A midnight excursion in to the mines in the Old Dale Mining District east of Twentynine Palms ended with a 20-hour rescue after one of the men couldn’t climb out of the 700-foot shaft Sunday. County Fire Battalion Chief Scott Tuttle said that the two Twentynine Palms men drove out to the mine to go exploring at midnight Saturday (3/7/20). The mine was a series of horizontal and vertical shafts that went down about 700 feet. When it was time to return to the surface, one of the men couldn’t climb out. His buddy climbed out and drove to call for help. About 40 firefighters, who specialize in rescues like this, were called from all over the county; the Combat Center firefighters also sent a crew. Tuttle said it took 15 hours from the time they arrived at the scene (5 a.m. Sunday morning) to the time the man was brought back to the surface (8 p.m. Monday evening). Crews did not leave the scene until 1 a.m. Although he was uninjured, Morongo Basin Ambulance transported him to Hi-Desert Medical Center as a precaution.
