I Went Mining For 12 Hours & Made $____?

Join me as I spend 12 hours mining inside Cerro Gordo's Union Mine!

The miners back in the day would get paid $3/day for an above ground shift and $4 a day for an underground shift. A day would be a 12 hour shift.

So in this video, I'm going to do the same amount of time down in the mine, and see how I do!

The current total for the 12 hours = $170.

Thank you all so much for your support and subscribing!

Check out my book 'Ghost Town Living.' The best stories, untold history, meditations on life at Cerro Gordo. This is a book for those who love history, those who seek out a life of adventure, who are on their own quest towards a big project. To lean into living and dive deep into the past:

Mailing Address: PO Box 490, Lone Pine, CA 93545

THANK YOU!

[cameroonkendrick]

You should look for minecarts with chests, they only spawn in abandoned mineshafts

[Coconutsales]

For anyone wondering, the sold price for the 12 listings he made on EBay totaled $4, 798.99 - when split into a 12 hour shift was $399.92/hour. The description is outdated currently. All of the listing were auctioned, and the highest bids were $636 for a Smithsonite/Malachite/Pyrite chunk, then $610 each for two chunks, one of and another of just Galena (lead). One chunk of a prominent Smithsonite vein sold for $503. The rest were all around the $250-$350 range, and all auctions were bid on between 30 and 70 times, averaging around 40/50 bids.

[awanturnik]

I just can't believe that you managed to defy what individuals can and can't do. I have never imagined that somebody would just go to abandoned mine and get minerals. DAMN

[RZRMINERBDR]

I am actually a current miner of zinc in Tennessee. It is fascinating and terrifying to see you go after these specimens. We typically try not to go underneath any type of loose rocks as a rule of thumb. To watch you crawl through spaces you can barely fit is crazy. Usually when small rocks fall, big rocks are not far behind.

[gunnar_langemark]

You have 1.7 million subscribers. Sell your rocks as Cerro Gordo specimens with a note telling the story of your find, your trip down the mine, and a reference to the video. That's what's even more valuable: The story.

[BBQDad]

Thank you for this video. Fascinating look at those old workings.

I worked 17 years as an underground bituminous coal miner. Based on those years of experience, there is no way I would have crawled under all that loose, broken top. If you are going to keep doing this, you need to learn how to take down loose top and install roof support to sustain good top. Holes in the ground created by humans are entirely different in character than holes in the ground created by Nature.

Old timbers decompose by slowly combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and/or carbon monoxide. Make sure you have air to breathe. I would want a couple of 15-minute O2 canisters: One on my hip and one on the elevator---at a minimum.


Good luck and God Bless!

[thatgamer_]

I'm sure each stone is worth thousands to collectors especially due to historical factors in that cave system, absolutely amazing!!

[ObVoid]

As a mineral enthusiast, I personally like the natural look of crystals and matrixes.

Also a good tip. If you find a pristine crystal formation, try not to break it up if you don’t have to or want to. Palm size ores and crystal might sell for hundreds but person size walls of smithsonite can sell for 10’s of thousands as large crystal clusters like what you have found don’t get preserved too often anymore.

Either way I love the video series and can’t wait for the next one!

[ovni]

Something about the Jefferson Chimney description that caught my eye - if it is cut off at the bottom by a fault line, then somewhere else nearby, it should actually continue further down, you'd just have to find out how much the fault line has moved the rock and which direction the rock has been moved. From there, you can work backwards to locate the lower portion of the Jefferson Chimney. If the miners didn't locate the lower portion, it would be inaccessible, but also it means the town is still sitting on a bunch of that ore.

[Sonny_Eclipse]

Since the advent of YouTube, I have discovered so many things that I have missed out on. Like buying a sailboat and sailing around the world or living in an abandoned ghost town and doing all manner of exploration. I am so jealous of the people that get to do these things because when I was young, it didn’t even dawn on me that these were things to do. Kudos to the adventurers. Adventures.

[Lee-mmg]

I am laughing. You need to kick our rears. I am 75 - a great grandma - my grandson Alex showed me Minecraft and it was at the beginning!!! I have played it off and on all these years. I love it. I follow several channels. I watched this channel when it first started and I come back every so often to see how it is going. I love to go mining!!! And yes, the chests - find those chests. I love the blues! I want a necklace out of some blue and purple too. Yup. :-) :-) Can you shine the rocks - to make things to hang on a chain? I think it would be fun to make items - put a small notation as to where they came from! How neat!!! As a piece of history from Cerro Gordo! I'd love to buy one!!!

[TammyHiland]

3:35 Brent you know for a fact there are so many veins left of such good minerals gold silver turquoise all of that is there waiting for you. I am so happy you got that place and took over that mine & Ghost Town

[djbillybrass]

I visited Cerro Cordo last week as I was driving back to Canada from Palm Springs with my family. It was a great experience and did check out the museum (thanks Avery) and all the cool nooks and crannies of Cerro Gordo that I've seen in the videos over the last 4 years. The merch they have for sale is great. I highly recommend going for a visit if your car can handle the road. It was curvier and steep then portrayed int eh videos for sure. I now understand why cement trucks refused to go up there.
It was great to even run into Brent on his way to the latest adventure and him taking the time to say hi to us.
Keep up the great videos and good work you are doing in Cerro Gordo.

[ashleyobrien]

There is something very primal and deeply compelling about going deep into the Earth and finding valuable things...like becoming rich from just the Earth giving you something...but you have to have the courage to go get it..

[southernsunshine]

Wow!... I WAS SCARED FOR YOU IN THOSE TIGHT PLACES! YOU HAVE ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT! AFRAID TO WATCH BUT CANT TURN OFF. AMAZING!

[joesmith]

Just a bit of terminology for you...Horizontal tunnels completely underground are referred to as "drifts". Vertical tunnels are referred to as "shafts" if they come out at the surface, if they don't come out to the surface, they are called "winzes" or "raises", depending on which end you're on.
Nice video - stay safe!

[mzmagister]

One of my favorite episodes so far. What a journey!

[dr.strangelove]

I work at the Oil at Gas business and like watching your videos to see the formations underground. very interesting to me. In Kansas, there are oil deposits at 400 feet. In Oklahoma, you can find oil at 1100 feet. It is very interesting to watch you walk through formations that we drill through. It is helpful to visualize and understand lost circulation formations and other anomalies we deal with.

[dougenglidh]

Thank you! As a 9 yr old I traveled route 66 with my parents & siblings as we moved from Florida to California. The history you presented is wonderful & enlightening. I had no idea of all the history around me as we traveled through this wonderful country.
Keep up what you do. It's beneficial to so many, even me. Oh, I'm now 74, aiming for 75. 😊 Thank you again, God bless.

[skwatson]

Brent….your mining quests keep me enthralled despite the stress I feel for your “squeezes” into tiny spaces. You have come such a long way and your videos are so well made. Your knowledge and presentation is far superior to a lot of similar posts on youtube. Thank you, thank you for sharing this with us.