Exploring the Tiffin Mine

[Joanne]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to head out into the desert for a bit of exploring. My roommate's brother has been wanting to give mine exploration a try so we headed out. One of the mines we stopped at was the Tiffin Mine. I had been past this mine but had never ventured inside.

As we came upon the mine site, the first thing is the foundation of an old building. The floor joists are still in place.





This appears to have been some "cool storage" for the mine. The structure goes back into the earth a few feet where it would have been cooler. There are still shelves with fine metal screen surrounding them to keep out the pests.




A bit further down the trail is the mine entrance. The tailing pile indicates that there were some significant workings.




Once inside the mine we got to see some nice minerals. I'm guessing this is some form of copper.




We came across this headframe which immediately caught my interest. What we had seen to this point didn't seem to warrant the amount of tailings we saw outside. The inclined shaft made it all make sense.




Looking down the incline we couldn't see the bottom even when I used my big light. Time to head down for a "look see".



One the way down I noticed a number of small workings.



There are bits of rubble in some of the little side nooks. None of the working that I saw appeared to be very extensive.



This ladder went up into a stope right next to the incline. This picture was taken while I was standing on the ladder so you can see how little space there was in the little side nooks.




I got to the bottom only to find it full of dirt that filled the area all most to the top of the drift. With my flashlight I could see through a three inch gap to see that there is a drift at that level. I believe that it could be dug out with a shovel and a bit of work. That will have to be another trip. My exploration completed, I headed back up. I'm guessing that the shaft is close to 150' deep.




Here is Mark climbing out of the mine entrance. This was his first day of mine exploring and I think he is "hooked"! He lives in Salt Lake City so he may end up joining this forum.



It's a bit funny how often I take guests with me out to the mines. I just ordered a second helmet and light so they can have a full fledged setup for their first adventure. The bike helmet & Princeton Tec Fuel light really aren't adequate. I'm also setting up a second set of SRT gear so I can teach folks about rappelling and climbing without having to swap gear every time. I have a number of people who have asked me about learning SRT so I should be ready to go.

Joane

[Jeff]

Great Trip report Joanne,thanks for sharing.

[Derek]

Thanks for sharing!

[go_browns79]

Looks like a great find! Immediately after reading this I started looking at folding shovels. Next time you're out there, if you're looking for a new one to check out, LVOG said the Green Copper Mine is worth checking out. One more to add to our list.

[Joanne]

Looks like a great find! Immediately after reading this I started looking at folding shovels. Next time you're out there, if you're looking for a new one to check out, LVOG said the Green Copper Mine is worth checking out. One more to add to our list.

Bill, when I was down there I figured that you and I would head back to dig it out.
I can't tell how far the drift goes, but it's worth checking out. No one has been back there in a LONG time!

Oh yeah, we also stopped by the Sultan. Guess what? I found three new places that we have to check out. I climbed into a stope right by the "Bridge of Death" and on the far side I found a couple of little crawl throughs. One lead here:

Hard to believe that far back in the mine is an opening to the surface!



About 10 feet above the bottom of the stop is this opening that is screaming to be explored.



Here I am standing in the stope with the sun shining down. It was amazing!


There's also another little winze that leads out of this chamber. I can see some old wood down there so there MAY be another level we don't know about yet....


I also climbed up the ore chute over by the inclined shaft and ended up above the chamber where the winch for the inclined shaft use to be. I could make out on the far wall another opening with some wood structure inside of it. I think it's going to be a hairy climb over to it though.


Just when I thought I had seen most of this mine, I find out that I'll need a few more days to explore the areas that I've missed.

Joanne

[go_browns79]

The Sultan just won't give up.

[Joanne]

The Tiffin mine has been on my mind for a while now. Tony, a mine exploring friend of mine from England, recently visited for a week so we decided to head down to see if we could dig it out. We gave Bill a call to see if he wanted to join us but unfortunately he was down in Los Angeles on a job.

In my previous trip I could see where water was eroding the "plug" and had created a gap the I could work my way into. It turns out that there is a hopper at the base of the incline and the water is working its way into there. (I think) We dug the water channel wider and were able to see a small gap at the top of the plug indicating that there was an open drift behind the dirt.

I did some initial digging, then Tony took his turn with the shovel. Although it was cold outside and cool in the mine, it didn't take long before we got hot from all of the exercise.



Once we got a bit of an opening dug out, I squeezed through and started digging from the back side. I generally don't wear a dust make when I am exploring but today it was mandatory!



Here is Tony pushing his way past the plug. It is a little bit of a tight squeeze but not really that bad once we got it dug out. There were only a couple of inches when we started.


Ultimately the mine didn't hold any neat secrets or cool artifacts. The level had about 100 feet of workings on this level. About 30 feet from the plug there was a "Y" with each drift going another 25 to 30 feet before ending. The track was still in place but badly rusted due to the standing water that collects after heavy rains.

This was my first experience actually digging to gain access into a drift. Although we didn't discover anything special, it was really neat to be the first people in that area in a very long time. It certainly gives the feel of "discovery" even though we are exploring man-made tunnels.

Be safe!
Joanne

[Mike]

Very cool! Sometimes digging is worth the effort. Sometimes it opens hours of exploring up. I remember when you were scared to climb a ladder... look how far you've come!

[Joanne]

Very cool! Sometimes digging is worth the effort. Sometimes it opens hours of exploring up. I remember when you were scared to climb a ladder... look how far you've come!

Thanks Mike!! I am proud of how far I have come in these last couple of years. I have a bad case of fear of heights that I am still working through. It is getting better though.

We named this ladder the "Zig Zag Ladder of Death". Although it probably wasn't smart, I did climb both down and up this ladder without rope.



This is me getting ready to climb out of the bottom of the Delamar. You can see it's a pretty long way up.



This is one of my favorite pictures that was ever taken of me. Not because it's a great photo, but it reminds me that I can achieve what I set my mind to.



In our most recent trip we decided to drop this shaft. It's about 110 feet to the first platform. Bill is checking out the drop.



My friend Chris took this photo when we discovered the shaft in an earlier trip. We didn't have time to drop it back then, but we did this time.



This is Tony rappelling down the shaft.


Further exploration led us to discover that this would connect to the main portion of the mine. Unfortunately we needed an additional rope that we didn't have to be able to drop into the main mine. We ended up having to "frog" back up to the top of the shaft. By far it is the longest free-hanging SRT climb I've done. I feel like I have finally reached the point of being a full fledged mine explorer.

Joanne

[lobster68w]

That ladder is awesome!!!

[Stuart]

Whoa, great trip report Joanne! Holy cow that ladder is the coolest thing ever! I'd climb that just to say I did.

[Joanne]

Stewart, we need to organize a trip to the Delamar area. Get a bunch of the Utah, Nevada, and California folks together for a few days of serious exploring. In three trips I've spent close to a week underground there and still haven't seen everything there is to see. On the last trip just minutes before we were getting ready to break down camp and head home, Bill found yet another large inclined shaft with ladder on one side and rails on the other. The size of the incline would indicate that there are some significant workings. It's an amazing place!

Joanne

[Derek]

Stewart, we need to organize a trip to the Delamar area. Get a bunch of the Utah, Nevada, and California folks together for a few days of serious exploring. In three trips I've spent close to a week underground there and still haven't seen everything there is to see. On the last trip just minutes before we were getting ready to break down camp and head home, Bill found yet another large inclined shaft with ladder on one side and rails on the other. The size of the incline would indicate that there are some significant workings. It's an amazing place!

Joanne

Count me in! I too have a small fear of heights, but that has been broken with the many trips up and down manways that I have taken with the group.

[Joanne]

Count me in! I too have a small fear of heights, but that has been broken with the many trips up and down manways that I have taken with the group.

I'll make sure to announce when we organize the trip. My friend from England wants to come back and do some more exploring. It will be in the spring sometime and I will announce the date. There is a LOT to see there regardless of skill level. I could easily spend a whole day just wandering around the building ruins.

Joanne

[Stuart]

That sounds great! I've seen so many great pictures of the area now that I am definitely itching to check it out. I love the idea of getting everyone together down there from all the different groups.

[Joanne]

That sounds great! I've seen so many great pictures of the area now that I am definitely itching to check it out. I love the idea of getting everyone together down there from all the different groups.

Yeah, if we could get some of the MU crew, some of the Underground Explorers, a few guys from England, and some of us independent explorers, we could have an AMAZING event. I have had three multi-day trips there and there are still areas that we haven't been to and shafts that we haven't dropped. As the sun was setting on our last day there, Bill found a new inclined shaft that we had missed in our previous trips. It looks to be in amazing shape and we can see about 100' down, but it looks to go further. Someone cut the top 10 feet of ladder off, but down past that it looks perfect.

I'm thinking that we can try to put it together in April or May once the weather warms up a bit. I'll keep you guys updated.

Joanne

[RedRockXJ]

Sweet guys!

[Stuart]

That sounds like a great idea Joanne, let us know how the planning is going.

[RockRacer]

Incredible pictures. Joanne, I can't believe how lucky you were to not fall from that ladder you put 100% faith in!

[Joanne]

Incredible pictures. Joanne, I can't believe how lucky you were to not fall from that ladder you put 100% faith in!

I have to admit it's a scary ladder, but it's surprisingly sturdy. The ladder segments are held together by large metal plates. It does make for some amazing pictures though.

Joanne