Bump, covered a lot of ground over the last few weeks.
This will be the first of a three part bump to avoid image limits.
Emancipation Mine
This is a smaller and older gold mine on the opposite side of the mountain from the much larger Carolin Mine. It operated intermittently between 1913 and 1993, making it 103 years old now, it's much more primitive than Carolin Mine, no machinery left over inside, only rotting wooden supports and scrap metal. Emancipation Mine has 4 levels but I’ve only discovered one entry portal at Level 2, the only way to access the other levels from this point is by climbing up or down the unstable stopes inside of the mine, which is probably the most dangerous thing you could do in an old mine next to kicking out support beams. A large section of the mine collapsed sometime between August 2015 and May 2016, which I learned only after entering the mine myself (pictured below).
These are the two portals leading into the Emancipation Mine. The right portal is a very short and incomplete tunnel. The left entrance is flooded with water about a foot deep for ~30 or ~40 ft into the mine. I had planned on picking up a pair of second hand gum boots on the way to the mine this morning but I left too early and none of the stores were open. I ended up hauling a long 2x12 into the mine, floating it down the tunnel, propping it up on rocks, walking the length of the plank, balancing on any large rocks nearby, floating the 2x6 further down the tunnel, and so on until the tunnel banked upward out of the water.
This is where I found the collapse. Curious about the collapse I went back and re-watched British Columbia Ghost Mine's video of Emancipation Mine which revealed that this section of the mine collapsed some time between August 2015 and now.
