We spent a day exploring the massive Reward Mine in the Inyo Mountains near Lone Pine, CA. We hiked up the steep canyon and entered the older part of the mine. After thoroughly exploring its interior (in which we found an old wooden ore cart!), we proceeded down the inclined shaft. This inclined shaft meets up with a drift level that leads to a more modern vertical shaft of 200 feet or so. That vertical shaft connects up with the modern (1950s?) section of the Reward Mine. We did NOT climb down the vertical shaft because we didn't have an rappeling gear with us. However, if you enter the Reward Mine via the more modern entrance on the other side of the mountain, you can reach the bottom of this vertical shaft and look up. It's entirely possible to enter the mine via one entrance and exit several hundred feet lower on the other side of the mountain!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_BI6UEzWwU

I'm not sure what's going on at 1:55, but I really hope that isn't as high as it looks -- we take safety very seriously and would never monkey around on historic mine structures. Otherwise nice discoveries. But please, for the sake of everyone here, keep it safe! This is one of the reasons historic buildings are razed and people are seriously injured or killed.

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"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"

I agree with miner mike, better safe that sorry.

Hey there, nice intro view of the Sierras on that video, and some decent music as well. The bit at 2:50 about old time squareset timbering is wrong though. What you got there is stock standard Timber cribbing. Squareset timbers are vertical posts with horizontal caps and spreaders and was attributed to German-born engineer, Phillip Deidesheimer in the Comstock Mining region.



Chris
in New Zealand

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Alive and Well....for now

You are right about that! I forgot that there is a difference between square-set timbering and regular cribbing. Thanks for clarifying the information!