Abandoned Mine Safety

Warning!  Exploring Abandoned Mines Can Be Dangerous!

Without the proper equipment, experience and attitude, exploring abandoned mines can be more than dangerous, it can be deadly.  Do not enter an abandoned mine unprepared and please study our safety information below. This information is only meant as a guideline. Do not consider it as gospel or complete. Use your own judgment for your own safety.

Most of the people injured or killed in abandoned mines were unprepared and many were downright reckless.  A review of abandoned mine accident reports is very telling.  Most falls are due to inadequate (or no) illumination.  Believe it or not, many people will walk into a mine adit with no flashlight or only the illumination from a cellphone or lighter to guide them.  In several cases, people have waked into a mine with no flashlight and fallen down a winze.  Most die, some are paralyzed.  Others have died from suffocation while running gas powered generators or pumps in a mine without adequate ventilation.  In one tragic case in California, two brothers swam into a flooded mine and died when they surfaced in an open space and found no oxygen in the atmosphere.  All of these deaths could have been prevented with a little care, preparation and good dose of common sense.

As in other forms of potentially hazardous recreation, the ill prepared and foolish often fare the worst.  For properly equipped and prepared mine explorers, the drive to and from the mine is likely more dangerous than the mine itself.  Even the government admits that the majority of accidents involve people who are unprepared.  Don't become a statistic.

Mine Features and Hazards

Mine Exploring Safety and Equipment