I was with a team of archaeologists that explored an abandoned mine in the Virginia City National Historic Landmark District. Miners had opened it: the entrance having collapsed around 1900. The modern miners found that their predecessors had left several work stations full of artifacts, left in place the day the miners quit work for the day. The resulting report, which I co-authored with William White (the lead archaeologist) discussed the importance of the site.

We concluded that the evidence presented by the one thousand feet of adit and the dozens of artifacts could be used to demonstrate that although Virginia City and the Comstock Mining District were famous for developing and exhibiting cutting-edge technology, when off-work miners excavated this smaller "rathole mine," they employed cheaper, backward looking approaches that recalled former times. In short, the archaeology added new perspective to the historical narrative of a place of technological advances. The material culture allowed us to understand that reality was more nuanced.

I developed this idea further, featuring it in my lead chapter of a thirty-year retrospective of my work in the Landmark District: Virginia City: Secrets of a Western Past (2012).

That's the good news about our expedition. Additional good news was that no one died. The bad news is that we could have all died, and I sincerely hope no archaeologists attempt to document the interior of a mine again. The industry phrase is "Stay outside; stay alive" - and for good reasons. There are many different ways to die while underground, and it is simply not worth it. The insights we gained were valuable, but our expedition is not to be repeated.

Imgur doesn't seem to be working; some of the images I captured appear on this article I wrote about mining folklore.