suggestions, smart ass comments or tips on the other War Eagle entrance are always appreciated. If you want to see the other 100 pics you can find them at [web]www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2070238&id=1253455143&fbid=1539298963092[/web] if you send me a friend request please enter "Mojave Underground" in the message so I know your not spam. Hope you all enjoyed, have fun and be safe.

[Joanne]

Bill,

I looks like it was a great trip! Thanks for posting the photos. I see you got a new headlamp too. I'm hoping to head out there for a weekend of camping & exploring this spring before it gets too hot. Sorry to see that your truck got "broke in", but it was bound to happen since you actually use it as a truck.

Did you get up to Shoshone? There's a place there named the CrowBar that's fun to eat at. I've eaten there a couple of times when I've been on MC rides.

Joanne

[tails]

you can descend all the way to the bottom of the columbia and noonday mine without ropes. I've done it several times. I'm sad to see that trestle near the backside of the noonday collapsing. I have photos from when it was 80-90% intack. It was just missing a 15ft segment last time I was there. Now it looks almost completley collapsed.

[Therrin]

Joanne's spot on with that one, after spending 4 or 5 days (or even a couple) camping out in the Tecopa area, the Crowbar Cafe is a godsend. And it sits right next to the Shoshone Museum, which has a display with some ore carts mounted on rails and lots of mining and geological history inside.

The picture you posted is the "front entrance" of the War Eagle mine. AKA the "west" entrance. Inside you'd see a ladder that lays under some cross boards, which extends down. At the bottom you crawl over into the incline, which takes you alllll the way down to the level of the "rear entrance" (south / east). At the bottom of the incline you need to either climb the twisted ore car rails or climb a very short ladder, then grab the rail above you and climb/scrabble up to the level of the drift. From there you take... a left, through the door, through the next drift intersection, then a right into the next heading to get headed in the direction of the rear entrance (and it's a good looooooong walk to get out).
At the drift intersection, if instead of passing through and then making the next right, you take the left in the intersection, you'll come to the headway of the lower incline, which extends another 5 levels lower down into the mine, to the bottom.
If you pass straight through that intersection, but take a left at the next heading (instead of the right which takes you out the rear entrance), you'll head deeper in on the rear level and eventually come to a left-heading drift marked "Grant". Follow this till you see the sign for Grant heading up some really jacked up ladders. They lead up a stope, then further up to an intersection where I believe you take a left (its marked), which takes you to the bottom of Grant's incline shaft.
Following that to the top (and having to climb around a sketchy fallen in ceiling section) will bring you out on the hillside across from the Noonday, south of the further section of the broken trestle.

I've been all the way from the Front entrance through to the rear entrance... except that we had parked at the front, and then had to hike overland, through the saddle heading roughly west/northwest, to hit the front entrance again to recollect the car and drive back to the rear entrance. We plotted it almost perfectly overland by foot, at night, so that was a bonus.


Columbia can get somewhat complex and runs very deep. Incline, to vertical, to vertical, to short vertical, down through a huge stope, to the "working level" at 765'. From there you can go another 150 to 200 ft down incline to the bottom, where there is a flooded section as it hits the water table, somewhere roughly around 950' underground, give or take.

The Noonday has 2 inclines, and connects to Grant, and at one time apparently connected to Columbia 2 as well, though we haven't been able to figure if it has since been backfilled or caved.


And that's just the start of exploring Tecopa

You need to pick up the "Tecopa Mines" book, by Ken Lengner & George Ross. It's an excellent resource which describes the geology of the area, its mines, maps of the area, maps of the mines (if you can figure them out), history of the mines, pictures of them, and other anecdotes from when Mr. Ross worked in the mines. He still lives in Tecopa, and if he's not off traveling you can drop in and meet him.

Here's some pictures, to pique your interest, and a video of me descending a vertical on the Columbia 2.


Yeah, I crawled *inside* it.



Lower incline of the War Eagle



Bottom of the Upper incline in the War Eagle. Heading UP the incline leads to the front entrance of the mine, climbing up the rails, leads to the level that the rear entrance connects to.



What the Rear Entrance looks like



Roughly half way down the Lower incline, in the War Eagle



Bottom of the Lower incline in the War Eagle



Near the top of the Grant incline, at the sketchy section where you have to crawl through a narrow passage around the right side of the rock, and the wall in this picture. (note: you typically won't find passed out people there being photographed in their sleep)



Grant incline, looking down from the big rock.



Inside War Eagle, off the rear entrance level, behind the tight passageway of stacked beams.



Heading down the "inner" incline in the Noonday



Bottom of the first incline in the Columbia 2



First vertical in the Columbia 2



Ladders heading down Columbia 2 verticals



More Ladders down Columbia 2 verticals



Areas of the Columbia 2 verticals with missing or broken ladders



The point where you descend the "short vertical" in the Columbia 2



It's actually a bit of a tight squeeze, you don't want much dangling off you or you'll get hung up. And you really should use a rope, because those ladders are in really crappy condition there.



Another shot of that



Square=set areas down inside the Columbia 2



The headframe down on the 765' level of the Columbia 2, which sits atop the incline which leads to the water. Just above the incline, on the wall, there is an opening which leads off into other areas of the mine at that level.



Fun stuff to play on, and push people around on, at the 765' level.



This isn't there anymore, some jerk stole it and put it in his garage with his other mining artifacts from that mine, like drill bits and rail spikes and such. Or at least... that's what I've heard.


Upon exiting the Columbia 2, if you aren't absolutely filthy, and tired as hell, you might not have made it to the lower levels; but it's well worth the hassle.


Videos:
The verticals in the Columbia 2 are mostly well laddered, except for one really bad section. "The Jeff" has done the whole trip sans ropes, but in some areas if you were to slip, or have a rung crack out on you, you could fall 40 ft or more; in other areas you'd only fall 10 ft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czNpVFI7XLA

Scotticus, pontificating on our situation ascending out of the Columbia 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnYpnFyQcnw

The stolen truck at the bottom (or near the bottom...) of the vertical shaft at Western Talc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o68-4P6hEtM

Ascending out of a short winze in one of the lower levels of the lower incline in the War Eagle
(before I switched to a frog setup. Oh frog, how did I ever manage without you?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNIlx7KBD90

Riding the ore cart at the 765' level of the Columbia 2
(The Underground Explorers Video is far better in terms of lighting)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1yPMlKRaA8

An excellent video that Dav put together which features the War eagle towards the last half of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4LkYWDqqrU

We've been to more mines in Tecopa as well, but this post just got pretty long.

I'm actually planning a trip back out to that area in roughly 3 or 4 weeks. Haven't set a date yet but I'll post up when I do.

[tails]

Wow Therrin, those are some great shots. I'm starting to think I didn't make it all the way to the bottom of the Columbia. I remember the vertical shaft with the ladder, that was interesting going down. But I don't remember the second vertical. Guess I'll have to go back

[Therrin]

I forgot to mention, Columbia also has the haulage incline which connects through to most of the way down, except there was a fire in it at one point, and most of its timbers are burned out. There are some steep sections and it would require rope to descend, and you'd get covered in soot and yuck.

Best to stick to the laddered inclines and the (mostly) laddered verticals.
I still think I've only seen maybe 60% of that mine. I'd like to do some more in-depth 'sploring of it. Maybe I'll get the chance on this next trip.

[go_browns79]

I never did make it up to Shoshone but next time I go out there I'll stop by. I spent a couple hours looking online for the book "Tecopa Mines" by Ken Lengner & George Ross and finally found it at the Shoshone Museum gift shop. I went down the first ladder inside the War Eagle and made it to the incline. We couldn't see where it went, saw all the loose dirt and decided it was probably more trouble than it was worth, we couldn't have been more wrong. Oh well, next time. We still had fun.

[Therrin]

Next time park at the rear entrance. There is a HUUUUGE tailing pile there that has been flattened out and makes for a great camping area. You can park vehicles all over it and set up tents and such.
And when you enter from that point, there's a cool breeze blowing on your face as it exits the mine there.

That book is also available at the Chevron station in Shoshone, across from the museum.

[silverstate55]

Re: Tecopa pics and questions

On our way to the Columbia and Noonday we were on the wrong road and saw a shortcut back to the right road that went down and up real quick. The combination of stock tires and a longer wheel base were not taken into consideration, now the truck's officially broken, it was bound to happen sooner or later.



Over all it was a great first trip to Tecopa and being only two hours from Vegas i'll be back soon.

Eh, that's it??? 'Tis but a scratch....

That's what trucks are for, right? At least you didn't punch a hole in your oil pan from high-centering on a large boulder, or blow multiple U-joints, or grenade a locking hub, or snap a leaf spring pack....ask me how I know about all of these! Or have your injector pump fail in the middle of Death Valley & have to be tow-strapped back to Vegas by your Dad's Toyota FJ. Or roll your daily driver in Lucerne Valley & have to drive it all the way back home, all the while hoping you don't get stopped by the CHP for missing your headlights/taillights/windshield/side windows/hood. Or, as you were backing up in a hurry, fail to notice the immediate drop-off on the driver's side as both left-side wheels went over the edge of a 50-foot drop-off, and then spend the next 4 hours hammering a pipe into the ground as a winch anchor & then using your Armstrong-powered come-along hand winch to pull your truck back up onto Terra Firma (full-size trucks are DAMN HEAVY!!).

It just adds to the adventure...and is also why I don't drive new trucks; that way I never worry about scratches & dents, and they're easier to fix.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB!! LOL!!

[Therrin]

I'm going to sum up the last post in 10 words or less.

"At least you don't COMPLETELY FAIL AT LIFE !!"

hahahahahahahaha

[silverstate55]

I'm going to sum up the last post in 10 words or less.

"At least you don't COMPLETELY FAIL AT LIFE !!"

hahahahahahahaha

LOL! I've learned to become a Master Of Self-Recovery! I ALWAYS make it home OK, although once in a great while my vehicles will suffer something happening to it...it happens, I do my best NOT to damage my vehicles, as I typically have to do the repairs on them. It kinda sounds like I'm abusing my trucks, but in reality they are in near-perfect condition mechanically.

I've been off-roading since about 1982, and the above descriptions have happened to me over that nearly 30-year time span.

Bill, I hope I didn't sound too harsh there... I am glad that all that happened to your truck were the scrapes & the dent in the bumper.

I forgot to mention a couple of times I have been stuck at young ages, and damage occurred to my vehicles when I had someone else pull me free; I learned early on how to perform self-recovery, and haven't had anyone un-stuck me since...the best advice is to NOT get stuck in the first place (and that is not tongue-in-cheek; I now teach some of our employees how to drive our service trucks off-road as part of my full-time employment, so I can pass on some of my lessons learned).

Nice pics Bill, and I'm glad that your truck didn't suffer any further damage (the only painful dent is the first one...subsequent dents are easily overlooked).