Mojave Underground TVMojave Underground TV

Season 3 Promo Video

Mike Capps — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 05:10:20 +0000

Mojave Underground is excited for a fun year of exploration in 2013! To help get you pumped for our upcoming season, currently in pre-production, we’ve made this promotional video to recap the last couple years of exploring around the western US.

2013 is the biggest year for MUTV. Myself, and the rest of the crew, Stu and Crystal, are excited for what we’ve got coming up. We decided to make a little promo video to share the excitement with the exploration community and the world.

The promo video started off as a little tinkering to satisfy boredom. For weeks, it never really went anywhere as I couldn’t find the right direction for it. While driving from a job, a song came on my Pandora station that instantly began sending images into my mind. Before I could get home, I had the entire promo envisioned based off that song. Within hours, I had a rough draft to present to the team, and the next day, we released the final cut of the 2013 MUTV Promo video.

A funny side-note, I sent Stuart the first 30 completed seconds of the video and made him wait until the next evening to see the final cut. The poor guy could hardly stand waiting.

We’ve only got a couple more episodes left before we wrap up Season 2. Stay tuned for Season 3 coming out approximately Q3 2013!

S2E6: Tintic Standard Mine & Mill

Crystal Burgess — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:09:25 +0000

Many a traveler and passer-by have gazed upon the decaying remains of the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill, nestled high on Warm Spring Mountain just outside of Goshen, UT. The mill operated from 1920 to 1925 when the Augustin process technology became outdated. The mill processed ore from a single mine located 11 miles away, the Tintic Standard Mine.

Filming the mill in the mist of it’s decay is a treat in and of itself. Sitting high on the hill one must hike to the top to enjoy the full beauty of the concrete structures. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the clang and clatter of the mill in full operation.

Be sure to add the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill to your list of places to visit. You won’t be disappointed. Bring your camera and hiking boots and enjoy the beauty and history this mill has to offer.

S2E5: The Dugway Range

Mike Capps — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:08:58 +0000

Join us as we explore around the Dugway Range here in Utah. We’ll visit the Four Metals Mine, Bertha Mine, Kellys Hole, and the Dugway Smelter.

The Dugway Range episode was a multi-faceted experiment for myself to discover new filming ideas and techniques, multi-host options, and how to deal with issues that are thrown at us as we film. Stuart and Crystal both had to work during the scheduled production of the Dugway episode, so I was without a host or producer. Fortunately, two of our devout members, Troy Emery and Jared Dangerfield, volunteered to fill the void. We shot several parts of the documentary and enjoyed the day of exploring.

Later in the year, Stuart, Crystal and I returned to the Dugway range to try to search a shaft that we previously felt Susan Powell may have been down. While in the area, we shot intros and exits to the Dugway episode, along with a few other sections that either were missed or non acceptable during the first shoot.

All-in-all, considering the complications we encountered during this shoot, we were able to piece it together in the editor and still have some flow and continuity to the video. An excellent opportunity to sharpen our productions skills.

S2E4: Unknown mine in Oquirr District

Mike Capps — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:08:24 +0000

Mojave Underground explores an unknown mine in the Oquirr District, Utah. Discovered was an Eimco 12B Overshot Mucker, two slushers, several ore cars, and various other equipment.

We happened to ‘stumble’ on this treasure through a tip from a friend. While we know what mine we were in, we feel it best to withhold the exact name and location. Message us and we’d be happy to tell you about it!

One of the things that made this discovery most memorable was the Eimco 12B Overshot Loader (Mucker) that remains in the mine. Such a piece of machinery is rare, and a treasure in the mining community. It was an honer to see such a device and to have the opportunity to document it.

Like other MUTV films, this episode was another experimentation on film technique, which turned out much better than expected. The use of an LED panel light and quality camera and lenses made all the difference in the world for filming in such low-light environments.

The lady you see in this episode had never been in a mine before, and what an experience to start with this one. Certainly it was not an easy mine, even getting to the site was exhausting. Lots of crawling and squeezing to get around, but worth all the muscle-aches. Would love to get back into this mine.

S2E3: Jacob City, UT

Stuart Burgess — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:07:53 +0000

Mojave Underground visits mines around Jacob City, including the famous Hidden Treasure mine. Jacob City is home to dozens of abandoned mines, and a rich, vibrant history that still stands today. Although many structures have fallen, there is still much to see in Jacob City. The ghost town’s most famous mine is the Hidden Treasure Mine, a deep complex famous world-wide for its incredible mineral samples.

This was our first MUTV production that took place during an actual Mojave Underground event. Approximately a dozen group members joined us as we explored the area and took a trip into the Hidden Treasure mine. Overall, it worked well and everybody had a fun time.

For the members that joined us, perhaps the most memorable experience was the post-exploration camping. Great food, amazing company, some music, a laser, and strobe-mode headlights turned the evening into quite a party.

S2E2: Rebuilding Ophir Hill

Mike Capps — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 05:07:31 +0000

Mojave Underground has been hard at work placing new ties and retimbering inside the Ophir Hill Mine. Outside rail work is done, and retimbering near the Wildcat switch is nearing completion. The Ophir Hill mine is the Crown-Jewel of abandoned mines. While privately owned (and very closely watched), we’ve had an incredible opportunity to explore the dozens of miles of workings deep in the mountain. The mine shut down in December of 1971 and has received no maintenance since.

Over time, tunnels slough and sections become too weak to support their surrounding rock walls. Our project this time was to re-timber sections of the mine in order to strengthen the tunnel. Hopefully it will last for decades longer.

On a filmmaking side of things, this was the second mini-production I shot with my new Canon 60D camera. There certainly was a learning curve to proper shooting with a dSLR. You could say that this episode was a turning point for myself and my involvement in MUTV productions.

S2E1: Dos Ore Buckets

Stuart Burgess — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:06:46 +0000

The Mojave Underground team pull two 100 year old ore buckets out of an abandoned mine shaft. Stuart rappels the shaft and rides the buckets back out while Miah, Crystal, Jeff, and Noelle run the surface operation. This episode was a lot of fun to shoot, it was also a great adventure! While rappelling down into an old 100′ mine shaft for a client I discovered two 100 year old mine buckets on a drift. They were in fantastic condition especially considering the fact that you could tell that the mine had been on fire at some point. So what did I do? I strapped a helmet camera on my head and shot the whole episode from my perspective as I went back down into the mine to retrieve them.

My favorite thing about shooting this episode was riding the ore bucket out. Instead of ascending back up the rope and then hosting the buckets up I decided to ride one of the buckets out. Of course I was still attached to the rope for safety, but it was a fun ride regardless. It got a bit technical keeping the rope and mine cable from getting tangled, but overall I think it worked out pretty good!

This episode has a really interesting style, it doesn’t really have any narration, just some great music and my perspective of the bucket extraction. Season 2 was definitely a season of experimentation, you will notice quite a few different styles of episodes as we really refine our technique.

An interesting side note; Crystal and I broke all of the leaf-springs on our truck, both sides, the day before shooting this!

S1E8: Chloride Point Mine

Crystal Burgess — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:05:43 +0000

The members of Mojave Underground is what really makes the group what it is today. Several times a year we get a group of explores together, new and established, explore and learn hands on about the mining site. This time we were able to visit the Chloride Point Mine. Located high on Lion Hill it’s a great location to visit and wonder around, with land owner permission of course.

Some of our very own team members help host this exciting episode and give a little insight of what it’s like to explore with Mojave Underground. A few members even give us a history lesson! And that’s what we love about our group, we all explore, learn and discover together.

If you would like to join our rapidly growing mine exploration group visit our official website @ MojaveUnderground.com

S1E9: Searching for April Pitzer

Mike Capps — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:06:11 +0000

In March of 2010 Mojave Underground Inc and Underground Explorers searched for the missing April Beth Pitzer in the mines surrounding Barstow California. More information on April can be found at www.whereisapril.org

I received a phone call during work back in 2009 from a lady inquiring about Mojave Underground’s abilities to search deep mines. Just the type of calls I like . April’s mother, Gloria, had been searching for her daughter for over 4 years when I received that call. Her love for her daughter, and passionate drive to recover her and solve the mystery was contagious. We had to help. Besides, few were better suited than our group for the task. So we accepted.

We searched for a week and found very little. During that time, we took turns with the camera shooting little bits here and there to document the efforts. Like many of our older projects, the footage fell to the wayside and was forgotten for over a year. I decided it was time to compile the large collection of footage and make a short documentary. Using my iPhone as a microphone and basic editing programs, I set to making one of our very best productions on MUTV. The results were great.

Best of luck to you and your search, Gloria. We all hope the answers eventually come out.

S1E6: Searching for Susan Powell

Stuart Burgess — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:04:36 +0000

Missing since early December of 2009, little is know about the location of 28 year old Susan Powell. In the last few months some clues and rumors have surfaced that her body may have been hidden in a mine shaft somewhere in the west desert region of Utah. Last week Mojave Underground teamed up with Gold Rush Expeditions, Family Search and Rescue, Linda Osborne, and several other volunteers to search target mine shafts in the Dugway mountains. What a story. The Susan Powell case was always of interest to us because several of the clues pointed to mines, so when an opportunity came up to hep search we jumped on it. We are always looking for ways to use our professional abandoned mine exploring skills to help out.

The biggest surprise of this episode for me is when I rappel down into the Iron Sides shaft only to find it full of nasty dust and carbon monoxide. When I was finally able to go back and search this shaft all the way to the bottom (When we shot the Dugway Range episode of MUTV), I found that it was full of debris, likely a full 50′+ of burned wood and debris now rests on the bottom blocking whatever was down there. This video also made the circuit on some of the local TV stations.

The whole story ended very unfortunately with the death of the rest of the family in Washington. Perhaps we will never know what really happened to Susan Powell.