The opening of the mine that apparently broke into this small cave.
The mine tunnel is thru solid quarts rock. No wonder the miners started tunneling here.
Near the back of the drift was a wall of dirt. Evidently intentionally filled in to keep intruders out. After squeezing through the top of the fill, we saw that the drift quickly came to an end with only a small cave passage accessible from there. Why had the end of this mine tunnel been filled in to conceal a small cave passage? Is there a larger, more dangerous passage deeper under the loose rock? After squeezing thru into the open part of the mine tunnel we found a relatively new dust mask and a strange bottle of what appeared to be motor oil with a piece of mesh over the top to dispense the oil. What is this oil doing in a cave and what was it used for?
Looking out from our dig to the mouth of the mine tunnel.
This is another Mahogany Mtn. cave. Unfortunately there appears to have been a fairly recent cave in and the majority of the cave is now inaccessible. The climb into this passage was unnerving as it entailed climbing over what appeared to be fairly recent unstable breakdown.
Looking up into the only accessible room above the cave-in.
The airflow from the mine tunnel into the cave was significant which tells us that there is more cave volume with the air possible filtering thru the loose rock.
If anyone recognizes these pictures or was able to view the entire cave prior to the possible collapse, please contact me at utahcaver@ymail.com. I would love to know the true extents of the cave.
