Banner Ghost Town

all right Dave's going to make the approach [Applause] so here we are yeah not a lot here NOP after that epic ride and all those structures that I saw on Google Earth there was about a dozen structures most of them have fallen down couple of them don't even exist then we've got this little cabin that Dave's in no trip would be complete next door yep another one over there is just a shed and then I don't know what the other the building is yeah there's another structure we can see the roof of in the back that that looks in decent shape too so should we start over there and let Dave finish doing what he's doing or did you want to go in to see Dave we can just let's go see what Dave's up to or do you want to do the L first let's do the L first beautiful area but roads washed out road totally washed out as you seen geranium that's not a wild geranium either that's a that's a normal geranium just a little L nothing special simple one still got some uh L roll hanging up there on the top yeah not the fanciest nope but it gets the job done you know it was that one in Montana remember the big ass one oh yeah that was like the most epic I don't think any ouse is going to top that one oh well that big one that's on the top of the mountain took us four miles to hike up in about 10 hours the one that we thought was a sauna room cuz it was so massive that is the best ous ever and then check out this little structure next to it so I'd imagine Minor's cabin Minor's cabin uh oh the sink's still in there but the sink and the hot water heater hot now remember it's a hot water heater yeah water heater and a shower so they would be getting their water from the stream mhm I would say but then that it's wide for electric this okay then maybe this wasn't no this is just the Wash House not a cabin cuz you got all the hooks for your grubbies to hang up there shower clean yourself up uh there was something here there's a is there another drain two showers possibly there's a shower I think that's another shower or the toilet maybe no cuz the toilet's outside oh that's true that's true we just explored it and I already forgot that's not big enough to be a l so so yeah you're right so this would be uh a Wash House you've got two two uh two showers there's a stamp there I was just seeing Oh that's for the wood stamp yeah I just wondered if there was a date on it but I can't see a date anywhere and going see Footprints up on that how did they walk up the side of the building and uh Empty Glass of Veno H yes so wash house Lou shed and then I'm guessing the last one will be the bunk house so what's is there something spooky in there are you ready it's going to be disturbing to you is it yes very much so why is there a dead animal in it did you open it smell I will never UNS smell dead animal oh that's a little workshop so they've left their rubbish it looks like almost a pantry from the way they're storing all the food oh uh you don't want to look in that ice chest really but you probably do I'm going say I can tell from the smell already and don't look under the tarp neither oh yeah something oh boy there's something uh dead in there rotting SM rotting food o where's the uh okay let's try this again oh man but you say that this this mine was founded in 1864 as a silver mine the uh or peanut butter something in there I got some macaroni some rice and beans probably flour some more mystery substance but like Dave said something is definitely rotting in here uh do we dare big kinds yeah y just some beer cans under the tarp there old pair of sweatpants and uh some more rotting material so yeah this is a so I was saying there might only be these five buildings here but there used to be a lot more because within 2 days August 23rd and 24th 1864 over 200 Prospectors arrived here because they heard of the Silver Strike there was also a post office here so it wasn't a mining camp it was actually a town yeah and the post office ran from 1878 to 19 um 1913 just had a quick look at my notes there now we're going to head off through the back country to what we think will probably be the bunk house or at least living quarters cabin something like that okay we haven't quite made it to the building yet we came up the road to try to find an easier access to it and looks like we had did find mine we've come across the mine entr mine entrance there St there's a rail there is rail down at the very bottom but it's completely overgrown and oh wow so it's flooded flooded and real collapsed doesn't look like there's a way in huh no nothing all collapsed all right well head over to the cabin now this is all it remains of here there's supposed to be another structure thought this would be an easier route to get to the cabin but it doesn't appear like it is maybe oh is there a better path yeah you got the stream there and it is this side of the Stream all these teranium leaves everywhere so all of this was abandoned in 19 21 so I wonder what it is bunk house so I said I mean if 200 miners ended up turning up just in those two days and they had a post office there must be loads more um buildings well as we've seen in pass by some of them have been burnt down and there's nothing left or like the one we just walked past it's just the Foundation well I guess some of them did t uh have tents but that first year in 1864 that first winter they had 8T of snow right that would scare that would scare me off for sure but just walked past this desk look at that so with a desk sitting at outside I wonder if this doubled as the mine office yeah electricity you got plug sockets plug sockets outside you got some containers a little bench out here ooh doors still in place door handles bed the woods would you say mine office or would you say you know it's weird because the other part looks like a mine office but the desk indicates that but then there's a bed here yeah but the bed could have just been put here as a you know after the effect then you got the frame too right there yeah that frame and then the lights the long strip lights oh hang on this is the kitchen kitchen that side this is the kitchen walk over yeah so this would have been a because you got look I got tons of plug sockets and You' got a light see you've got the shelves the the curtains and look that's where the kitchen sink would have been okay so I would say this was the kitchen and then that was the manager's house then Pro perhaps maybe who knows but then again where was Lou we'd have to walk down over towards the Wash House there would have been another toilet there's lots of mzes in here there' have been another toilet around it's like we've said I mean who knows what's in this undergrowth it's been there's a building there that's collapsed okay maybe that was his personal Lo that could have that I don't know why I've got the torch shining um outside that could be a l there maybe uh these are stairs going up oh look at that oops oh oh careful let's just not do that Andrea hone he I know we've seen some that are in far better condition but it is interesting snooping around and you know Finding finding things and yeah cuz I think that's the thing is you know you know it's we may have notes on what the place was the dates everything else but we don't know what we're going to find when we get there and then try to put the puzzle pieces together of what each building was cuz there's not much left in most of them well there wasn't I've got an old photograph of banner from 18 SE 1887 which you'll see now um that's the only old photograph I could find online not A lot's known about Banner really all the information that I've given is pretty much well everything I could find mhm we're on a quest we're hiking on one of the old mining roads should lead us to what shows on the map could be a few more structures left see the thing is the thing is also I've been looking on like Google Earth and maps and they're so out of date though it's showing that there's buildings there's not buildings there yeah like I said we passed three that are absolutely non-existent now no Trace except for maybe a flat patch of ground it looks like our tenacity has paid off walking along this old mining Road and we have come across at least one more structure maybe two 1867 1867 is what it says I don't know whether or not that's real right actually H I would have thought that it would have been thicker if it had had been right and especially in those days um their handwriting was much neater was much neater and they were very very precise in their dates I mean even the Pioneers when they came across the Oregon Trail we went to uh the um what's the independence rock you actually saw the Pioneers from was it 1866 yeah 1860s I believe it was the earliest one that we found and uh it was so precise and so neat so I don't think that was uh original you got a giant looks like metal I don't know if that's a or bin completely filled up now and oh wow look at the Giant look at this so at first I thought it would uh be spool with wire but no it's got a giant gear see if there's anything on the other side uh and as you go around you look down there's the rest of the building is demolished but it's on the other side okay give me a moment here step over and here's the other side you got some belts still attached the other gear not sure what this is I not it's some sort of machinery for the mine true it could have something to do with this well this was the structure that I saw on Google Earth didn't look like this though but and you can see this has been down for ages look at the trees inside well this to me looks like a settling pond cuz you've got some uh piping and things running throughout so I think this would have been like settling tanks yeah certainly not a definitely not a bunk house or anything like that I wouldn't have thought and there's another one on the other side Let's uh hike through and get to that we'll have to cross over here yep Crossing through you see all the rebar and burnt burnt wood the Plastics burnt and then yeah like leeching or settling tanks is would be my my guess here so you could be walking over remains of what they were going going after the silver yeah there's another one down there and there's structure down there oh yep another one right that same sort of setup that one actually looks like it has a or no never mind I thought that was a doorway but it's not and yet another one there so these are all over and you see the like PBC like piping or running through still and anything down this way doesn't appear so here we go there's another hot water heater which is a bit of an inside joke but people are always like why you say hot water heater cuz it's just a you know it heats the water it doesn't heat hot water it says hot hot water hot and then what in the world are these things over here I had to have absolutely no oh my God so we're leaving the leeching ponds to climb up so there is one more structure We Believe now before us here is an absolutely enormous waste rock pile I don't think the scale is going to come through properly but that is the size of a mountain that is insane you can actually see uh the the the little mining road kind of going up yeah they did a road on it that is the size of a skyscraper yeah it's unbelievably huge I would say maybe what 30 stories yeah that's definitely I mean it Towers over us Absolut well you can see you look at these trees that are right in front of us those are probably only halfway up like I said we're at an angle where it doesn't really show but that's incredible oh well so there was a a tunnel uh that was 300t tunnel that went in and there was eight other tunnels ranging from 100 to 160 ft and the the largest tunnel was estimated to be 240 ft apparently um in addition to the 300t tunnel so this would probably be all of those workings I would imagine if they all connected together yeah that's I have a fun fact did you know that the first road that came to Banner was in 1868 so they had been mining here several years without an actual Road true story we think this might have been the last structure probably just the L but we're going to carry on and see if there is more we're back on the main road we drove in on no more structures the only ones that were pinned were the ones that uh no longer exist we were hoping we could find maybe a few more remnants but that's that for this location we expected more but then we didn't know there was going to be a fire out here exactly we thought like I said looking at Google Earth which is like we say always outdated it showed a lot more but that's not the case so we're going to be going getting back in the cars and looking for something else there are several ways you can help support this channel further please check the pinned comment below thank you so much for watching see you on our next adventure this is a part I don't like yeah