Secret Military Project Discovered In Abandoned Mine

Over the years, a popular question I have been asked is if I have ever come across any secret military experiments in an abandoned mine. It ranks up there with viewers asking me if I have ever found gold or hidden treasure in a mine… These are usually urban myths - almost always non-existent - but then, every once in a while, someone really DOES find secret military experiments being conducted underground or discovers gold secreted away in an old mine. Well, I have found gold before and now I can indeed say that I’ve found a secret military experiment underground as well. So, I suppose this helps keep the exploring dreams alive! In the video, I explained the outlines of this Cold War project that is the reason for this test station being here in the first place, but what exactly were they experimenting with here underground at this (now abandoned) mine? Well, I will caution you that the following is speculation, but it is informed speculation… The testing equipment appeared to consist of a series of high-strength stainless steel pipes that injected pressurized freon 113 (CFC-113) into the rock. I believe those smaller drill holes near the injectors contained sensitive thermometers, which would have measured the temperature transfer. Presumably, the Department of Defense was testing the characteristics of the rock to assess its suitability as a deep basing intercontinental ballistic missile site. Google “ICBM Deep Basing” and plenty of material will come up if you wish to discover more about this program… Obviously, Boeing was a contractor on this project (and may even have been the lead contractor). It would be interesting to talk to a scientist that was involved in the project or to see Boeing’s archives. I’m sure that much of the research is still classified though. As I said, this is a preview for the series starting next Wednesday. I hope you find the rest of this strange and gigantic mine as interesting as I thought this slice of Cold War history was. ***** All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so I’d encourage you to adjust your settings to the highest quality if it is not done automatically. You can see the gear that I use for mine exploring here: https://bit.ly/2wqcBDD As well as a small gear update here: https://bit.ly/2p6Jip6 You can see the full TVR Exploring playlist of abandoned mines here: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L Thanks for watching! ***** Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well. These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that colorful niche of our history is gone forever. But, you know what? We enjoy doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a century, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born. So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures! #ExploringAbandonedMines #MineExploring #AbandonedMines #UndergroundMineExploring