Victoria Shaft Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is another mining cache like the San Cristobal. The hike from the Hacienda entrance is an uphill hike. Located at 1312 ft elevation.
This cache is located at the historic Victoria Shaft in the world famous Almaden Quicksilver mine. The mine produced mercury sulfide which was reduced to mercury at the Hacienda. The Almaden Quicksilver mine is the richest mine in California history, outproducing all gold mines. The Quicksilver mine also allowed California gold to be produced independent of the Rothschild monopoly. The Rothschild's owned the famous Almaden mines in Spain. This mine is also the deepest Quicksilver in the world. The cache is located northwest of the shaft of the Victoria. You can peer down through the grate, but it is offset so you are not standing directly above the shaft. The Victoria goes down about 1000'. At the 800 ft level below is a giant stone cathedral with stone pillars and a stone bridge connecting two tunnels that enter the chamber well above the floor. There are literally over one hundred miles of tunnels, stopes and shafts. This is the result of over 100 years of human toil hundreds and thousands of feet below ground. These miners worked in terrible conditions. Air was bad, the heat and humidity were oppressive and the risk of cave-ins and toxic gas was always a moment away. Included in the cashe is a historic photo, a 3-D picture of the mine and the area that was mined below it. Also is included a color map of all the workings directly below and their levels. This mine was named after Queen Victoria by the Cornish miners from Cornwall England. Many Cornish miners lived in nearby English town and were the best hardrock miners in the world. They learned their skills at the tin mines in Cornwall. This cache also is located near the 1860s powder house that housed gunpowder and dynamite for the mines. Enjoy this world class piece of local history!!! There are various trinkets in the cache, please leave better than found.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abegujrfg bs gur cbjqre ubhfr va gur ber gnvyvatf (ebpx cvyr).