Hello from AZ

[tails]

Hey everyone, new member here from Phoenix. I have been exploring old mines and ghosttowns for years and can't get enough. The bigger the better.
I have been in numerous abandoned titan missle silos around the Tuscon area. Abandoned mines throughout AZ and especially the ones in SoCal. I am always looking to go exploring with people since its not an activity i would ever do alone. Not that i condone it but i also push the envelope as to mines that are "closed" for whatever reason. I recently explored the mine that was a fallout shelter in the Blythe CA area. The landowners supposedly closed it up years ago but access is still possible if you know where to look. I've also explored a private mine just north of Palmdale, if your from there you will know what I mean its a whole town. This spring I'm headed back to Darwin CA. There is a couple of "closed" mines that again I have inside knowledge of how to gain access, and no it doesn't involve cutting fences or locks, I don't do that. Anyway My brother and I gained access 2 years ago and discovered things you could not imagine inside. Dual elevator shafts, lunch rooms, ore carts and whole mucker trains, directions on how to apply explosives, core samples. Basically the mine was closed and EVERYTHING was left behind. Well we only explored a fraction of it, 3 levels. Later after doing some research we found out there are over 9 levels and a central tunnel which connects 3 different mines. According to the reports there are over 140 miles of tunnel, stopes, and winzes in this complex. Its bigger than Cerro Gordo. Well we are headed back in March of this year if anyone is interested. We plan on hitting a few other mines in the J-tree area that are new to us as well. If anyone is interested i can provide pics of this mine and all our other adventures. Hopefully we can meet up with some folks who are as passionate as we are about exploring underground history. Stay safe people

[KDT1970]

I am sure everyone here would love to see your pics. And welcome to the forum.

[ExpUt]

Welcome to the forum!

[tails]

Thanks. I started posting some trip reports under that section.

[acidman1968]

Welcome to the forum!

[Kao]

Awesome always nice to see more peeps from the Phoenix area. welcome to the forum!

[XXX Snow]

Tails, great photos of the places you have been, keep them coming. I think I need to get my ass down there and shoot some of those places.

https://www.brentbensonphotography.com

[tails]

Awesome always nice to see more peeps from the Phoenix area. welcome to the forum!

Thanks. There are lots of opportunities down here for sure.

[Stuart]

Welcome, amazing posts so far! Keep up the good work.

Ah you have been to all the big sites down there! I'd love to get together with you guys in March and hit some more of those.

[Joanne]

Hey Tails! Great series of photos you've posted for us to enjoy. You obviously enjoy underground exploration!

I grew up in Tucson so the silo photos are of special interest. Back when they were in operation, we would often see the crews heading out to the sites in the blue Air Force trucks. At the time you didn't see many 4 door trucks to they really stood out. Between the silos and the Davis Monthan mothball storage, we figured that we would all be ground zero if there was ever a nuclear exchange. Glad things worked out....

You guys seem to have a knack for finding interesting mines. Most that I've explored to date are not as extensive and have been stripped of any artifacts. Drop me a PM if you head up this way. I'd love to join you for some exploring. (P.S. - I'm a pretty good camp cook if that influences your decision...)

Welcome!

Joanne

[tails]

Thanks eveyone. Joanne, my buddy from tuscon and I are heading to the Darwin mine district this spring. We plan on going back to the mine I posted up on the other page and exploring it much more extensivley. If your interetested drop me a PM and we can discuss the details further.

[Dawn_CL]

Hi and welcome to the forums Tails. I am in the Kingman area and i own some old mines that i work outside of the city here from time to time. I just hit a mid-sized strike here a few months ago in my main mine out there so i havent been working any of them recently. Theres more in the mine but i suppose ill just save that for later. Right now im in the midst of doing some research on an old mine a freind of mine here in the city has interest in trying to claim which is an old claim that lies within a County Park and the case was sent to NARA years before the County Park was there. Still trying to find out if its claimable. Maybe after the winter is over, i may want to head down either to the Wickenburg area or into the Crown King area checking out some old mines.

[tails]

Hi and welcome to the forums Tails. I am in the Kingman area and i own some old mines that i work outside of the city here from time to time. I just hit a mid-sized strike here a few months ago in my main mine out there so i havent been working any of them recently. Theres more in the mine but i suppose ill just save that for later. Right now im in the midst of doing some research on an old mine a freind of mine here in the city has interest in trying to claim which is an old claim that lies within a County Park and the case was sent to NARA years before the County Park was there. Still trying to find out if its claimable. Maybe after the winter is over, i may want to head down either to the Wickenburg area or into the Crown King area checking out some old mines.

Sounds good. I'm always up for more exploring. I take my dirtbike up to Crown King several times a year, unfortunatley a lot of the mines are on private property around the actual town, but there are several on the outskits that are avail for exploration. The oro belle, Desoto, howard copper mine. I just discovered the Poland walker tunnel. It was a RR Tunnel driven thru the mountain from the poland mine to deliver ore to the town of Huron on the far side of the range. It it supposed to be over 2 miles in lenght. I just found the location but have to wait till spring to head up there. Do you have an ATV? a lot of those roads are pretty rough in the area, and even a 4x4 takes hours to get places. Is there any good exploring up near Oatman, Chloride city? maybe I can meet you up there a few times as well. I was near Oatman a year ago. There is an Navy A-6 jet that crashed on top of a mesa and I was exploring the wreck.

[Dawn_CL]

Hi tails, I do not have an ATV as of yet. Thinking on getting a motor bike though. I DO have a 4 X 4 though. I usually just hike in if i cant get in there by 4 X 4 because ATV,s are so expensive and since those have to be licensed and tagged just like a car they have made it a PIA.
I have heard most of the mines up around the Oatman area are on private property or claimed with a few still being worked commercially but i will have to do further research on that. Not really much in the way of mines around Kingman either except just open shafts that didnt go anywhere. I think they just dug a shaft back then and didnt do much, if any, tunnelling. Nothing i have seen around here, yet, was too extensive and wasnt really worth the effort exploring. There is, however, a few old mines in the Gold Basin area, east of here near Dolan Springs that i wouldnt mind exploring at all. Since i am so close to these i just may take a run down there in the next few weeks and see if they are available for exploring. Last time i was down there i was over at the old Cyclopic mine which SUPPOSEDLY had underground portions to it but never found any signs of what the data on mindat.org mentioned on it. Then i went to another mine further east of Cyclopic which was supposedly a clay/graphite mine but nothing was left of that one except the main haulage shaft (about 20 ft deep) with the old headframe fallen into it. The tunnelling looked as though it was caved in so i didnt bother exploring any more of it after that point. Even the earth around the shaft had fallen in so im supposing the shaft was much deeper than it is now. Another one i checked out in the area was even further east than this one but is off the dirt road heading into the back end of Lake Mead Rec area so i guess it would be a bit further northeast than the two i had just mentioned. When i got to that one is was claimed and being worked so i just made a U-turn and headed out. There is another one up on a mountain that you can see from the old road heading out to Cyclopic and that other clay mine (Faye Mine i believe its called) that i believe is no longer claimed. At least not in records its not. According to my research on that one, it was the old Gold Hill mine but the mine was very small and only consists of a short adit and a shaft about 20 ft deep. My best bet would be hiking over to check it out by actually seeing it.
If i can make it out that way here pretty soon, i will drop in with a few pictures and a more decent trip report.
Also, another area im wanting to check out is up around where Joanne is. She says theres ALOT of good mines out around her area and my mouth is watering. LOL
Another spot that interests me is in the Searchlight area. Maybe once we are all not busy and able to do it, we can schedule something with Joanne to check out a few in her area.