Nice pictures and history of the gladiator mine! I was glad to see the tracks are still in place, too!

One picture mentions that the adit is flooded. Is it possible to wade in or does the water extend all the way up to the back?

Regards
Fred M. Cain

Hey Fred, this was truly a unique find! Once we had finally reached the vicinity of the mine, after trekking some 40 miles through the desert and up densely wooded mountain trails, one of our two Wranglers decided to break down. Creative as he is, Miner CT Mike repaired the vehicle on the spot! But doing so proved to take up most of what was left of daylight, and we needed to head back to the hotel to prepare for our flight home the following morning. To make a long story short, we didn't have time to thoroughly investigate and document the mine, and there is a lot we missed. Most of the photos we took were taken at dusk with long exposure, and taken VERY QUICKLY, before it was completely dark.

That said, the mine appeared to be flooded for as far as we could see from the portal. We only entered a short distance in, for pictures. You probably would only need muck boots.

This was an incredibly preserved site. Unfortunately a massive forest fire started here in 2012, aptly named the Gladiator Fire. I can only imagine what the place looks like today.

You can view photos and read about its history at http://www.ironminers.com/mines/gladiator-mine/

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

Are you guys going to go back?

Dave, we have not made any plans to return.

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

How about this way Fred?

Photo from the http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com

Just add more mulepower!
You had a lot of open country unlike our dense native bush that covered most of our land.

Chris
in New Zealand

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Alive and Well....for now

Fred, NZ Chris is right. During the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, Central Pacific crews moved entire locomotives over the mountains with nothing but oxen and mules.

Geeze!!!! I don't even want to think about that. Even with all those mules that almost looks like work to me!

Just think about harnessing all those animals? I've had to harness farm work horses and that was bad enough where there were only three or four of 'em!

And then think about trekking perhaps 20+ miles with that stuff. You can see why the West has a lot of abandoned relics out there. It just wasn't economically feasable to take the stuff back out again after mining ceased.

-Fred M. Cain