Abandoned Big Eye Mine - We Almost Gave Up Looking!

and they got a little seating area outside for them to have their through this hill but uh we mining something and then they ended up coming out surprise hello everyone it is Steven and Andrea from pin in the atlas and first things first when we got up this morning there was uh something close by we read online 3 and a half miles away so we figured let's go check it out so from that direction is where we've come it actually took us 3 and 1 half hours to get up to this section and we don't even know if it's the right place do we and that tested my off-road skills big time so we're meant to be at the big I mine or so we believe somewhere up there now we've got to hike so let's take a look right so how far are we going to end up hiking now who knows cuz I don't know if I trust that website anymore well they said that it was going to be a mile and a half round trip okay so a mile and a half round trip and what can we expect to find at our destination apparently it's a 1910 gold mine that did silver copper zinc and something else um and there's meant to be some cabins up here as well okay so let's hope at least that part was accurate and you can see in the distance kind of s not cylindrical but that cone shaped Mountain there's a road along the base of it so I guess that's where we're [Music] going [Music] I see them oh nice ahead course winded me it certainly has that's cool though that is a nice sight to see those look in really good shape as well it's a 300t elevation gain in the hike let's continue and how cool they've got a mailbox and they got a little seating area outside for them to have their beer after a hard day work in the line trying to get some of that glare away that is really cool and that view let's uh let's sit down at the table real fast and see what view they had that's pretty amazing isn't it incredible I still am amazed at how far away we are from civilization and they managed to find this initially let an know build something nestled amidst the Troya and arao is the big eye mine named for the IE in the side of the thumb Peak this cabin was home to the Hardy men who worked the mine taking the gold ore from the earth the or was then hauled by truck to the railroad near Roll Arizona for delivery to the smelter in El Paso Texas once the gold played out the cabin was used by Watchmen stay and enjoy what quite little cine I know this is cool and then it's in still really good shape some really sturdy cabinets and stuff makes you wonder how many miners actually lived in here if this was their main mine cabin right and then just stayed for the Watchmen so s little cup yeah one of the crucibles screw caps they're cute though yeah so people have obviously found these around here and that would be the tobacco M yep was it Prince Albert Prince Albert yeah some hinges looks like some like kosene or something yeah that's what I think oh okay I would say not but I tell you something free from any animal poop po I know considering it's really clean the windows there's no glass in those windows there the doors are wide open when we got here we'll close them on the when we leave but look how ornate these hinges are yeah AR they pretty this almost looks like it should have been a kitchen sink in here so no nothing in there but really clean very clean and now for the kitchen so the nice cooker there for a burn top I wonder whether or not this would have been this wouldn't have been the original cooker cuz this is gas oh I don't know you got a vent pipe up there the vent Hood when did this years of operation you know don't it uh opened in 1910 but I don't know when it closed again it's it's clean that's uh any crits no oh yeah one little mousy Nest yep but apart from that it's really clean and then over the other side we got the kitchen sink that's really nice little I mean again these are in really good shape look at this nail got double head double-headed nail isn't that funny I've never seen one of those oh those are very common in the the carpentry field nowadays because you can especially for cement when you're doing concrete work because you can strip the nails really fast and then the tile work so you've got your kitchen sink and I guess this would have been kind of like a drainer yeah cuz this is modern yeah that's definitely isn't that so neat this is all really cool there's another cabin let's go and check that out oh I wonder what this is huh would that be a well water supply that could be um it's got a decent Foundation there is a ladder up there that's in pieces remnants of a chimney though I don't oh do you think this could be another little cabin it's well there's nothing underne Neath there so I don't see where it would have been a well huh interesting and they've just come and stacked a bunch of rocks to keep the metal from going away so another cabin or a shed High window hi I wonder if this is a shower room I reckon it's a shower room that could be there's some shelves here okay floor is a little creaky oh it is it is it's a shower room there's a pipe yeah there's a pipe here let's come over this side then watch out for some of this Cactus oh there you go so so they could get all their grubbies off get all nice and clean high high windows so no peeping Toms exactly and then go sit out on that bench and have a whiskey or three oh yeah or a beer a beer and whiskey that's what I'm saying oops you okay there m the step take more water with it so we're making our Trek up this little mining Road see if we can just find the mine it's probably closed off because there was a sign the wildwife reserve has closed a lot of these openings off for the White Noise syndrome to help protect the bats but you can see down there at the bottom the cabin and this spectacular view said it many many times miners sure knew how to choose these locations okay at the crest of the mountain just views for days and then on the other side here ginormous waste rock pile so we'll climb up see if there's anything up there to take a look at at least maybe just enjoy the view and then down over here you can see some of the remnants there's a a roof line there possibly a little at it maybe that's Dynamite storage next to it it's hidden behind a bush very hard to see from this angle but let's go see what we can find all right taking a little break found some shade and we have [Music] found an open Stope and I'll just stand up and kind of and you can see that just disappears kind of see the Far Rock Wall but beyond that let's see one stole probably about 180 to 100 feet away from me that's about as far as I can see and it does continue up that direction but I don't think there's really any point for us to go up there we're not going to go into the mine and that would be the only reason for us to continue okay and further out from the Stope you can see down the waist Rock just continues it's quite a lot here and uh those two remnants of uh that little Shack down in the left corner and that bigger I don't know if that was an or bin little or pass looks like there be some boxes in there we were kind of looking for a way to get down to check it out but it looks quite treacherous it's getting a little late in the day we got at least a 3 and 1 half hour drive to get back out of here to find a place to Camp so I know we normally try to be as thorough as possible this time I think we're going to have to call it quits early so we need to start heading [Music] out [Music] [Music] surprise guess what we're not going to let you guys down we always say we want to be as thorough as possible so we got to look at this and we're going to find somewhere on route to so let's take a look from this angle you get a better look piece up top would been the remains of The Trestle which come over here it dump the ore down into the bucket would work its way down here to the Chute which is right here so you got this one look at those hinges are still in place and then you got the other shoot on that side you can just make it out and again these things when you're right up next to them this one isn't very big in comparison to some that we have seen but they're absolutely massive and like we always say you know all this material had to be brought up here and these Timbers the metal every facet of it it's not light and all these water pipes just running through so earlier you can see where Andrea is going kind of right in the center of the screen I got the sunflare there but that's where that open Stope is Andre is waiting to the camera this is that little Shack just outside the portal there got a few machines here it looks like this is where do the metal working here to create the drill steel there you put it in the furnace and here's a stamp so you can redo the the ends I know there's a name for it and you know it's escaping me right now of course let me get have a closer look so you can see right in here the tooling you can put there's the end to stamp it out there's the other side there beautiful and here's the like the little retort glare is in the way let me do that let me try by this side there we go that's better bunch more piping on the ground and then here as well this is the one I saw from up top earlier and I thought maybe this would be for the dynamite storage as you can see where is just an exploratory just a small let's see what we got type thing cuz yeah that's only about 5 foot six foot Max in [Music] there so uh what's this I'm hugging ton he got us here now he's got to get us back don't you just love tto I do he's a beast there you can see that beautiful beast in the distance driving around saw a few uh remnants of a mining operation we thought we saw this portal in the distance it's a tunnel see you on the other side I'm going in okay sorry about that sun glare not a lot I could do unless I kept the camera on the ground this is like a bmid bmid again yeah I don't know whether or not the camera's going to pick any of this up cuz we didn't have the Torches yes really warm it is considering it's uh a proper tunnel so I wonder what this was used for rather than going around the hills just cut through to take the O through I guess that's possible nice shortcut or maybe they did intend to go through this hill but uh what mining something and then they ended up coming out the other side by mistake I don't know perhaps and we're through the other side Freedom wow all right so today ended up being a lot longer than either one of us were uh planning on yeah we left at 9:00 this is where we camped last night we left at 9 :00 this morning and it's now 5:00 and it was meant to be 3 and 1/2 miles from this spot and it ended up being 14 and2 miles of 4x4 high clearance pixel Peter you'll be proud yeah that was quite a large discrepancy but at any rate um if you guys like these videos and you want us to keep making these videos make sure to give us a thumbs up subscribe if you haven't and if you would like to support us to help us keep on the road think about becoming a patron or fuel Tonto he's always hungry we've got a PayPal link below and on that note get out there go and explore put another pin in the atlas and we will see you on our next adventure or on patreon [Music] [Laughter] [Music] bye [Music]