thare is a semi legendary mine shaft on my clame, it is said to have been well over 1,000ft. long but the ferst 200ft. or so was hydroliced off so im having truble locating ware to dig it open. i have found bits of the mine shaft ware it was hydroliced, but its hard to tell what direction it went. what can i do to make locating it easier?

Is it a shaft or a drift? You said shaft but I am just checking.

Do you have any maps or pictures that you can post to help us out?

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

it is a shaft, and unfortunatly i dont have any pics.
i can locate it on a standerd blm map. the name of the mine was CLIPPER SHIP.

Just to clarify, a shaft would be a vertical or near vertical tunnel that goes down into the ground, many times very deep. A drift would be a horizontal tunnel that follows the strike of the ore. Many times this would also be referred to as an adit, haulage tunnel, or a portal.

Miner Greg

well now i feel stupid, i thought a drift mine was a mine in loose rock, under ground that is.
well then i guess its a drift

That what I was thinking you were going for. It didnt make sense when you said 200ft was missing. I see Greg was questioning the same thing.

OK - - - -there should be more than one way in the mine

(Airshaft or a second drift on a different level) Any luck finding any of those ?

Second thing you can check is go to your state & they might have a copy of the mine map. That is very helpful. Basically gives you the blueprint of the mine & all the openings.

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

i have not found an Airshaft or a second drift on a different level.
no one seems to have a map or pic of it

Is this for a business & loking to repon the mine or just for fun?

If it were me I would just bring our excavator in & cut the hill back until we found it. I would check to make sure there are no gas or pipelines running through your property as over time one may have been installed.

Do you own or have access to this type of equipment?

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

You might get lucky with a metal detector. It is worth a shot. Some times there is rail, or other steel objects in the adit and it might pick it up.

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If There was not mining we would not be here!

this is just for fun.i cant just bring a tractor in, its hard to get BLM to let you bring in heavy equipment. there has bin no development in the area since about 1920. i have metal detected the area befor, and there is way to meny square nails and tincans and stuff the metal detector gos nuts.

I'd also look for disturbed looking ground in the area. Generally the entrance to a mine will have some type of cut out and even if the area was remediated, generally there would be evidence of such. Or evidence of tailings (broken up rock removed from the mine that doesn't have ore in it), or other evidence of where the mine was. If the mine was large enough and they used rail, you would generally see evidence of narrow gauge rail beds. A lot of these types of clues help determine the direction of the tunnels. Depending on how the mine was closed, will also help determine your means of reopening it. If the area was leveled out and filled, you probably would have a difficult time without heavy equipment.

You mention claim, what was mined at this site?

Miner Greg

this is or was a gold mine. the mine was blown shut and the surounding mountin was hydrawliced away

The only thing i can see is try to find an old mine map. Because if they washed the hill away it could be buried under feet of silt

ya but i found some of the tracks still naild in place, so it cant be far

Well if you found some track it sounds to me like you need a mucker. At least it woud be alot more fun